The Free Ranging has it’s Drawbacks. 29th October 2009
Early last evening our lovely neighbour Mani came knocking on the front door, quite frankly I am surprised it has taken this long, over a year now since we got the chickens. I must say the neighbours have been very patient with the hens leaving droppings on their driveway and scratching etc, however yesterday the girls went too far.
They ate Mani’s vegatable patch, cleaning out the Silverbeet, and genarally pecked at the other plants, no amount of free eggs will make up for that crime, so the girls have been confined to quarters, back to Camp Tenko they go. I say that but it seems the escape commitee have already hatched a plan, as I found 3 hens on the outside of the run this morning, more work needed on the perimiter fence. It would seem that the hole isn’t big enough for Renee, which is a good thing, because she was singled out by Mani, along with Manuella de Minorca as the main perpetraitors.
It is going to be difficult to contain them now that they have had the free run of 3 properties, about an acre of land, or in Daisy’s case the whole block, they’ll be no more wondering around the streets to the locals who feed the wild birds bread. What it means for me is more work, a trip to the garden center for replacement silver beet, and the general sadness at seeing the girls confined to a smaller space. Maybe I can let them out under supervision sometimes, even deathrow prisoners get 30 mins outside each day.
Spring is in the Air 5th August 2009
Hi there just a quick update, it may seem that spring is here, the daffodils are up , the mallards are having new ducklings, and the girls are laying more eggs. I did notice yesterday when going to collect Betty’s eggs, that there semms to have been a predator around, two eggs had been consumed, so now Betty will have to find a new nesting spot, and then I in turn will have to try and find it.
A few dry days have given the garden a chance to dry out a bit, but it’s still a mud slope now. Last year I cut down some 80-100 stands of bamboo, which has been good, as far as it’s given us more garden space, and allows alot more sunlight into the garden, however I wonder how much water those bamboo stands were drinking?, the garden seems alot wetter without them.
Daffodil trumpets' in the new spring
NEST SHARING 10th june 2009
Hi there, just a quick update, it seems three out of four layers are all quite happy to share the same nest, discovered this morning, also so noticed the fourth layer checking it out too, as her nest looks a bit damp this morning after a nights rain. It would be very convenient if they all lay in the same nest, especially for the chicken sitter.
BETTY’S LAYING
At last Betty our wyandotte has started to lay, we have had her for months, from a chick, and I was staring to wonder when she would lay, well two days ago I found her nest containing three eggs, on the small side to start with.
Betty the Wyandotte Golden Lace
HOT MASH
Hi there keepers, it’s that time of year when the nights are getting shorter and the temperature is starting to drop, yes it’s winter down under, we’ve lit the fire twice so far this year, wasn’t really needed, but we felt like a fire. Today I have to admit, that I think I love my chickens too much, I was sorting out their last mix of mash, and I thought it can’t be all that appealing eating cold mash on a cold day, so yep, I mixed it up with some warm water from the kettle, it was steaming a little when i gave it to them, and did they like it, oh yeah, they lappped it up. Reminded me of hot porridge on a winters morning.
Hi there keepers, It’s wet today in Auckland, bucketing down, so much so that poor Gloria is complete soaked through, partly due to the fact that she has chosen a nesting spot during the good weather, but now that auturm has arrived, it’s not such a good spot, as there is no cover, she has been laying in the pouring rain. I couldn’t stand by, looking at my favourite hen,( not to mention best layer), doing an impression of a drown rat, so I bought her inside and started to dry her off with an old towel, then it dawned on me that Mrs has a hairdryer, so minutes later, Gloria was getting a blowdry styling, and typically when I had finished drying her, she stood up and started adjusting her feathers, just like when you have left her barbers or hairdressers, and you fix your hair with way you want it, because for some reasons the hairdresser will do what they want to no matter how many times you tell them what you want.
The grass is growing back, the council workers seem to be visiting less frequently, the hens seem more settled and I feel less stress, all is well.
Well they have finally finished the works in the backyard, as the council promised, anything they have taken away they will replace, yeah right, pigs really will fly, they don’t seem to understand they have taken away my privacy, as they have chopped down two enormous willows, that used to screen our house from the other houses across the creek, now they have gone, it’s just a big open patch of ground, with some straw thrown around to hide the scarred earth that has been stripped of it’s topsoil. As willows are not a native tree, they are under no obligation to re plant any trees, so they have come in totally changed the dynamic of the property and don’t see it.
Hello, well the works are still going on in the backyard, the girls don’t seem too phased by it all. We had a bit of excitment tonight when we went to shut the door on the girls coop, Maria had escaped from the chicks pen, but fortunately she was just standing in the middle of the garden, looking very lost and a bit scared, of course when i went to pick her up, she ran flapping her wings trying to get airbourne, after I slipped over once, I managed to catch her. Meanwhile the other lot were nestling down in the coop unaware of their missed oportunity to peck at the new arrival.
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Hi there, as you may of read below, the civil engineers are in, digging up the back section, the bridge they are build ing across the creek is almost complete, I have just been chatting with the Maori worker, who is welding up the sections, he was interested in the chickens, and started talking about the, Hugh (double barrelled) guy, river cottage, chicken programme, where he saw the report on battery farmed chickens, and how all the omega has been bred out of the birds.
I don’t think that was a aim, it is just happened by accident, however the scientist involved suggested that the fall in omega in our food, has some relation to the amount of mental illness reported the the world at the moment, after all we are what we eat, and if we’re not eating the stuff that keeps us sane, well it’s not surprising we’re all going mad.
I knew the chickens were good for my soul, as they make me feel peaceful when i’m around them, I didn’t realise |I was doing my brain some good to by eating their eggs, as I do have a mental illness, ( bi-polar (manic depression) disorder), this can only be a good thing.
So fellow chicken keeper, not only are we enjoying the benefits of keeping chickens, but we are keeping ourselves sane, so when the rest of the world has gone crazy, and high flying executives are congregating in trafalgar square like a mass of hens, we’ll be able to feed them with little cups of pellets. Oh if only it would happen soon.
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Hi there reader, well it’s happened, the civil engineers have arrived, and are digging up my back garden as I type, the good new is, on speaking with the contractor this morning, the 5ton digger will be able to reach this side of the bank without having to cross the creek, funny how life turns out, that’s is what i said to t.o.h, two weeks ago, ’ surely it would be easier to build a small platform for the digger to reach the other side’ and that’s exactly what they are doing. That’s alot less disruption than was originally discussed by the council, talk of fences being cut out for digger excess, and driving through the middle of the garden and so on, however what I forgot was, I was being told this by the desk jockey and not the actual person who was going to carry out the work, the desk jockey knows what the end results will be, how they are achived is another kettle of fish.
The hens seems not to be bothered by all of this new activity, they are as usual more concerned about where the next feed can be got, camp tenko is living up to it’s name, there have been several escape’s already, planned i’m sure, reinforcing of the bamboo fence is on the list of things to do.
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Beginings of the new sewer
News flash, we have 3 new birds, 2 are only a few days old, the other is a few weeks old, lovely group, we now have a Black Minorca, a Light Sussex and a Wyandotte Gold Lace, just got today from a farm not far away in the Waitakere township, what a display of birds this lady had, so many varieties i couldn’t name them all. Show birds aswell, i’m very glad to have different varieties, as it keeps the breeds going.
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It seems that the more time I spend retrieving them from next doors gardens, the more they roam. Are they like rebelious teenagers? They seem to be, the neighbour to my left, said one of the chickens was in her house, standing in the hallway at the door of the kids bedroom, cheeky, really she should be careful, they do like nice curry next door, fortunately Nellie hasn’t got enough meat to make a sandwich.
So yesterday I left them to it, didn’t go and check on them once, until 3pm when I went to get my son from school, they were all there, together,….it’s only a 10 minute round trip, by the time we got back, two were gone. Into Mani’s garden again, Mani and his family are very tollerate of the girls, plus i do give them a few eggs.
I found enough pallets yesterday to finish off the deluxe coop, outside the local Placemakers, D.I.Y shop, I found a roll of roofing felt under the bench in my workshop, the previous tennant must of left behind. Infact it’s amazing, now that i have adopted the re-use/ recycle attitude, how many things that I need turn up, they’re not even that hard to find, I think there’s an lesson of life to learn in there somewhere?
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Well alot been going on, Nancy has layed her first egg, thats 2 months, and it looks a bit rough, very thin shell, with lots of lumpy bits of shell, i imagine it wasn’t the most comfortable egg to lay. The strangest thing about it though was how it came about, Nancy is the bully, top hen, and she has been chasing the other to the point where they will escape to the neighbous for some peace, so i penned nancy in all day to stop this occurring, she had been in there for 4 days,Nancy didn’t seem to like this at all, alot of clucking and noise in general, to which i replied, ‘lay an egg and you can come out’, to my amazement she, who has never layed in my keeping, layed her first egg the very next day, so keeping to my word i had to let her back out into the garden, she didn’t lay another egg for a week. Some may say coincidence, others may say ‘ are you mad?’ ‘ one thing talking to hens, but thinking they understand what you’re saying’ . I’ll let you make up your own minds.
