The older hens have held a union meeting and gone on strike. Toto arrived yesterday and even though confined to barracks managed to escape – twice! He attempted to make friends with a number of the chickens and ducks by chasing them around the farmyard with Andy in hot pursuit. Luckily they can all move faster than he can so the worst never happened. He is now under lock and key and is only allowed outside when leashed. Boo also decided that she would like to hug a duck and was discovered chasing them past the caravan in her attempt to pick one up. After all the kerfuffle the hens got together, for a conference, in the back pasture where Toto could not go. This morning at feed time none of the older hens, or Ant and Dec would leave the roost. Dec and one of the hybrids have turned black leg and have now ventured out. If the rest do not arrive soon I will put some feed inside for them. The younger ones seem unperturbed by all the ruckus that went on yesterday and are outside feeding and grazing as normal. Some of the ducks were slow to come for breakfast but they did arrive eventually. Little Grumpy is still sitting on her eggs, although I am concerned she was off them for a lengthy time yesterday morning and they felt a little cooler than they should have, when I checked on them. I was digging in the garden the other day and after I had chased off Goldie, yet again, I could still hear clucking from the area near the polytunnel. I grabbed a cane and headed off ready to chase him out when I realised he was over by the gate. I looked around and couldn’t see who was clucking away, gently. Then I realised it was coming from the long grass between the blue bath and the fence. Sure enough there was a little polish hen ensconced in a little hollow in the grass. I checked later and she had laid an egg there. The next day still only one egg so I decided to wait and see. The day after that there were three eggs, so I added in six hybrid eggs. I really do not want to breed from the polish hens as they are too small to make decent sized table birds but they are good layers and good brooders. I will check later to see if she has started sitting yet. Blondie came close to an early exit yesterday. For the first time ever he actually came right into the kitchen and chaos ensued as Me, Frankie and Andy all tried to corner him to get him back out. He jumped on the work surface and started eating the feed I was preparing for them, pecking at me when I tried to chase him off. He then decided to try and get back out through the window pane. He jumped all over my Christmas Cactus destroying huge chucks of it, and also broke down lots of stems on my peace lily. I was livid, to say the least. The cactus is 30 years old and I have grown it from three little pieces a friend gave me. It has already been rescued from near death on a number of occasions. The lily was my Mums. I will not be pleased to lose either of them. Well I have to say I am thrilled to bits with the caravan. We slept in there last night and it felt really good. Although it was windy and raining neither made enough noise to keep us awake. I had a lovely coffee and toast this morning, sitting in the living room with the sun streaming in the window and admiring the beautiful view. Even Sadie seemed relaxed and comfortable and slept well with no pacing or whining.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 11:00:46 +0000