This first harvests from the garden are always the best.  The tell of things to come.  The reason why I have put so much effort (and this year tears) into growing-my-own!  We so far have managed about 700g of raspberries, across three pickings.  The first batch went to make Raspberry Curd, the second went into Raspberry Muffins and the third I am starting my saving to get enough to make jam, they are freezing as we speak!  

The Raspberry Curd is not bad.  I am going to admit it isn't the kind of thing that has you clamouring at the fridge door for just another taste but it is nice.  It is sweet and very raspberry-y.  It was also another use for the eggs we have been slowly gathering.  As you can see today we broke the 100 barrier for this year - WooHoo!  We are getting around 4 or 5 a day now and just two days ago the three new Maran chickens, well one of them at least, started laying too.  We also sold our first eggs, 5 half dozens are now being enjoyed throughout the area.  I will admit that I had a pretty big smile on my face when we sold our first box!

We have also managed four potatoes, very nice they were too, if a little small.  I am not sure we are going to be getting many potatoes this year, not compared to last year anyway.  As I hadn't been covering them with earth as often as I should so they are not very far underground.  But having said that we aught to get a decent amount.

As you can see my computer is now up and running again, but we had to wipe everything so it will take me a while to get fully operational again.  I did manage to save most stuff before we wiped the drive so its just a case of finding time to sort through and re install.  As soon as that happens you will get a lovely chicken meets chicken video, as promised in the last post!

Good to Have a Bad Day, But I Wouldn't Recommend....

It was good to have a bad day, makes the rest of the time seem that much better!   Thanks for allowing the little private rant, sometimes its good to go ARGGHHHH!  LOL!!

Even though I haven't felt 100% today (headache, sore throat.  Maybe that's why I found the cats in the nest boxes unfunny: coming down with something!  Find it funnier today! Silly boys!) I have been much more upbeat, the dogged chicken is looking good, although still a little sore and the drain is unblocked, it was just a case of elbow grease with a plunger.  My laundry made it out the washing machine alive!  And nothing cleans a kitchen floor like washing machine water!

To top it off my little chickens managed two eggs today.  I am starting to think they may be younger than we first thought.  I know little about such matters but the egg at the bottom of the picture is white, as you can see, and the shell is rough and very fragile.  Now, we have had some like this before and eventually they starting becoming more like the one at the top of the photo.  Could it be young chickens just 'learning' to lay that causes this?  Or is it just because they've been off lay for a while, they need to get back into it again?  Either way I hope this is a sign.  Cross what you got people!!

A check of the perimeter showed only one place that the dog could get in, or indeed the chickens out, it was by our yard gate.  So a makeshift defence has been built and looks to do the trick.  We are getting a new gate hopefully, so when that is in it'll be even better.  Bizarrely, after all the 'stressers' to these chickens they have actually laid better today, although I wouldn't recommend the last few days as the way to go if your chickens aren't laying!!!  We shall see what tomorrow shall bring and see if omelette can be back on the menu!

There's a chicken in the...

So, what's been happening with the chickens? Well, I can tell you what's not been happening. Egg laying, that's what. I have to admit to a certain level of person-without-patience disappointment. I know it has only been a week but there is something quite sad about going down to the coop to collect the non-existent eggs. There is always a level of hope that today will be different, there will be a pile of beautiful eggs, but nope. Their egg numbers have dropped steadily since they got here, we are down to none or one a day and figure that this doesn't seem right, not for a hen breed that averages 280 - 300 eggs a year, even if we don't manage that we should manage more than one from eight hens! So we are on chicken check.

We have researched all the possible things that could cause chronic egg failure and are going to tick them off one by one.  Our thinking so far is as follows: 

It could be that they haven't settled in but they certainly don't appear to be fussed or stressed or 'out of sorts' but it could still be that, nothing to do about that but wait.

We aren't sure of their exact age but we are sure they are neither too old nor too young. I don't believe it is that at all, they laid 5 eggs on the afternoon they arrived, so I cannot believe that they suddenly decided they were too old the day after they got here!

We aren't sure of worms but they seem parasite free. Again it seems unlikely to us that they suddenly went off lay the day after we got them cos of worms, but we will look into worming anyway. 

As a result we are going for feed.  This seems to be a common problem so a change to diet is called for and Layers Pellets is the new grub of choice. We went off today and bought the new food and they started it this afternoon.  We'll have to see if that makes any difference.  If it doesn't we shall look at the next of the  possibilities.

Talking of feed a couple of cheeky chickens appear to have found where we keep the new feed (and the old stuff and the guinea pig food).  Apparently the new stuff is a hit as it is good enough to steal!  These two, you have never seen two smugger looking chickens!  As you can see this particular shed is well organised!!

The chicken invasion continued.  Yesterday was a brilliant day here, really hot weather and ideal exploring conditions for a renegade hen and her big fat hen friend.  Whilst sitting have a moments peace during Farm Baby's morning nap I glance across my living room and the invasion has begun.  This is Renegade (seems as good a name as any) she has let herself into the kitchen, both front and back doors were open I'll admit, and is now becoming more frustrated with her inability to peck up the rug pattern!  She is duly shooed back outside.  This little lady is a one for adventure, the same evening I had to go through to the neighbours garden and extract her from under the hedge.  I had failed to lead her, piece of corn by piece of corn, to the hole in the fence.  She nearly got there but the presence of a tree just boggled her mind and she turned around and headed back.  I had no choice, I went round through their front garden and scooped a chicken.  Their dog was bouncing of the living room windows... oops!

Shortly after the living room wave of hens had been dispatched, I went through into the hall.  To discover a chunky hen sleeping on the carpet!  Have these chickens got no homes to go to?  I think Renegade is a bad influence on her fellow flockmates!  This particular chicken was less easy to 'scoot' ,she insisted on competing in a long staring match with the guinea pig before she allowed herself to be ushered out of the door: accompainied by the sound of victory squeaks from the pig!

The afternoon was spent lazing in the sun with farm baby and a magazine, too nice a day for chores, who needs clean plates anyway, we'll just get takeaway!  We shared an orange, chickens don't like orange, although a piece of peel, snaffled from the blanket was good for a game of chicken style 'Capture the Flag'.

Slightly Premature?

I think our thoughts on becoming the egg supplying capital of Scotland was possibly a bit premature.  Today we had 0, yep count 'em, 0, eggs!  

We are not overly worried as we had been warned that they may go off laying for a couple of days through the stress of moving home.  We thought we had missed that problem with the eggs laid yesterday but possibly they had them 'brewing' already and the enormity of the move has only just sunk in.  

They are all looking very healthy and happy though and are still very friendly.  They run to the door of the run as you approach and are happy to peck around your feet.  It looks to me like they have been around people and are happy to be picked up but it is more of a pick up because they need to moved somewhere.  They don't seem to understand touching or picking up as an affection thing, but we can work on that.

Someone asked me yesterday what the eggs were like and I can confirm that they were lovely.  I had a couple for lunch today, cooked I might add into a rather tasty cheese omelette!

Hopefully tomorrow will fair better for egg collection...

A Quick Egg Update

We have had our chickens about 6 hours and we have had 5 eggs already!  (I did a post bedtime collection)  I think we may get a lot of eggs LOL!  If you happen to be passing, stop in, get some eggs!  Every visitor leaves with a dozen!  I love the different colours, white ish and 'egg' coloured.  We also have skinny egg at the top left there!

(I know it says 5 one was laid as a present in the car for us on the way home, I forgot about it and grabbed the cat carrier after we released the ladies and it smashed *glum face*, but it still counts!)