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

Eggs

It was my son's birthday on Thursday and college commitments mean we're celebrating this afternoon; a cake is required. I had a frisson of enjoyment at cracking the eggs for his lemon drizzle cake as it's been such a long time since I've used any! I've had to prioritise my customers and even then I've had to reduce the numbers I've been selling so that everyone can have a few. I know some people artificially light their coops so that the hens still lay but as I don't cull my hens at the end of their productive life, I figure I'm just extending their laying capabilities if I let them have a rest in the winter.

The pure breeds seem to be coping with their annual moult much better than the hybrids as they just get on with it and look pretty terrible and moth-eaten for a few weeks but apart from hunkering down more than usual, they've been fine. The 2 year old hybrids though...they've been off their food, squabbling, hunched up, lost all their feathers in patches off their bottoms or necks or shoulders. I suppose selective breeding for constant egg production has compromised their ability somewhat to moult normally.

It is a bit annoying when you've got cakes to make and customers to please but I guess it is yet another thing that we've lost any sense of seasonality over and giving the hens a decent rest during the cold dark months is what nature intended. Although the hybrids are great, I'm leaning more towards the traditional breeds but of course they won't lay much (anything!) from November to February minimum. Maybe I need to breed chicks that will hatch at such a time that they'll be potentially laying over winter in their first year, thereby reducing the need for replacing the egg machines as buying new hens is expensive and I've had some duds in my time.

I did get some prebiotic and probiotic tonics from Flyte So Fancy and this has definitely perked up the birds, especially Maud and Peggy, the Goldline and Amber Star who seemed completely disinterested in everything. Their appetites have improved and they are now scratching about in the woodchips and there's a lot less squawking and arguing.

Cora the RIR bantam looking a bit moulty
around the neck area

Autumn?

I keep thinking autumn is here and then it gets really hot and sultry again. I'm hoping this will bring out the autumn colours as the leaves are just starting to turn. There is wet weather forecast for next week though so I'm trying to get a few bits done while it's dry and solid underfoot.

The bees are loving the ivy and continued flowering of the Himalayan balsam (it'll get zapped by the first frost and vanish) so for once I am fairly confident about their prospects over winter. It was so mild last year that they didn't really quieten down so got through a lot of stored honey but they are full to bursting with the long dry summer we've had.

I've bought a new extension run for my hens which is fox proof and gives them more height to perch, preen and flap their wings. It's more open too so I can see them more easily through the kitchen window.

Jason, Pippa, Amelia, Peggy
Daisy and Maud

There are 6 chickens in here - 3 bantams and 3 hybrids and I'll get some more polycarbonate sheeting for the roof and also the sides to protect them from the weather. There's a local supplier of hardwood chips which I will be able to put on the floor of the run as this drains well and will stop the hens getting too mucky and wet. They've all just been wormed and the houses have been treated for red mite so they are ready for the winter now.

They are ploughing the field behind my house which is making dog walking a bit of a chore as it's hard work up the field over the clay. I feel obliged to stamp out a trail along the designated footpath though as otherwise everyone wanders around the headland and I get other people's dogs in the garden, or my dog does his usual defensive-aggressive teeth-gnashing thing at passers by which is all rather embarrassing. The seagulls were doing a fantastic synchronised dance in front of the tractor as it went up the field, but they do make a real racket!

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...

A Garden Full of Bees

I had a phone call yesterday from the lady whose bees I look after; they'd swarmed. It was a dreary, drizzly, murky day so I hopped in the car with a box and a beesuit and went to collect them. The cluster of bees was beautifully situated on an overhanging branch, about head height, along a path :-) couldn't be better. So although bees are very rarely aggressive when they swarm as they've nothing to defend, Ann's are a feisty lot so I did put on my suit and after a sharp tap on the branch, into the box they went. I wrapped them in a sheet just in case as there were a few stragglers - a couple of whom decided to negotiate their way out of the folds of material and buzz ominously around the car as I was driving home.

There were a lot of bees as I put them in to a hive in my garden, but despite the rain they all flew around orientating themselves to their new home. A good job done.

Or so I thought. I noticed this morning that there were a lot of bees around the other 2 hives: not just at the entrance but also trying to get in to the vents and the floor and buzzing along the joins between the hive boxes looking for gaps. Little whatsits were trying to rob my hives!! So, back on with the beesuit and gloves, and armed with a roll of parcel tape and the tiniest, most useless pair of scissors we own, I set about reducing the size of the entrances to the hives so that the guard bees had a smaller gap to defend from their cheeky upstart new neighbours. Trying to unwrap parcel tape, cut parcel tape with Christmas cracker-quality scissors and stick parcel tape on to wood all whilst wearing rubber gloves and in slightly breezy conditions - well, I'm glad nobody was filming that particular exercise in cack-handedness. Or indeed recording; my language had deteriorated somewhat by this stage. And I couldn't seem to retain in my head that there was no point in trying to sever the tape with my teeth: I was wearing a veil. Anyway, the new bees seem to have calmed down now and left the others alone. The tape's still on the entrances which they don't really mind, although you can almost hear the tutting as the bees return, laden with pollen, and have to queue up at the doorway.

My new run arrived today (yes, another one!) as I thought the ducks needed more room, especially with the prospect of babies. It's really good and I feel much happier about them being in there. Rose helped me build it:

Isn't it great? It's the large freestanding lawn run from Flyte So Fancy - I have been so impressed with their other stuff and this is no exception. John and Jean and any future family will be safe and secure in there, and I can fit their big tub of water in too.

I must go and look for Mary the Adventurous Hen who has been gone for a couple of hours which she does frequently. Off she goes, all on her own in the more-than-chicken-high wheat crop behind the house. I did find myself having a fleeting, subconscious thought that I should text her......

Frosty Morning and Fancy Dustbath

Well, it was beautiful yesterday morning. Cabbages can be pretty unimpressive but then Jack Frost calls and, well:

I also took a picture of all the plants we rescued from their tumble in the greenhouse and rehoused in the cold frame:

Roll on spring, I can't wait to plant them all out :-)

The other part for the new dustbath arrived and after a lot of bad language and misplaced screwdrivers, ta-dah!

I bought some play sand to put in the dastbath itself but it's sopping wet so I am drying it out at the moment. For anyone else in the same situation, don't cook it, it doesn't work but does create a lot of steam...

The ducks are still enjoying their compost-spiked mudbath:

Ah, I am very fond of my ducks.

A couple of years ago I collected some seeds from the Scots Pine trees in the copse and planted them. They are doing really well:

When they first germinate they are the tiniest little thread of a trunk with a fan of half a dozen needles on top, just adorable. I really recommend growing them for their miniture perfection! Growing tree seeds is so full of promise, I love them.

I have finished the mitts! But they are wrapped up and I forgot to take a photo so you'll have to take my word for it.

I'm now knitting a circular scarf for my friend but with lighter-weight yarn and smaller needles so I've added on another 30 stitches and am hoping for the best.

It's Jamie's Christmas on tv and I'm absolutely starving, it's not the best program to watch as I am drooling...