Making chicken feed of my mortgage

muddywhitechicken

Good morning :wave:

The new girls are lovely :smileyhea

The old girls are evil :mad:

Supervised together time didn't go very well this morning so old girls are locked in the run until they've finished laying and new girls are exploring the bottom of the garden. Will try again this afternoon...

Plans for today:

Tidy garden
Tidy shed
Cut grass when lawnmower liberated from shed
Collect 1/2 price bulbs from garden centre
Pot up plug plants
Make plum chutney, plum sauce and plum cordial
Mr MWC is going to pickle some crab apples from the garden

Habibiboo

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Good Morning :hello: (to Clarissa and everyone )

ooo, I can see that I have a lot to learn about chucks

Why would a female bluebell crow? *confused*

Greying

:wave: Greying, in the absence of a cockerel to keep the harem in order, in a flock of more than a few hens one of the girlies might assert herself by trying to crow to show that she cocka-roodle-rules the roost! The resulting sound is neither correct nor tuneful, but can be loud :eek: bizarrely ours does this as an add-on to her egg laying "song", so I think she's a bit *confused* too! x

muddywhitechicken wrote: »

Good morning :wave:

The new girls are lovely :smileyhea

The old girls are evil :mad:

Supervised together time didn't go very well this morning so old girls are locked in the run until they've finished laying and new girls are exploring the bottom of the garden. Will try again this afternoon...

Mr MWC is going to pickle some crab apples from the garden

:wave:

Oh dear MWC, sounds like you're doing the right thing separating them. It's quite scary how the previously beloved, gentle hens suddenly take on this whole new persona in the presence of infiltrators to the flock, sounds like their feathers have been ruffled indeed!

The good news: they'll get over it, the newbies will find their place.

The bad news: it can take up to a month ... ours all took about 3 weeks to settle together and we did the same as you, all in together from the off but with careful separation and supervision.

To watch for: have your newbies got clipped wings? If not, watch for flying up and away to escape if one / any get cornered by the old gang ... this was how / why Gladys started coming over to the house / garden side of the fence. Might be worth a bird-eye survey of what's about to double check that no one can fly out of the garden in an attempt to escape the bullying.

Would love to know more about pickled crabs, am spying our crab apple crop as we "speak" and have been wondering if there's owt edible that can be done with them? x

Greying_Pilgrim

A-ha! I see Habibiboo, and I realise pictures can be deceptive, but are bluebells a little bit 'bigger' as a breed, do they naturally then try to be top hen? Oh, I do hope Miss Clarissa brings MWC nothing but joy and beautiful eggs.......

And I agree with you about Miss Tilly's fantastic tail. I saw it and immediately thought of the ceremonial headwear that the soldiers have at the daily border closing ceremony between India and Pakistan. Miss Tilly's appendage representing peace and neutrality, naturally

Greying

trulymadlyhannah

muddywhitechicken wrote: »

Thanks TMH and US

I can highly recommend chicken-keeping - chickens are the best pets in the world

I have 10 living in a bright orange eglu cube that was bought to coordinate with the garden Mr MWC and his dad had enough trouble assembling the chicken run kit - building a coop from scratch would have been a step too far... :rotfl:

MWCx

We have been offered free wood, and I've seen youtube video online, what could go wrong? :rotfl:. Ive drawn a fairly detailed (but probably very flawed!) plan, i guess it will be trial and error! We can keep upto 15 chickens at our allotment, if the council let us keep it (its a bit overrun, with DH's back being really bad, and my 17 month old who practically refuses to be put down when we are there which means i dont get much done either!) I will be reading your diary for tips

muddywhitechicken

Eggs IN 3
Eggs OUT 1 (fried for Mr MWC's lunch)

Tidy garden - made a start
Tidy shed - done and took the junk to the tip
Cut grass when lawnmower liberated from shed - done
Collect 1/2 price bulbs from garden centre - done + bought some veg seeds for 50p/packet
Pot up plug plants - not yet
Make plum chutney, plum sauce and plum cordial - stuff for chutney prepped but too late to start cooking tonight
Mr MWC is going to pickle some crab apples from the garden - another job for the morning (I'll post the recipe for you Hbbb)

Mr MWC cooked Bali garden stew with toasty cashews and shallots for dinner using our homegrown carrots, tomatoes, sweetcorn, runner beans and swiss chard - it was delicious :drool:

The old girls were less nasty this afternoon

We walked to the garden centre so 20,000+ steps today :T

greent

Gorgeous new girls - esp Miss Clarissa - and am loving the sound of eggs with a plum hue! x

Greying_Pilgrim

muddywhitechicken wrote: »

Mr MWC cooked Bali garden stew with toasty cashews and shallots for dinner using our homegrown carrots, tomatoes, sweetcorn, runner beans and swiss chard - it was delicious :drool:

That stew looks delicious MWC - I keep forgetting to check Laura's website, as her posts have slowed down, but they're corkers when she does post Love that you used your own produce too :T

I hope all the 'girls' are hail and hearty this morn - big love to Miss Clarissa

Greying

muddywhitechicken

Eggs IN 4
Eggs OUT 0

Miss Clarissa sends big love back Greying!

Introductions are going as well as can be expected

Finally got the plum chutney made and then my dad brought me crab apples, blackberries and sloes so more preserving this week!

Karmacat

Sloes already? **rushes off to see if any of the sloe bushes survived the housing development locally .... **

misscousinitt

Hi MWC

Just catching up.

Lovely pics of Norway, so beautiful and peaceful.

I am really sorry about Miss MWC, but excited about your new chook friends.

Great work with the 'steps' too - I really don't know how you fit it all in!

MCI