Pruned Marigold

Marigold had not shed all her wool and in this excessive heat we wanted to help her

Well wanting and doing are two different things entirely ........
It was a fair chase but!

Here is a pruned Marigold.

Rooster number 1

Short Post

This little chap was making a pretty good attempt at crowing this morning
He is is the first one I have actually seen (and heard) doing so

Runaround chicks

Firstly a very overdue egg count -
Chickens - 57
Ducks - 62
I wish I could say that was one week output but its not. I have been getting three eggs from the chickens and three from the ducks for quite a while now, two of the hens have been broody and so not laying and two of the ducks are in a full moult, ( along with the geese).

It looks like the geese have been having a pillow fight out there.
One of the hens has given up being broody today, but Dusty, the Maran, is still sitting tight. A week ago her sister Maran died, I found her flat out on the grass in the early morning just after I had let them all out. Keith and the boys were down in Kent for his Mum's birthday so they didn't see her. She had had funny turns before so she may well have had a health problem.
The ducks are finding more difficult places to lay their eggs, and I really do get dragged through the bushes backwards in my attempts to get the eggs. Did have four chicken eggs today which was a surprise but very useful as its baking day tomorrow and I'm planning to make carrot cake in my new mixer which I bought as my other one has only one speed now and the motor keeps cutting out. Also, the new one has a bigger bowl as my cakes seem to getting bigger. I may also try something with some of the frozen eggs and see if they come out OK.
This will depend on the weather. As we are now a Level 3 heatwave I might not do too much. Last night the temperature went down to 15C and the daytime was a whopping 34.5C. The weathermen might not agree with those temperatures but I have a digital thermometer that's on the window sill out of direct sunlight and while the window itself might be getting hot and radiating the heat, it's still VERY HOT and humid. Tomorrow is supposed to be less hot but next week the forecast is for more humid heat, thunderstorms and heavy downpours. That would explain why there are so many tractors, combine harvesters and trailers full of bales of hay on the roads at the moment. The tractors were still going past at 10-o-clock last night.

 The chicks have been out of the 'tractor' the last few evenings for a run about and this morning, here's two of the Wyandottes in the sheep's trough. They are all very fond of the sugar beet mixture.

These are some of our Aracanas and the black cross breed Orpington/Wyandottes. There's lots of challenges when they are out in the orchard, ruffs are up and intense staring competitions. The girls seem to ignore all this mostly but there is the occasional rumpus, presumably over who is going to be top hen. Just wait until they really meet the top hen, I don't think Pecky will stand for these little upstarts. The interesting bit will be to who is going to be top Cockerel, one of the Splash Orpingtons, Legless, who is huge already? or Godzilla? or one of the Wyandottes who seems to be in that position already among the babies?

One Crowed!

Not yet 7 weeks old but yesterday morning there was a distinct crow from one of the Chicks!
But which one, there are some likely candidates

Could it be Peanut

 Or the Shadow

Or one of the Wyandottes

Or Bent Beak

Or Mr T

Recycling milk bottles

 First, you take an empty, clean plastic milk jug, cut the side off, cut through the handle and hey presto....

... a water bowl that hangs on the fence for the birds to drink out of, as modelled here by Gladys.
Easy to clean or just rinse out.

 And when they get too dirty, as here, where the geese and ducks like to constantly wash their beaks in them, you can change it for a new one and then put the old one in the recycling box.

Also, cut the bottom off and use as a scoop for food etc.

 Scoop up the food and use the top as a natural funnel.

Poor old Dusty is still hogging the nest box, I've had a few more eggs in the Eglu and down in the duck house by the pond this week. Even the ducks have made a new nest under one of the giant plants by the fence.

The chickens and ducks are not happy this week, they are on 'Marriages' pellets with Flubenvet for worming. This means no treats as they have to eat nothing else but that for a week. Luckily, I can still eat the eggs and I have still given them their meal worms because I felt sorry for them.

Baby chicks are all out surviving in the 'tractor'. Much as I miss watching them while out in the kitchen, it is a lot less smelly now, and cleaner. You would not believe how much dust and fluff they produce, and how dirty they made the window from splashing water and kicking up food, dust and poo! Anyway, they now have lots of room to fly around and chase each other and fight over who is in charge.

We went to the auction at Oswestry showground today, not to buy anything, just to look. There were some weird looking birds there....

 Asil

 Transylvanian Naked Necks

 Polish

 and a Polish Frizzle.

.... and some pretty ones...

Hamburgh Gold Spangled

 Cream Legbars

 Millefleur Pekins

 Light Sussex

Welsummers

Hope I have labelled those all correctly. I could have bought loads of them, they were so lovely and then there were the goslings and the Mummy duck with her ducklings and so many Bantam chickens that were so cute.

Maybe next year, for now we still have twenty eight chicks to look after, many of which are cockerels and will need to be separated eventually. As it is, Legless and Godzilla, our Orpington chicks, were facing each other down this afternoon while Boris watched. Lots of staring and ruffling of feathers, even a peck. Well, they are twelve weeks old now so we may even hear them crowing soon. At least it seems we have one girl in Boris.

Quick egg count before I go -

Chickens - 30

Ducks - 15

Working Geese

The Geese thought it was time to do some weeding

They pulled them up and put them in the bucket and they also ate some and tried to eat the bucket for good measure.

 

Catherine thought why would anyone leave a dirty glove laying about

 

So decided to wash it

 

 

 Whilst Karen and Alden kept a beady eye on them

Meanwhile it rained for a while and the droplets were shimmering on a Foxglove outside of the Conservatory.

Aldens Blog spot

http://welcodo.blogspot.com/2013/06/hello-and-welcome-to-my-blog-i-

Click on the above to see Alden's blog. He only started it yesterday so bear with him. He has some photos on there and hopefully will keep writing about his chicks.