Raspberries

I'm fast becoming convinced that my favourite part of our garden is the fruit. I love reaching that time of the year when you get a complete glut of one thing or another. The effort required to sustain them - pruning the trees, or tying up bushes, is minimal compared to the potential rewards.

At the moment this joy is coming from the raspberry canes as we go out every few days and collect another tub-full. Mostly we're just eating them, often with ice-cream. So good. There really is very little to beat soft fruit fresh from outside.

The hens, of course, would heartily agree. They are complete gluttons over all things fruity and always hang around while we're picking in case any manky bits get thrown their direction for them to fight over.

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Squawks from the Chicken Coop

This is Lemon and Pepper checking in with the Blog. Things are much the same as ever in the Garden.

There is grass to be scratched, dirt to be rolled in and sparrows to chase.

There are sudden sounds that are a bit scary and we have to make lots of noise about. That's especially important early in the morning when no-one is around in case they don't notice the scary things.

There are eggs to be laid. Not as many as we used to have to do - getting old has it's advantages. The downside is that getting the shells right seems to be a bit tricky at the moment, sometimes they're a bit thin and then we accidentally stand on them so they break. That's not so good.

And of course the best bit is still when people come out of the door with something tasty for us to eat. Corn is our favourite, but stale bread or apple cores are pretty good too.

Cluck Cluck.

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On going backwards and other such things

We realised, with great joy at the thought, that this weekend is the first of five weekends at home. That's five consecutive weekends with only a few bits and pieces in the diary. With a burst of enthusiasm we've made ourselves a list of projects we'd like to work on, almost certainly more than we'll get done - but its good to have aims in life!

First things first though, the bathroom. You may have noticed we've gone quiet on that one, and that's because the project has gone quiet - in fact with no help from us it's been going backwards. We've hit two snags...

Where the sink was....

The first is that around a week after rejoicing in the final fitting of the sink, we discovered that it was not to be the final fitting after all. A very slow leak appeared, coming from a manufacturing fault in the sink itself rather than our plumbing. This one has been really frustrating as plumbing leaks we can deal with (usually by applying a hefty dose of silicon sealant), but a flawed sink means it had to come out and be sent back for a replacement, damaging the finish on the worktop in the process.

Getting ready to refinish the scuffs and other damaged caused by removing the sink.

Our other set back is that the paint on the wall in one particular corner has started to react. Slowly but surely its been bubbling and peeling until we could ignore it no more.

Since the corner in question is the one nearest the bath and shower we debated if humidity was the problem. We stripped off the dodgy paint, made sure everything was dry and applied a fresh coat - and within a matter of minutes it started to bubble up again. Oh.

After the first coat of base coat the bubbliness was still coming through a little
- not very easy to photograph though!

Time to pull in the big boys. Over the course of the weekend we've applied several liberal coats of Base Coat by Polycell - the same people that make Polyfilla, which is supposed to seal in whatever is behind and allow you to paint your colour of choice over the top.  So far we seem to be winning - but we'll have to keep an eye on it.

So this weekend has been re-painting, re-varnishing and putting up the mirrored cabinet that arrived this week.

Forward progress at last - fixing the new medicine cabinet to the wall.

In other news, we've taken the old bath to the tip, revealing the lanky grass that's been hiding underneath it, and bonfired away some more of the bits that have been covering our patio. Oh and Lemon is having her first broody spell of the season - we had a couple of warmer days apparently and she was off, hunkering down in the coop at every possibly opportunity - eggs or no eggs. So starts the annual battle of wills....

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A Clucking Eulogy

Frog died last Sunday, it's been a lonely week without her. She was always uncertain of us, holding back where the others would press right forward for a treat, but she'll be missed all the same.

She was much more agile than the rest. She was the one we'd find sitting on top of the coop, or the wrong side of a fence. She was the one who discovered she could balance on the windowsill and therefore gain access to the forbidden vegetable patch. She was notoriously hard to catch, normally had to be pinned into a corner and even then could often wriggle herself out of trouble! 

We're not sure what happened or what the problem was. All we know is she was fine one day and certainly not the next. She went downhill very quickly and was clearly feeling the cold towards the end. We brought her inside in case warmth would help and tried to encourage her to drink, but she passed away shortly afterwards. 

Goodbye Frog. 

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December in the Chicken Coop

We might have been away from home for months, but our three girls have been getting on with life very much as before. They seemed a little surprised to see us when we got back, but a few rattles on the crucial corn tin and they came over to check out what was going on as usual.

With nothing much growing at the moment they've got free reign on the vegetable patch as well as the rest of the garden, hopefully helping with a bit of fertilisation until we're ready to get the veggies growing again next year.

Its always hard to spend much time with the hens at this time of year as we're at work from dawn til dusk, and they're asleep from dusk til dawn - but popping out each morning to see how they're getting on has certainly been one of the nicer parts of getting back into our routine this week.

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In the Chicken Coop

We've just handed care of Lemon, Pepper and Frog to these two for three months...

... good luck guys!

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June in the Chicken Coop

This month in the chicken coop...

It's broody season again with both Frog and Lemon making siting in empty nest boxes a full time occupation. This severely limits our egg count but it does give Lemon a chance to practice her grumpy lion impression...

Meanwhile, with all the lovely weather we've been having recently, the back door has been wide open on a daily basis. Pepper has been slowly getting braver about hoping inside for a look around whenever we forget our strategic wall of welly boots. The other day she sneaked in through the open side of our glass conservatory doors before trying to get out again through the closed side. She got herself in a panic because she could see the outside but couldn't work out how to get there. Daft bird.

And that's about it. A quiet month all in all.

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7 things I've learnt from keeping chickens...

Things have been very quiet in the chicken coop this month, so instead of our normal end of month update I give you:

Seven Things I've Learnt from Keeping Hens

1. They can be incredibly noisy. Nope, not just the boys. Our girls make a racket whenever they are about to lay an egg, they have laid an egg, they see a passing shadow (pigeon!), another hen has the best spot in the nest box or they're just feeling grumpy. So, yeah, noisy.

2. Eggs come in all shapes and sizes. I always knew that the supermarket eggs weren't the only sort but I'd never have guessed that we'd see such a range from our little flock.

3. Chickens are inquisitive birds. They'll stick their beaks in anywhere they can, particularly if there's a chance of something tasty. Pepper in particular has learnt to shadow us as we garden in the hope we'll turn up some yummy bugs.

4. They have a large range of clucks that's relatively unique to each hen. Frog has a little cluck, Pepper is friendly and talkative when happy and goes for the clu-clu-clu-clu-clawrk-clu-clu-clu-clawrk when annoyed. Lemon just generally squawks, sometimes with a bit of a warble. Without exception though they all go for an unending rhythmic cluck if you disturb them when broody (one of the giveaway signs that they are broody and not just laying).

Frog demonstrating the "broody hen cluck" for you...

5. Did I mention how noisy they can be?

6. We quickly learnt how to catch and keep a hold of a hen. The trick is to corner them, hope they squat (something laying hens will often do as a matter of course), and don't be scared when they flap! 

7. Hens are sociable animals. They love to sit on the back doorstep and watch us. They will come running when we get home from work and happily say hello when we're out in the garden. Most of this is because we're well established as the bringers of food... But I'd like to think there's more to it than that. Well, I can hope (yes I know I'm deluded).

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April in the Chicken Coop

This month in the chicken coop...

... it's birthday time. Our girls were born at the end of April 2012 and came to us in August of that year. We helped them celebrate with an extra handful of corn or two.

Early days with the hens - Pepper in particular looks decidedly young.

... Lemon decides spring is here and has had her first broody bout of the season. Funnily enough we've never had problems with any of the others but for Lemon it was a regular occurrence last year. It becomes quite a battle to persuade her to stop sitting on nothing and literally cool down!

Yes, she's even neglecting to sit on the egg that Frog kindly laid her.

... the sparrows are back. Both years we've lived here we've had nesting sparrows, followed by a dozen fledglings hoping round the garden. They make extensive use of the bird feeder and the girls love pigging out on their discards. We have great fun watching them charge across the garden every time they see a bird.

... and of course it's been a sad month with the loss of Fizzy. The other three have showed no signs that they've even noticed, but we've found it very strange to see them wandering around as a trio.

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And then there were three...

It was a sad day yesterday. I got home from work and found three chickens waiting for me on the back doorstep, not in itself unusual. However when I went outside, started handing out corn and Fizzy was still conspicuous by her absence I began to worry.

I found Fizzy in the coop where she'd quietly left us at some point in the day. While we'd always said that we felt Fizzy would probably go like this one day, the shock was no less. She'd never been the model of a healthy chicken - never laying, slower off the mark, and sometimes sounding a little wheezy - but she was as happy as the others and made us smile just as much. She will be very much missed.

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March in the Chicken Coop

This month in the chicken coop...

... they've not been in the coop. Well they have, but after a winter of using it as a shelter from all the wind and rain they've rediscovered their love of the garden. This has it's ups and downs. It's so much fun seeing them explore again, and they're following us round more. Last weekend Joe was trying to plant out a day-lily we'd bought out of season last year (hooray for the "dead plants section"!), but could hardly dig for Pepper checking the loose soil for worms. We almost had a headless hen! On the downside they now start squawking at sun up for the gate to be opened and we're not impressed.

... they've been laying. We're finally up to speed with three regular layers. Fizzy, as always, has decided that eggs are not for her, but we're getting 15-20 eggs a week from the other three which is more than enough to keep us happy!

... getting muddy. At the start of the month Fizzy started to get particularly muddy. Her feathers were all clumped together and we weren't sure she was going to get on top of it again so we stepped in and gave her a bath....

This was after her bath.... still brown but not so muddy.

She wasn't impressed by the peace offering....

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February in the Chicken Coop

This month in the chicken coop...

... its been cold, wet and windy. On many days the girls have got up, had something to eat, and gone back to bed and I can't blame them! We can't let them out into the rest of the garden unsupervised at the moment leaving them with not much to do except snooze the day away. I think they're probably hoping for spring as much as the rest of us!

... they've been supervising us sorting the fence. (From a safe distance of course!)

Lemon, Pepper and Fizzy with Joe digging in the background.

Needing to stay out of the way while the gap in the fence is unattended.

... laying, ish. Frog and Pepper are now producing five or six eggs a week between them. Compared to February last year this is really low (and last year there was snow!). I think this might be the difference between hens approaching their first spring - which was always going to be their best laying season - and those enduring their second winter.

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January in the Chicken Coop

This month our hens have been....

... laying eggs! Well, Pepper has anyway. As with last year she's been the first to end the winter break and is laying most days. We were very impressed that she started again within a week of last winters date, and that gives us great hope that Frog and Lemon might not be too far behind. 

... continuing the festive season. We've been filling the nest box with shredded wrapping paper (avoiding the shiniest stuff) which has been making things bright and colourful.

... enjoying weekends in the garden. While the weeks are spent wallowing in the muddy run, at the weekend we let them out into the garden still where they have a good rummage in the compost heap and scratch through the lawn. We took a sunny Sunday afternoon to get some jobs done in the garden recently and I was reminded of how pleasant pottering can be with the hens wandering around to keep you company.

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December in the Chicken Coop

This month our hens have been...

... tucking into warm food. Chicken food tends to come in two forms - pellets (easier and cleaner to deal with) and mash (same stuff just not formed into pellets). Mostly we feed our hens pellets, but at this time of year we switch to giving them a bowl of mash-porridge each morning which they love. I don't know if its the warmth, or if its just food, but they tuck in really quickly and gobble it up. Particularly when its frosty outside it seems only fair to give them a hot breakfast to start the day.

... refusing to stand still for a photo, leaving me with lots of funky chickens in the pre-work gloom.

  

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November in the Chicken Coop

This month our hens have been....

... not laying. That's right, not one single egg all month. It started with the moulting which should cause them to have a short break (making feathers and eggs is hard work on a hen) but we're coming to the conclusion that the shorter days and the cold weather might be influencing things as well. They seem otherwise healthy and we didn't get any eggs this time last year either.

Some breeds of chicken will lay pretty much all year round, but unfortunately ours don't fall into that category and are quite likely to take a break over the winter months. Last week we bought supermarket eggs for the first time in ten months, it was a sad day.

Red Lions lining up on our egg rack once more...

... moulting. Frogs turn now to shed her feathers. She's decided to go for the "all-in-one" method of moulting and consequently looked freshly plucked for a couple of weeks. She timed this really badly as the cold weather really kicked in and she spent a lot of time hiding in the coop shivering. We felt very sorry for her, but not sorry enough to do this. They've all now finished and are ready for winter with very soft, thick, coats of feathers.

... sleeping. The clocks have gone back and that means we see a lot less of our flock. By the time we get home from work its pitch black, they've already tucked themselves up for the night and happily snooze through until the rather late sunrise the following day (today it was 7.49am). On a plus note they're not waking us up at 5.30am!

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October in the Chicken Coop

This month in the chicken coop....

... Frog learns a new trick:

A quick hop up onto the windowsill and she neatly avoids the fence we've built. We don't think she gets into the veg patch this way - we've seen her squeezing through holes in the fence again - but invariably this is how she chooses to get out when she sees us coming (or is bribed!). Typical. The fence still does the trick with the other three which prevents complete destruction, and fortunately there's very little left to harm now anyway, but we'll have to come up with a better solution before next spring. *sighs*

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September in the Chicken Coop

This month in the chicken coop the hens have been....

...enjoying windfall apples by the beak-full. They love anything sweet and have been delighted this month to find such large quantities of treats just landing at their feet. I'm not sure how many apples they got through, but it certainly inspired us to go and pick all the ripe fruit every few days!

...moulting. I know I said Fizzy was last month, but she's made a pretty poor show of it compared to Pepper who has been looking decidedly scruffy for the last few weeks.

Refusing to pose for photos!

...dodging the neighbourhood pets. We were eating breakfast in the conservatory last week and there was a sudden kerfuffle outside. Often this is just a case of someone reasserting the pecking order, but to our horror we saw our hens scattering in all directions as a cat made an attempt to grab one. The hens were far too quick, and Joe soon saw off the cat, but this is the first time we've seen a cat brave enough to do this - normally they steer well clear of them as our larger hens can be quite assertive.

Until now our garden has seemed remarkably predator free, leaving us with a rather blasé approach to our hens security, but time has come to reassess. They won't like it, but I think we'll be going back to only giving them freedom of the garden while we're at home to keep an eye on things. We'll just have to put up with their indignant clucks!

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August in the Chicken Coop

To celebrate the arrival of the hens on The Urban Cottage - and because we've now been chicken keepers for one whole year - we're declaring this to be Chicken and Egg week. Today we're also starting off a new series of chicken related posts called "This month in the chicken coop".

This month our hens have been:

Standing on top of coop proclaiming it's morning. At 5am. Not impressed. Well, Joe's not impressed anyway - Jenny is much better at sleeping through these things than Joe is. There are lots of mutterings of sending them to the big farm in the hills on these mornings; though this isn't as much of a threat as it seems as the farm in the hills is a real place just quarter of hours drive from us where they would be very happy hens!

Frog in her customary "I'm the King of the Castle" pose!

Breaking into the vegetable patch. It seems no hole is too small for Frog who is rather nimble. Reinforcements are now in place on both the gate and the fence.

String stopping the sticks from moving side to side.

Extra sticks running horizontally to fill in the gaps

Starting to moult. Fizzy has started her annual moult - a little early in the year I'll admit, but Fizzy has never been one to do things on schedule.

She's not in a particularly bare phase at the moment,
but you can see all the small new feathers growing on her neck.

And that's about it for August. 

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Photo Friday - A Round Dozen

To celebrate the arrival of the hens on The Urban Cottage - and because we've now been chicken keepers for one whole year - we're declaring this to be Chicken and Egg week.

12 of the girls' finest.

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Soft-Boiled Bantam Eggs

To celebrate the arrival of the hens on The Urban Cottage - and because we've now been chicken keepers for one whole year - we're declaring this to be Chicken and Egg week.

Having two full sized hens and two bantams means our eggs come in a variety of sizes, and that means making a few adjustments to our recipes. One full sized egg is not quite equivalent to two bantam eggs - its more like two large to three small, which isn't a very convenient ratio. We tend to make it up as we go along, throwing in extra small eggs for good measure when we want the extra richness, and where the weight of the egg really matters - we use the large ones.

When it comes to breakfasts though we eat both in equal measure. When you poach, fry or coddle an egg you can keep an eye on it and stop cooking each egg when it is done, regardless of size. One place where timing is crucial though, is in a classic soft-boiled egg. It's tricky because you can't tell until you crack it open and dip your toast in as to whether it is wildly under, completely solid, or soft-boiled to gooey perfection. And I do like a good gooey egg for breakfast!

Strangely that there seemed to be very few internet references for soft-boiling these little eggs, so it took a little bit of research. A little help from the [egg circumference: cooking time] ratio in sous-vide water bath techniques however and we think we've got it cracked: room temperature Lemon and Pepper eggs soft-boil rather nicely in 3 mins 10 secs, and that Fizzy and Frog eggs cook in 2 mins 40 seconds. Yum.

The last little problem in the hunt for a perfect breakfast was what to use for bantam egg cups. Our normal egg cups are definitely too large. Or are they? Turned on their heads suddenly everything fits!

Breakfast is served.

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