Peace has descended

At last, after weeks of being a total bully and pecking the feathers from other chicken's bums, Blossom has been tamed with the help of a bumper bit (ha!). We girded our loins last night and set about fitting the thing to her. All in all, it was surprisingly painless (for us at least). I held Blossom in a towel while Mr Chix slipped the bit onto her beak. It took a few bungled attempts, lots of huffing and swearing, but we did it after about ten minutes. Blossom wasn't in the least impressed and kept shaking her head and trying to scrape it off, but seems to be getting the hang of it today. Best of all, we can now put her in the Eglu run with Poppy and Rosie, safe in the knowledge that she can't remove any feathers! Bliss.

Poppy and Rosie are settling in nicely. Rosie lays about three eggs per week, but Poppy is still thinking about it. Rosie will happily let us pick her up and cuddle her, whereas Poppy jumps a mile if you go near her, unless food is involved and then she can't help herself.

We've been thinking about investing in a walk in run. To be honest, I'm getting a bit sick of the amount of poo in our garden (they free range a lot) and think it would be lovely if they had a nice big run where they could spend more time. Mr Chix has agreed so we're getting quotes (not capable of making it ourselves!). I'm quite excited!

We had a busy weekend buying new container plants. So far, the girls haven't tried to eat them, so our chicken unfriendly choices are a success.

A baptism of fire

Well, it's been a week since my last post and a lot has happened on the chicken front.

Firstly, and most sadly, we had to have Sunflower put to sleep on Tuesday. After noticing that she was standing around a lot last weekend, she also went off her food and had a few other unpleasant symptoms. Naturally I was worried (that's what I do best after all) so we took her to the vet on Easter Sunday (£40 vet bill on a £10 hen!). Luckily, they have a poultry specialist there who gave her antibiotics and said he thought it was peritonitis. He sent us home and asked me to ring him on Tuesday. Poor Sunflower then spent the rest of the Easter weekend in a cardboard box in our front porch with a hotwater bottle and a bed of straw. She ate next to nothing and barely drank and by Tuesday couldn't even stand. I took her back to the nice vet who, thankfully, was happy to put her to sleep. She was in a sorry state. He called me later that day to say that she had an egg stuck in her oviduct and was full of pus (yuck) and would never have survived.

Meanwhile, Blossom had spent several days on her own and in that time had mellowed considerably towards us. We're now able to stroke her and pick her up, no problems. We were really aware that hens don't like to be alone so we set about trying to find somewhere to get replacements for Sunflower. We decided to get two new ones instead of one to hopefully avoid being in the single chicken situation again. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we brought Poppy and Rosie home on Wednesday. They're Warrens from the same flock, both about seven months old and already laying.

We currently have a second run set up in our garden (goodness knows what the neighbours are thinking) so that the new hens can settle without Blossom terrorising them as she did Sunflower. Three days in and we already have the three of them free ranging together and they all slept in the Eglu last night (even if Mr Chix did have to get up at 5.30am to let them out, so fearful were we of pecking/fighting).

I never would have thought that chickens could be so very absorbing. It's amazing how much I've learned about them and despite the shaky start, we're still happy chicken keepers!

Possibly an egg from Sunflower!

We went out for the day on Thursday leaving the girls to fend for themselves in the run. On our return there was an egg in the nest box. Nothing unusual there except for the fact that it was smaller and darker than normal and had brown speckles on the top. I compared it to one of Blossom's from the previous day and it looked quite different, so it seems that Sunflower may at last have laid an egg in her new home. Unfortunately it's been eaten already so I can't put a pic on here to illustrate.

Spent a grim day stripping wallpaper from our living room walls yesterday. Two layers (yes, two) of woodchip and several layers of paint. Thanks heavens for the wallpaper steamer - a top buy from Ebay a few years ago! Anyway, we want to paint the walls a nice plain colour, but the number of dodgy bits of plaster but paid to that plan (at least until we've had someone in to skim them over). Another job for the list.

The Little One and I are having an Easter craft afternoon today. I've bought an Easter bonnet kit so that will keep her happy as she loves sticking and fiddling with bits and pieces.

Right then, off to see if Sunflower has moved from her sentry post by our back gate. She has taken to standing there and barely moving. Most odd and a little worrying.

All quiet on the Eglu front

After deciding to let Blossom stay, she blotted her copybook on Monday by having a right old pecking session on Sunflower's bottom. At my wits' end, I stomped off to the library with a view to finding some chicken-related reading matter. My hopes were raised when I found the section marked 'Poultry' but then dashed slightly when I realised that there was only one book on the subject. That said, the book in question was a particularly insightful and, more importantly, amusing account of one man's adventures in chicken keeping. The title says it all. Hen and the Art of Chicken Maintenance by Martin Gurdon. Anyway, after reading this witty little memoir, I felt much more relaxed about the antics of Sunflower and Blossom and decided to let them get on with getting on.

To that end, we left them in their run for about six hours yesterday whilst we went out. I fully expected to come back to a bald Sunflower, but on our return all seemed well. Sunflower is gaining in confidence all the while and Blossom appears to be chilling out a little. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

The Little One fed bottle fed a lamb today - very cute indeed!

Well, 'the girls' are in bed now so the Eglu is quiet and I can stop peering out of the window every five minutes to see what they're up to. Night night...

Does she stay or does she go now?

Well, the weekend has been and gone and Blossom is still here. This is all due to a breakdown in communication between us and the poultry farmer. The breakdown being that he hasn't replied to any of my emails so we haven't been able to arrange a time to return Blossom and swap her.

Having said that, there has been some improvement over the past few days. Blossom is still pecking at Sunflower, but only in the run and when she's bored. Sunflower also seems to be gaining in confidence and even had a little peck at Blossom's tail feathers yesterday. As a result, the latest plan is to hang on to Blossom, hope that the improvement continues and try to keep her busy when she's in the run. To that end, I've just ordered a Peck a Block and Mr Chix and the little one have driven to the pet store to see what other diversions they can find!

We went to RHS Harlow Carr (near Harrogate) yesterday and spent a lovely spring morning amongst the plants, trees and flowers - highly recommended.

Not sure what we'll be up to for the rest of the week as the weather forecast is a bit doomy and gloomy.

Blossom gets her marching orders...

Almost a week into our chicken keeping foray, we've had to admit defeat with Blossom and will be returning her to the farm tomorrow to swap her for a Gingernut Ranger (Rhode Island Red x

White Sussex). She's done nothing to ingratiate herself with us (apart from 5 eggs) and has left Sunflower with a featherless bottom! Not a good look for anyone.

Nonetheless, we're gaining confidence all the while and are becoming adept at getting the little beggars back into the run when we go out. I'm also feeling more relaxed about them free ranging as my fears about them flying off seem unfounded. I even approached our next door neighbour this afternoon in a bid to reassure her that she need have no worries about living next door to chickens. She seemed happy enough, especially when I mentioned the free eggs.

So, we'll see how our new arrival settles in over the weekend. Surely she can't be any worse!

On the planting front, nearly all of the sunflower seeds have peeped through now, but no sign of anything else. I fully expect to have to buy young tomato plants like we normally do, but you never know.

Anyway, myself and the little one have got two weeks free from pre-school and Mr. Chix has a week off work, so lots of days out ahead. Yippee!

Hens in situ and first seedling peaking out!

At last the hens have arrived and are settling in, or at least that's the plan.
On Saturday, we drove to a poultry farm in Scarborough (www.traditionalpigs.com - they do sell chickens, honest). We'd already placed an order for two Rhode Island Red x Light Sussex (aka Gingernut Ranger) but on arrival at the farm, the poor farmer had to explain that a fox had killed about twenty of his chickens a couple of days earlier (including our two!). Anyway, he kindly selected two alternatives (a Maran hybrid who we've named Sunflower and a White Star we've called Blossom). We brought them home in a cardboard box in the boot of our car.
We were told to keep them in the run for the first few days so they could acclimatise to their new surroundings, but we've had to let them out into the garden a bit sooner than planned but more of that in a minute...

To cut to the chase, Blossom, the White star, is mercilessly bullying poor little Sunflower (I say 'little' in a metaphorical way) and it's awful to watch. She attacks her both in and out of the Eglu (http://www.omlet.co.uk/) pecking at her, pulling out feathers, denying her food and water and generally being a right nasty piece of work. I'm assured that this is normal, but it's not nice. We've had to resort to pasting Sunflower in a substance called Stockholm Tar (nasty, sticky, gooey black tar) which is supposed to put the offender off biting. Well, it's worked to a degree, but we've had them four days now and the attacks are still happening, although perhaps slightly less since we started letting the pair of them free range.

The plan now is to see what happens in the next few days and if there's no improvement, the poultry farmer has offered to swap the White Star for an alternative (hopefully friendlier) chicken. Could Blossom's days be numbered? It would be a shame to swap her in some ways as she's given us an egg every day since she arrived!

On a more positive note, the seedlings which I planted last weekend are showing signs of life (at least there's one sunflower peeping through the soil). The tomatoes, basil and chillies are still lying dormant, but hopefully the warmer weather might tempt them out.