BP!

BP:  Blood Pressure.  Bleeping Poultry.  Bountious Precipitation or Beautiful Pies?

I dream of beautiful pies, but that's another matter.  Middle aged mum trying as per the rest of the population to lose a bit of weight...  so my dreams are of the banal, pie variety.  Sweet pastry pies, as being vegetarian there's not a lot of choice.  No actually the higgidy pies have a couple of good ones, but I digress, and I've only just started.

BP.  Bl***y Poultry (1)

I love my hens.  You know I do.  The new ones are settling in at last, and have finally got the hang of going to bed properly.  They gave in to the inevitable since the rain storms of late.   Their fear of the dominant hens was washed away!!! and they put themselves inside the hen house instead of sitting on the roof waiting for mum/me to push them in...

So tonight, at 8.40pm, it's dark and raining.  The hens must be in bed by now I thought.  I got my coat, hat and crocs (kept by the kitchen door, for slipping on and off when going into/back from the garden) on, and went down to the bottom of the garden.  All well.  All inside.  Except for Brownie.  She's scratching in the quagmire that's their enclosure, looking for worms being drowned out of their holes.  No problem.  She won't be long I thought.  I waited a bit.  The rain came down.  I waited a bit more.  The rain came down, harder. She can't last much longer.  The rain continued.  So did the hen.

Come on.  By this time I couldn't tell if the hen was a shadow and the shadow was the hen.  How much longer???  The rain eased off.  Come on.  Nope.  Well there's no point going back into the house, I'll wait here until she goes in.  Can't be much longer now.  Can it?  The rain came back.  The hen was still out.  I can't actually see her.  Oh, she's over there.  The rain came harder, again.  This is stupid.  Bl***y hen, go to bed.  The rest of the hens are in, do you think you're an owl or something? Finally.  The rain got the better of her, and she sidled off, casual as you like, hopped onto the ladder and off to bed.

Just the quagmire for me to negotiate, close the hen-house door, and voila!  I'm home and dry, in the kitchen, and it's 9.00pm.  TWENTY MINUTES standing waiting for the flipping hen to go to bed.  Really.  Sometimes I just wonder....

BP.  Bleeping Poultry (2)

So on Wednesday I'm off work (our library's closed on Wednesday), and I'm doing a bit of this, a bit of that.  And I look from the kitchen window down the garden to spy on/observe the hens.  I can see a portion of their patch through the yew hedge that divides the garden in two.  And although it's raining, again one of the new hens doesn't look right.

So I get my coat on, crocs on and go take a closer look. Classic unhappy bird posture, hunched, tail down, looking miserable.  Staying in one place - not a normal behaviour for a bird.  So, I trundle back to the rabbit hutch.  Of course, I hear you say.  I've found in my years of hen keeping, that's it's useful to have a hospital/isolation unit.  For this purpose I found a rabbit hutch, and this is kept close to the house, so tending to the isolated bird is easier.

Check the rabbit hutch is clean, fresh newspaper, water, food supplies, and then I go to collect Goldie to make observations and keep out of the rain.  Worried now, when I go to pick her up, she takes a couple of steps and trips over.  Twice.  Not good.  Once in the hutch, she stays where I put her, looking as unhappy as an unhappy hen can look.  I go inside, make a cup of tea and check my hen books.   Nothing quite matches the symptoms on display, but I check back after 30 minutes and hen has moved to the back of the hutch and has quite clear, runny droppings.  Ah ha!  something to go on.  My book tells me lots about the various quality of droppings and what it signifies.

Time tells me that it's time to collect the children from school, on the way home I tell them the situation with Goldie and say we'll wait and see what develops.  Tom asks if the hen dies will we get our money back?  Good question from a 6 yr old, I like your style son!

On return we go to see the hen, and she's still miserable, but has looked at the food.  We retreat to have supper.  After supper, a quick look again, and the problem becomes clear.  She's laid her first egg!  On the hard surface of the hutch, so it's cracked beneath her a little, and she's not moved since laying.  It's lying there between her legs.  I reach in and take the egg.  I'm encouraged.  It must be quite discombobulating laying your first egg.  I give her 30 minutes more to recover and put her back with the other girls.  I throw them some corn.  They all go running for it.  So that was it.  Goldie's first egg.  BP! Brilliant Production.

Pigeon or gargoyle?  Church of SS Peter & Paul, Wantage

And on that note I'll bid you good night.  April was a wash out.  Easter holidays too long, not enough blogging, sorry about that.  Will try to remedy in May!  TTFN as they say, and keep it sweet, Kat  :)

I confess...

I've put down 'The Story of My Life' by Helen Keller.  If I was American and felt more 'connected' to her then I might have persevered with it, but there's so much else that I wanted to get on and read, so I started Hilary Mantel's 'Wolf Hall' (the 2010 Booker Prize winner).

I started it on Thursday and am 100 pages in already.  I'm really enjoying it, it deserves its big reputation (and it's a big book, 650 pages).  She manages to draw you in, so you're a fly on the wall during the important intrigues of the Tudor period, but the writing is so good, it doesn't feel difficult at all.

I didn't get on with 'History' at school, those many years ago, but this historical drama/fiction/'fact'ion makes me regret my 'lack' of knowledge about history.  I'm trying to make up for it now, and there is much to recommend this book.

Hens.

So I promised new photos of the hens - we got our two new girls, 'Goldie' and 'Brownie' on Good Friday, so they were Easter Chicks...

They're having a hard time of it at the moment.  The two speckeldy hens, (Tweedledum and Tweedledee) have been asserting their dominance, to settle the pecking order.  This also relates to the going to bed order.  Unfortunately, the Tweedles go in first, and the two brown hens, the new girls are too scared to follow (there have been some skirmishes in the house when the door is closed).  I hoped they would get over this, and they'll have to, but at the moment, come dusk, when I go to close the pop-hole, the two brown hens are sitting on the roof, and I have to manhandle them into the house!

Luckily, they're quite docile so they don't have me running rings round after them, unlike the Tweedles...

Enough.  I need to go to bed.  (I want to read more Wolf Hall!).  Thanks for reading, keep it sweet, Kat.

Empty Nest Syndrome

Stop press!

The robin chicks have gone.  I just checked the nest box this lunchtime and it was empty.  So not exactly certain when it happened - they were 14 days since hatching on Friday.  On Saturday Simon went early to USA, I worked, the kids were at Kate's and then we were busy with the Grand National shenanegins that afternoon (I had 3rd and 4th).  On Sunday we drove to Shugborough (National Trust) to hand over the children to Grandma and Grandad for the week.

I've been observing the comings and goings from the bird feeders outside the kitchen window, and have seen a couple of robins taking bits and flying to the undergrowth/overgrowth of the left hand border.  Behind the beech tree, towards the overgrown snowdrops/daffodil greenery into the heavy ivy on the fence. I deduce therefore that's where the chicks are, but they're impossible to see, and so well hidden that even Roly couldn't find them if he wanted to.  So I'm confident about the success of the robin family, and wish them well.

Now what to do with the empty box/nest?...

Seems a little strange without them.... the robin chicks and the family!  I'm here on my ownsome - well, just me, Roly, the hens and our lodger.  I think I might like it at first, we'll see how it goes.  Simon's back on Thursday and then we're up north to collect the children after work on Saturday...

I can't keep up with the pace of life these days.  We do soooo much, and there's so little time left to think about it all, never mind write about it all...

We went to the local point-to-point at Lockinge on Easter Monday.  Cold wind, but we got there early as our family tradition now dictates and walked the course with Roly (dalmation) and Phoebe's friend-to-be from her new school, when she starts in September (in as much as, Phoebe made a friend called Eleanor at the school taster day and exam day, and wanted to meet up so we suggested the point-to-point). It's a lovely way to start a 'country' day and gives a deserved appetite for the picnic we (I) pack!

Unfortunately the weather was a dampner, as the hillside was only half full of parked cars - it's been reported in past years that it attracts up to 10,000 attendees - it's one of the largest point-to-points in the country we understand.  The ground was good so the racing fared well - we missed the first race, then there was a couple of 4 horse races followed by couple of 5 horse races, and we left before the last and pony club races.  And it's the people watching that's so much part of the enjoyment, as much as the racing, and even though the weather was bracing, a good time was had.

More to report, there's so much goes on in the Easter holidays - we joined the National Trust, went to Farmer Gows, saw The Pirates and The Scientists have An Adventure (Aardman's latest film), served tea the local half-marathon, and I've had a WI meeting as well.  On all that next time - I've to get ready for work, and the washing needs to be taken in.

Thanks for reading, keep it sweet! Kat

Easter chicks... really!

Happy Easter, early this year!

Our children were out and about around the garden this morning, early, 7.30am, collecting Easter Eggs left by the bunny...  so it's been a long day.

I have been observing the progress of the robin and her chicks.  They're now 9 days old, and it's very difficult to take a photo of them.

For the past few days the parent has been mostly absent, in as much as there's less room for parent to sit as the chicks are growing larger, and as the chicks are growing larger, the parent has to keep them fed.... I did get a shot of Robin with beak full of something wholesome:

yum yum, what's that then Mum?

When I looked at this next image on my compact digital camera (Panasonic Lumix), I thought I'd not got anything  exciting, but it seems I was wrong...  lovely fluff and baby robin beaks - honest.

Well, as the parent is now often 'away' (busy foraging), I noticed that they're responding wide-mouthed when the kitchen door bangs (!) and also sometimes if I make a 'tch tut tch' sound.  Which was how I managed to get this shot:

So, sorry for the blurr, but I didn't hang around to get the photo this morning, and I'm very careful to beat the retreat after inspection!  Happy to confirm that on Friday this week (1 week since hatching) we did observe 5 beaks, which indicates they're all still thriving, and that they must be keeping each other warm. I assume the parent still keeps them warm at night as the temperature does drop somewhat.

I'll tell you all more about our new hens as well next time.  Need to take and upload photos of them first!

TTFN  thanks for reading and keep it sweet!  Kat

Spring chicks!

OK, this isn't a photo of spring chicks.  I've tried to insert it in the appropriate place in the story, but it insists on popping up here. Sorry.  Do read on for explanation!

This is where the blog begins.  They're here.  Hurrah!!!

The robin eggs have hatched.  We discovered them around 5pm on Friday 30th March.  We've only seen 3 that we dare look at, as being very careful not to disturb by our presence!  The parent bird (seems alarmingly solitary, but then all robins look the same don't they? or is that 'robinist'?) still sits on them quite a long time in between feeds, but 2 days since hatch-day and there's still a parent and still chicks (not sure how many).  Photographs that I've tried to take so far haven't come out, as chicks still low down in the nest, and the nest is positioned so as to be very protected under the shelf.

When we get piccys I''ll let you know!

On another bird front, my hens have a new hen house.  I'd been getting fed-up with the ark. It was 5 yrs old, and although still sound/solid, had a few leaks here and there that this winter I covered up with a tarpaulin.  This made cleaning the hen house a bind, but kept the birds dry.  I was also worried about mites for the coming season, and the house was too big as it was designed for 6-8 birds, and I only ever intended to keep 3-4. (The hen-house was a house-warming present from my dad when we moved here - thanks Dad!).

So I'd done a little research on 'tinternet, and instead of a fashionable 'egglu' from 'omlet', I found a couple of suppliers of recycled plastic housing.  One in particular took my fancy as they were established to help farmers recycle their plastics, so there's a rural theme going there.  I've plumped for a maxi hen loft from Solway Recycling.  Downside was they're in Scotland, so the eco value of recycling is lost  somewhat in the transportation impact.

Anyhow, the house arrived safely last Monday, and I locked up the old house and strawed the nesting boxes and laid newspaper and wood-shavings for the roosting area.  Perfect. The size is just right, and the plastic is more portable (hope it doesn't encourage thieves...) so easier for me to move around and clean out.  However, you can lead a hen to the hen-house, but you can't make it roost.   It took 3 nights of me chasing the hens around the old house, catching them, and thrusting the into new abode before they 'got it'.

What to do with the old house?  Well there's the beauty of 'freecycle'.  I advertised it in as honest a fashion as possible, and had 5 potential takers.  The first turned out to be a time-waster, but the second was delighted and managed to arrange collection the next day.  This was a bit of a pallaver, as     we needed to lift the 6ft x 4ft x 4ft ark over the wire fencing surrounding the hen's enclosure and then over the post and rail fence at the end of the garden, and finally, onto the roofbars of the volvo estate.  See start of this blog!

The old and the new hen houses!

Better go now, getting dark outside, and another frost likely.  The last week's unseasonally warm weather has brought the forsythia out quite gloriously, the colour contrast with the skies this week has been very eye-catching...

So a new month, and my new hours at the library start tomorrow - next 6 months will see me at the library Mon 2-7; Tues 10-12 & 2-5; Thur 2-5; Fri 2-5 and Sat 9.30-12.30. This will be interesting as we start Easter school holidays as well.  I may well be worn out next blog. Think kindly of me if I make too many mistakes!

Thanks for reading,  enjoy the spring, enjoy the weather, enjoy the holidays, enjoy life and keep it sweet. :)  Kat