Egg-citement

I discovered an egg in Joanna and Llywelyn's run today, so the day length is now officially long enough to stimulate call duck egg production :-) It's my first duck egg so I was really pleased. She laid it right on the mud rather than in the house but it scrubbed up alright once I'd armed myself with a damp paper towel:

Peggy egg for scale

Before you ask, no, I won't be hatching any, unless by some miracle either Jean or Joanna decides to go broody which they are not known for! They can be incubated under a hen (or indeed in an incubator) but I'd rather keep it natural. A shame though, as ducklings are the most impossibly cute little things in the world. I will try to sell some as hatching eggs though as call ducks are quite popular due to their diminutive size.

I've rearranged all the poultry pens to give them a change of scenery, and this prompted me to then tidy up my sewing box as I'd found a load of compartmentalised trays in the garden (?) so again, having washed the mud and hen footprints off them, Rosie helped me sort out my button and thread stash:

As you can see, the heated airer provides a very useful surface on which to rest things - this is why I can't have an ironing board, as it just gets colonised by random stuff. I also got started on a project using this Rowan Kidsilk Haze yarn:

I love the green, and it's working really well. Another thing that is working is the welly rack (sorry, the pic's a bit overexposed but the sunshine must've shocked my camera):

This evening I am going to sort out my seeds in to chronological sowing order and also stick my new biodynamic charts at the front of each month's divider. Biodynamic gardening is new to me (although I have heard of it in the agricultural context) but I'm going to a biodynamic beekeeping event this weekend and I find the whole concept quite intriguing.

New duck house

I let the ducks out into their new run today. They seem to quite like it and John particularly enjoys sitting on the mezzanine looking into his neighbour's run, no doubt appreciating being able to quack authoritatively from on high and eyeball Llywelyn's wife at the same time.

Both households are busy digging tunnels and trenches akin to the Great Escape. They're probably hiding the spoil under that box there and I'll find them all in together one day. I am quite pleased with the run as they are a lot more difficult to make than I think and I always forget how annoying and painful it is affixing chicken wire with staples and my hands always end up in shreds. It must be my female brain, a bit like forgetting how much labour hurts when deciding to have another baby.

Maud is still free range as she gets beaten up by Henry in the big run and Mary if she's in with the chicks so she roams the garden. She managed to lay an egg on the lawn again, honestly she has no shame. I thought chickens were meant to tuck themselves away in private?  I mean even caged hens will now have nesting areas but nope, Maud just stands there in broad daylight, slightly cross-eyed, and lays an egg. And the funny thing is that it stays upright:

Other than that we've sort of done nothing today as I seem to have run into a bit of a metaphorical wall and want to stay in bed all the time. I did walk the dog and sort out the animals and do some food for the children but the rest of the time I've been a bit of a zombie...

A Great garden

The children went off to their father this morning as it's their stepmother's birthday, so I had a free day! The weather was glorious and I felt in need of the calm and quiet of a garden so it was off to Great Dixter in Northiam for some inspiration and soul-feeding.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

By this stage in the year a lot of the plants are going over but the show was still excellent and made me want to come back and start on loads of granny squares for my summer garden blanket!

Mary and the chicks are all well, and when I got back from Dixter I saw an egg in the run. It was the unhatched egg, so Mary has obviously decided that she wants it out. I don't know if there's anything in it and in fact I shall bury it as it seems a shame to put it in the bin or compost and no, I'm not remotely tempted to crack it open! As far as I'm concerned, that egg was a potential chick and I feel rather sorry for it so I will dig a small hole and say goodbye to the little fluffy life that wasn't meant to be.

Eggs and a rainbow

The morning started with catching the cockerel so that I could brush surgical spirit on his legs - he's got Scaley Leg which is where mites get under his scales, poor chap. I told Rosie to make sure the photo was of Henry rather than of me - she certainly did a good job at protecting my identity:

Henry would be horrified to know this undignified photo
is in the public arena

I then had a cuddle with Ida. She's very soft and pretty.

The day was spent rather drearily, as yesterday. I did some studying and made a start on the maths for my assignment - trying to hold on to the threads of the calculations is like nailing jelly to a wall, I have to work so hard to keep track of what I'm doing and I get to the end with a number and read part (ii) of the question which involves the dreaded words 'interpret' and 'evaluate' and 'explain'.

I was about to let the hens out when my neighbour pointed out there was a fox behind my hedge. I called the dog and decided to go for a walk in the field - not deliberately after the fox of course as that is against the law ;-) but a stroll seemed like a very good idea. Scruff seemed happy to oblige and tore off through the wheat. The fox was long since gone but I think at least a doggy presence may put him off a bit.  When we got back in the garden Scruff was sniffing in the beech hedge and I discovered why Mary had spent so much time in there, which no doubt was also the reason for her demise:

14 eggs!!

Mary was tiny - how she managed to brood that many eggs I don't know, I can't think of anything more uncomfortable. I don't think they would have hatched as she was coming back to the run and in the coop every night but she was probably sitting on them when the fox was passing by.

I went back to check the new hens and found another egg:

They are laying then

We did check the rest of the hedge for Mary as she may have found somewhere else to make a nest but no sign.


I went to collect 2 beehives this evening and delivered them to their happy recipients and driving away from the farm there was the most perfect double rainbow.