in other news

I have a dolls' house. My lovely next door neighbour gave it to me so I have been quite busy selling FRP figures on eBay so I can buy some furniture and people for my house. I have painted the outside a duck-egg blue

Since I took this picture the other day I have put the glass in the windows and started my wishlist of items from the Dolls house emporium catalogue. My goodness they have some wonderful things in there, all of which I desperately need.

The chicken Chronicles

Last night it rained, and the girls have never seen rain before. They don't like it. They rushed out of their house this morning and eagerly began scoffing. once their crops were full they looked out through the wire and realised that wet stuff was dropping down and some of it was getting onto them. They retired under the house, except for slurpy who beat it back up the ramp where it is both dry AND warm.
There was a third egg yesterday around lunchtime so only one egg this morning.

When I dredged the depths of my memory and went back to my agricultural college days I found this memory of being taught that chickens have a roughly 25 hour cycle for their laying. As I am pretty impressed with the fact that the trauma of all that travel hasn't seemed to put them off at all. They are eating well and they put themselves to bed when it got dark and if I open the window and listen I can here them crooning.
We had scrambled egg, bacon and Haloumi cheese for our meal last night and used some of our lovely fresh eggs. Today I am going to make a cranberry tea bread and I will be using another egg. No pictures because it is raining and I forgot to take the camera out with me and couldn't face climbing the steps just to get it.

Another two eggs at lunchtime today so they really are doing well - I don't expect it to last though

They all have names

I forgot to tell you that they all have names now.
Mrs Pecky you already know about.
Noisy is the name that Em chose for one of them and she really was the most noisy of them all. She has a bare chest at the moment so we can tell which one is her on the rare occasions when she is silent.
Slurpy Worm Burp was named by Carla who lives next door. Because she (the hen not Carla) suddenly became a confident pushy hen when we put some worms into the run. She shoved everyone aside, including Mrs pecky to get at them.
Stephanie Mcqueen is the escapologist. She tried to make a break for it when we were still at the place we collected them. She was half way under the door of the carier before we realised and nearly made it out and away. She was first out of the house this morning and spent the time in the garden looking for the way out. She will be first in the queue for wing clipping later this week.

And these are the names they have at the moment. I think perhaps that these will be shortened and changed and it will be more difficult to tell them apart as they get their new feathers and they start to fill out a bit.

New Adventures

Two more eggs this morning and the girls rushed out of the pop-hole as soon as I drew back the flap.

Mrs Pecky stood and tapped the wire while I filled the food container and then rushed about pecking everyone until I had cleaned and refilled the water container.

Simon and I then fixed the wire mesh to the bottom of the gate so that they can have a wander around the garden. I won't let them out without supervision, at least not yet, because there are a couple of cats that live around us and I don't want my girls spooked by a neighbour's cat. No if they are going to be spooked then we'll let Blue do it.

Slurpy decided to stay inside the house. She came out and stuffed her face with food when Mrs Pecky was out in the garden . Then Mrs Pecky heard he so she rushed back in to the run to guard the food so Slurpy went back inside.

Next thing Stephanie is scratching at the weeds so Mrs P had to rush out to see if there was anything she was missing so Slurpy nipped down the ramp filled her face with food and a quick drink and nipped back up just as Mrs P noticed.

Stephanie is by far the most adventurous, she spent her time looking up at how high things are and whether she can get under, over or though them, while all the time scratching and pecking.

When it was time to put them back into the run it was so easy because they are not afraid so they don't run. They were so easy to gently guide towards their door, no squawking, no flapping they just sauntered in and I closed the door quietly - marvellous.

I love it when they talk to me. I go down in the morning and all is quiet and then I say "morning girls" and they make that funny, contented sound to tell me they have heard.

Love it, love it, love it!

A thank you gift

Look what they gave us this morning, as a thank-you for saving us gift.

Aren't they wonderful?

When I opened the door to their house this morning three of them were in the laying boxes and the one with a bare bottom was on her own guarding the food container. I put them into their run - they will get the hang of the little door eventually - and when I had cleaned the c*** out of the food thing and given them fresh water I realised that three of them were hiding under the house while the one with a bare bottom was guarding the food thing at the other end.

Each time one of them got a bit brave and headed for the food Bare bottom would peck at them, She is now known as Mrs Pecky.

They will establish their pecking order but it looks so aggresive and violent while they are doing it.

In the mean time I have to go and cook something with really fresh eggs for the first time in 29 years

The girls are here!

We collected the girls. Em decied on the way there that she would call one of them Noisy. We suggested that she should wait until they had been with us for a few days, until she could see what names fitted but she was adamant that one would be called Noisy.

We got them into the carriers and into the car and Em pointed to the one nearest the door of the brown carrier and said "That one is called Noisy", and she is right. It kept up a constant burble of sound all the way home and when we put them into the hen house she shouted for a minute or two just to let us know that she was in charge.

They are now settled in for the night with food and water and nest boxes full of shredded paper. Tomorrow we will put them into their run and let them find their way back into the house. This will give me a chance to see if they need a little help getting up the ramp. More pictures and a progress report as we go

Today is the Day!

OK, so I have only been awake for two hours. I am not excited at all, no really, I am calm and cool and ready to leave to collect my chickens. It takes an hour and a half to get there and our time for collection is 2.30pm - so, not at all eager to get there.

Mr M was supposed to be doing the driving but last week he developed a cold and on the Friday night he sneezed and felt a muscle "go" in his side. By Saturday morning it was painful, by Sunday he was in agony and on Monday he rang work and said he wasn't going in. This was when I really started to worry.
Then he rang the doctor's surgery and they asked him to be there at 3pm. He couldn't move his right arm without crying by this time so I drove our car for the first time. My legs are too short and my tummy too fat to drive anything with an airbag. Because it is a biggish vehicle (Kia Sedona) The seats are quite high so my little legs needed the seat pushed as far forward as it would go. This meant that if the airbag activated it would take my face off - possibly the whole of my head.
When I needed to release the handbrake I had to lean over so far I disappeared from view. This does not instill confidence in pedestrians or other drivers. The worst thing - and also the funniest - was when I was driving up the steep street next to our house. I found that the angle of the vehicle and my short stature meant that I was looking out through the curve of the steering wheel through the windscreen. I saw the face of a lady who was standing at the top of the street as she glanced towards the car and realised that she couldn't see anyone driving it. It has been so long since I drove anything that my confidence has quite disappeared, understandable really when I think about all that has happened in my life in the last ten years.
Anyway, Mr M is still not able to drive so My daughter, my son-in-law and my granddaughter are all taking me to collect the girls.
In other news, I have a dolls' house. My lovely next door neighbour asked on facebook if there was anyone amongst her friends that wanted one free because she wanted it out of the house. I said I would love it if she was serious and that evening it arrived. I have painted the outside a beautiful duck-egg blue - very soft and pale. and the next job is to fit the three staircases. It is georgian style with pedimented windows and quoining on the corners and I am really looking forward to doing each roomover the next 100 years. It will take that long because the furniture and stuff is so expensive.