Holidays

Having home-educated the three children for many years, it's always a bit strange to have the concept of 'holidays' but now that Tristan is happily ensconced at college, and Amber due to start in September, the idea of a summer break becomes more relevant. We had our first family holiday for years this July: four days in London which meant everyone had something to do and I actually had a break from transporting and cooking and could wander round to my heart's content. Much as I love the peace and quiet of the countryside, and wouldn't choose to live anywhere else, I do love the scale and anonymity and contrast (not to mention Tate Modern, the British Museum, Covent Garden blah blah)so it was a fantastic thing to do and gave the children confidence with travelling by Tube and not getting flattened by buses.

Meanwhile, back at the farm (which was ably looked after by Animal Angels during our absence) everything is growing and getting bigger and stronger. The bees are now getting ready for autumn and making the most of the Himalayan balsam to fill their larders. The two Buff Sussex chicks have gone to live with my friend and have apparently settled in well although I'm not sure if Herbertson has started crowing yet and how well that will go down with her neighbours! The Welsummer chicks have moved in with the bigger hens and apart from some argy-bargy between the two young cockerels, all is well. Sadly I have ha a few losses on the poultry front, including my little Rhode Island Red bantam hen which was very sad, so there have been a few coop-swaps and a few new purchases, and a few new ones on the way! :-)

Herbert on 6 Buff Sussex bantam eggs

I have another hen sitting on another 6 BSB eggs and once hatched, these will all go to a lady who wanted hatching eggs but then both my hens went broody so I said I'd get her chicks instead...

My knitting has had to go on the back burner but I still enjoy a weekly meeting with Nicky as part of our Country Crafter's Guild. She has recently started spinning, dyeing and looming (find her at WarpsiDaisies on Facebook and Etsy) and has produced some lovely textiles:

Organic cotton tea towel

Time for tea and then a trip up to the allotment methinks! Have a good Sunday :-)

Super-Duper Coop

Following the sad demise of Esme, the Buff Sussex bantam, the new coop has now arrived and been put together. I decided to have a bit of a swap around, so in fact Hugo the Buff Sussex cockerel and his three hens are now in a Cottage Hen House whilst Simba and his four girls get the new Haven coop. The Haven is bigger than the Cottage and Hugo and co have an extra run so the bigger footprint of the Haven is more appropriate for the larger sub-flock...

I must just say that as a company, Flyte So Fancy are absolutely terrific. The products are well thought out and it is clear that they are designed by someone who actually keeps poultry. The attention to detail is brilliant and the customer service exemplary. I noticed a large crack on the handle of the henhouse when I unwrapped the flat pack (the deliveries don't have to be signed for and I was out when it arrived) and so I sighed and emailed them a photo of the dinged section. I put my iPad down to finish bringing in the panels when my daughter called me to say there was someone on the phone for me - James at Flyte So Fancy! He apologised for the breakage and said that as the length of wood with the handle was screwed rather than nailed on, he would send me out a replacement that afternoon so it would be with me either Saturday or Monday. He reassured me that the integrity of the coop was not compromised by the lack of handle so if I didn't mind making do with the broken section for a couple of days, I could go ahead and construct the coop. No quibble, no fuss and having been on the receiving end of appalling excuses from another company that have sent out goods that have been damaged it is always such a relief to order from such a reputable firm.

So, those hens are now safe from rats and foxes. I did notice rat droppings and a stash of food in one of the other coops so I am worried that they have been running up in there during the day and making a little rodent nest. I daren't keep the popholes shut though as it's such a cold wind at this time of year and the hens often retreat to the shelter of the house to escape the weather. I've been checking vigilantly and since doing so there's not been a problem....

The Haven Henhouse

Rats in the Coop

Rats are a perpetual problem with poultry and to be fair, I tend to take a bit of a view as it's impossible to clean up every scrap of spilt food each night, and there are sheds and hedges and the carport and all manner of places for them to hide. However, I have had to review that attitude since losing one of my gorgeous little Buff Sussex bantams to a rat attack.

I noticed Gloria had blood around her vent and feet, so bathed her cuts in warm saline solution and used gentian spray on her wounds. Putting her in the puppy crate in the shed with food and water, I also put her on antibiotics to address any secondary infection and assumed perhaps a fox had tried to snatch her through the wire.

The following day, I let the hens out of the coop and saw that Esme, the other Buff Sussex bantam was looking hunched up with a mess of damp feathers around her back end. I bathed her too and rang the vet. He diagnosed vent pecking (where the hens peck at the rear end of another hen, usually while the vent is distended and reddened just before laying an egg) but I didn't agree as a) that doesn't tend to happen at night when the hens are calm and it's too dark for them to see and b) the bantams roost on the low perch and the larger hens on the high one so I didn't see how they could have found the bantams to peck...

Sadly, little Esme looked so terrible this morning I took her back to the vet and he put her to sleep. Having cleaned out the coop yesterday I found a few rat droppings and the pophole had been gnawed at the slightly warped edge, producing a small access hole. So, whilst Gloria is still in the shed recuperating, I have blocked the front door of the coop with a metal grid and will do this until the replacement coop arrives.

The coop I've chosen is the Haven Hen House and as a long-time devotee of Flyte So Fancy, I'm confident that the hens will be safe from predators as well as damp and cold. I'd made the coop they're currently in for when I had a large cockerel who couldn't negotiate his way up the ladders, but Emu is now no more and it's time to pension off the home-made house in favour of something more fit for purpose. I will cut a large opening in the front so the hens can still use it as a shelter so it won't be wasted.

Hopefully Gloria will recover her faculties and soon be fit, well, and back laying eggs. I have the two other Buff Sussex bantam hens with Bertie, their rooster, so I'll be putting a couple of eggs under the first broody hen I have so that I can rear some replacements.

Gloria, looking quite perky in
the puppy crate

New Chickens

Well, the Smallholder's Show at Ardingly is always a favourite of mine, and this year I was in the unusual and fortunate position of actually needing some more chickens! After the sad loss of Emu to a recurrence of his foot infection, and another to the inevitable attentions of the fox, I had genuine spare capacity. I was wondering if the poultry gods would be against me and leave me with nothing suitable but thankfully, they were smiling on me.

I already have a trio of Buff Sussex bantams from which I sell hatching eggs, but I was after another set so that I could potentially breed from them myself with the opportunity to mix up the offspring to enable further crossing. In the last building with poultry for sale, there was a pair of Buff Sussexes, and although they looked a bit scrappy thanks to an unhelpful last-minute moult decision two weeks previously, the hen was a good weight and looked bright and chirpy. Her mate had much more black on his nape, and more marmalade-y saddle feathers than my existing Sussex boy so I am pleased with the contrast. I took their ticket to the sale desk, brandishing my cash...

...when of course I was stopped in my tracks on the way by the sight of a pair of Rhode Island bantams in a pen further down. I've never seen them before, and although one of my laying hens is a Rhodey, I didn't know you could get a bantam version. They were the most gorgeous chocolate brown, and stood calmly in their cage. A bargain too at £20. But! - I didn't have room for another pair, and that would bring my cockerel tally up to five, which makes letting each set have a run outside in the garden each day a bit of a logistical challenge. Anyway, after much discussion and a cup of tea, I decided that I would regret not having them (of course!) so I came away with two boxes and a big smile on my face.

Robert and Cora, the Rhode

Island Red bantams

I am so pleased with them. They now have their own secure coop with run in the fennel bed, which also seals off a gap in the hedge where the fox has been known to hide: the dog discovered one waiting there yesterday, although the fox ended up with a snarling spaniel chasing it halfway down the field instead of an easy meal. The other two bantams have also settled in - I just need them to start laying some eggs now so they can earn their keep!

OCD

I saw a fridge magnet yesterday which said "I'm suffering from OCD: Obsessive Chicken Disorder"...I may need to get one, although I probably don't need a fridge magnet to tell me that!

Meet Hetty and Harriet:

In my defence, I've room for two more in one of my runs and I'm selling a lot of eggs at the moment - so much so that I don't have many for my family and friends. So, I popped along to Martins Wood Farm and purchased a couple of little Goldlines. They have all new stock and these two are quite young and have that gauche, coltish look about them so I don't think they'll be laying for a couple of months. Still, at least then they'll be settled in so should lay well once they start. I've put them in the broody coop for now as I'm not sure that they're ready for Simba's erm, attentions as they've been in the convent-like environs of an all pullet pen! The one on the right with the paler body and dark neck is Hetty, and the other is Harriet. I had a book when I was young with two hens of the same names, although Hetty was white and Harriet brown:

They didn't have any white hens there though so I went for strong layers and pleaded a bit of artistic licence.

The buff Sussex bantams have settled in well, and have been named Hugo, Gloria and Esme. We've had a couple of eggs - here's a pic of one next to one of Peggy's double-yolkers:

Aren't they sweet? They are great as quail egg substitutes or for dinky boiled eggs in salads and packed lunches. Or you can incubate them and have chicks :-) no no stoppit!! I think I will have to keep the pullets in the broody coop until the guinea pigs start using it, otherwise I'll develop Empty Coop Syndrome, a closely linked condition to OCD where one feels justified in having more hens all the time there is room for them...

Bantams, Bees and a New Pair of Mitts

The weather has been delightfully spring-ish and I'd earmarked today for going to buy some new chickens. My flock at the moment is a rather motley collection of hybrids and others that I've inherited or reared, so much as I love them all, I thought I might get some new ones of a specific breed. The coop I have (which was too small for Emu) is the perfect size for little bantams, so I procured myself a trio of Buff Sussex from Over the Stile in Broad Oak, about 20 minutes up the road from me.

They are very sweet! I've not yet named them as I can't tell the difference between the hens and you sort of need to get to know their characters before naming them. Yes, you really do.

Apparently they lay a good sized egg for a bantam so I'm looking forward to seeing how they get on. I'm hoping to sell some as hatching eggs (fertile eggs that people buy to incubate) as they are pure bred so will produce Buff Sussex chicks. Ooh how sweet would they be....no....no don't start on that train of thought :-/

My bees have been making the most of this warm calm spell and I was watching them visit all the crocuses in my garden. I can't stress how important it is to plant these easy bulbs wherever you can - pots, window boxes, lawns, borders - as they are so very valuable to pollinators early in the season. They are inexpensive, easy to plant and sink gracefully back in to the earth when they're done. Queen bumblebees were out too, and I saw one shivering to warm up her muscles in the bowl of a crocus having probably just had her first drink of nectar since the autumn:

I saw a small solitary bee and a variety of bee-fly enjoying the nectar too, so please put a note in your diaries to double your quantity of crocuses when planting time arrives in the autumn!

The new season brings some warmth but it's still quite nippy out despite the temperatures nudging in to double figures if you stand in the right spot. So, I was pleased to have my Peerie Flooers mittens (pattern: Kate Davies, yarn: 2ply jumper weigh by Smith & Jamieson) which I've just finished and have been blocked. I'm absolutely thrilled with them and they're just perfect; bright and cheerful whilst being really warm:

Aren't they fab?