Yummmmmmy!!!

24th March 2009

Today was horribly cold, rainy and windy all day!
It didn't deter Nettle with her egg laying though and she produced us our third egg in a row!! Yippeeee that means we can have egg for tea now that there's enough for one each yeehaaa!!!
Today's egg was a bit bigger 47g (the first was 45g, the second 44g) and a little darker in colour.

Thomas came home from school to find me sat on the sofa with Nettle on my knee!! We took it in turns and had all three in for a cuddle and a bit of bread as a treat, Nettle was very excited about the snack but the other two weren't interested, perhaps they were a bit too nervous or full?! Lupin snuggled in nicely. Then it was the turn of Cotton who was so excited that she gave me a big stinky present (urghhh!!) and then just to keep things fair also plopped all over Thomas haaahaha!!


When Fraggle arrived home from work we boiled our eggs and had them with soldiers, yuuuummmmmmy!! The best eggs everrr!! About the same time we realised that the girls had
all put themselves to bed!!! WOW they are such clever chucks!!

Another little egggggggg!!!!

23rd March 2009

Fraggle let the ladder down for the chucks, they were all happy and clucking around even thought the weather has taken a horrible turn!! It was soooooooo windy that things were crashing around the garden!! Eeeeek!! The girlies weren't bothered though, they huddled together a little more than normal and nestled down into the straw for a bit.

Thomas had a day off while his teachers learned how to teach (hmm haha!!) We kept peeking out at the chucks but it was so horribly cold and windy that we kept running back inside!! Suddenly we realised that Nettle had vanished again, we made a cuppa and waited inside in the warm until she reappeared then we both hurried out to invesigate and sure enough there was another perfect little egg!!!!! yeeeeeehaaaa!! It was slightly earlier than yesterday (yesterday's egg arrived around 1pm) today Nettle had popped it out by about 11.20am so we wonder if we accidentally disturbed her the other day?!

I investigated some information about chicken's during the afternoon as the rain pelted down, I made a make shift shelter to cover the front of the run when the rain got worse to try to stop it driving it at the chuckles!! It seems that the chicken's get redder combs and stuff as they come in to lay and also their legs get whiter.... this seems to be happening to Cotton, ooooooooooh!!!

Evening came and we pondered the time we should get the girls to bed, we looked out after dinner and Cotton had already gone to bed!! yey!! Then we realised the other two, stuck on the ladder, couldn't get up because she was pecking them on the head haaahaha!! We went to give a helping hand and moved her along, when Lupin got up Cotton was totally unimpressed that she had stolen her place and walked over her hahaha!! Can't claim that they went to bed 'quietly' this evening hahahaaaa!! (I hope they remembered to brush their teeth and wash their faces haha!!)

Night night chickens x x

Our first egggg!!!

22nd March 2009

After a wobbly start to the day, feeling terrible, we put the chippings and straw in the run of the ark and then let the ladder down... still no names for the chucks.... the 'white' one was the bravest and sort of fell down the ladder eagerly.... the others were not so sure, finally the 'black' one hurtled down almost flattening the white one, eventually the 'blue' one picked up courage and fell down to join the others!!

During the morning we gradually came up with some names that
seem to suit them, Cotton for the white, Nettle for the black and Lupin (Loopy) for the blue. Almost as soon as that was settled we noticed Nettle had gone upstairs....... oooh the excitement, but she came back down again soon after. Then, again, she had vanished.....
Thomas and I sat on the step waiting, like expectant
fathers, for her to come back down again, about half an
hour later she tumbled down........ we had a peek and there
was a perfect little egg!!!! What a clever chicken!!

Everyone we had spoke to said that the chickens wouldn't lay after they had been moved so we were reeeeally surprised!! Yipppeeee!!

Pok pok pok pokkkk!!!

21st March 2009

Exactly one month after our wedding we finally took the plunge and got our chickens!!
We have been talking about chickens forever and so nearly got them a few times... then... we started talking about them again.....

We popped to the local place to go for chicken houses, just for a look aaaand bought the Ark that I have had my eye on for the last 5 years, a lovely traditional looking wooden one in the shape of a triangle with the roost and nest box above and the run underneath. Fraggle excitedly backed up his new toy (the jeep) only to find that the Ark was about an inch too big to fit... so we zoomed off to find a roof rack only to find that we had to order the part. We decided to strap it to the roof with blankets yee haaa.

Between all the zooming about we visited the place where I had seen 'point-of-lay' chickens, awwwwwwwww they were so ace, cleverly I forgot my cash in all the excitement...grrrr..... that gave us chance to collect the ark and drop it off at home, exchanging it for the Thomas monster who came back to help choose the chucks!!

The man with the chickens had asked if we could take our own box.... boxes are hard to come by these days, but we had one, perfect size!! So we bundled three girlies into their SLOW COOKER box (haaaaaaaaahahahahaa!!) We chose an Amber Star (white) Black Star (black and brown also greeny in some lights) and a Bluebelle (a bluey grey).

Fraggle needed to stop at the shop on the way home so Thomas and I had to have a look teeheee they were sooo funny poking their heads out and pekking furiously....sunddenly we realised they were insanely pecking at the tiny left over pieces of polystyrene in the box arghhhh, I hadn't even noticed that, we spent the rest of the time that fraggle was in the shop trying to beat the chickens to the polystyrene and flicking it all over fraggle's new toy heeehee!!

I was dropped off at home with the girlies while the boys zoomed off on a secret mission, the perfect opportunity for some chicken cuddling yey!! Then they were all bundled back into the box while we built the ark (haha) It didn't take too long, went together really well. We put the wood chippings in the roost bit and the straw in the nest box and popped in the girlies...time for bed ZzzZZZzzZZzzzz.... pok...... pok..... zzZZZzzzz...