6 in a day you better beleive it

Well The little ladies have been hard at it.  the issue we have is that when i let the chickens out of a morning, and go to work, when i come home, as it is dark they have gone back to bed, so it is not possible to collect the eggs.  So this Tuesday, i let them out at 7 am, and came home from work at 5.30, and they were all tooked away in bed.  The next day wednesday, i go to let them out, and there in the nest box im not joking was 4 eggs. I was utterly delighted. I went to visit them again that moning, and wait minute, another egg.  My mum and dad came round for a brew, and my dad goes to see them, and normally a joker, he too produces another egg, and promises its from my girls, so can you beleive it thats half a dozen.  Well you can gues what we had for our tea than night.  yesterday and today we have had 2 a day.  They are boss and they taste so yummy. Well done little ladies.

5 yes you heard it right

Well our little ladies have been off to a good start we are almost at half a dozen eggs stage.

They are definately being laid by lola and jordan.  Lola today at 1045 went into the nesting box from the garden to lay her egg.  At 1115 she came out, and there in the box was our 5th egg this week.  30 minues to lay an egg.

  

This is Lolas egg, minutes after it was laid. It was lovely and warm.

Th is is Emilys favourite food. Eggy bread.   The version on the right is made from eggs bought at a supermarket.  the version on the left is our eggs from lola.  There is a big difference in colour.  Our egg yokes are very orange.

This is Emily eating her favourite eggy bread.  The red is ketchup she likes that too.

Our first Egg

Well here it is the first egg. 

 

It is true .  One of our lovely hens has laid her first egg.  Robert went to lock them away onight, and checked the nesting box, and there the egg was.  We do not know which hen.  It is perfect.  no cracks, and alovely yellow colour inside.  Im made up they knew what our home made nesting box was for, and that i didnt have to show them.

The egg was cracked open, fo us all to look at, and immediately fried to go on bread, and you know what, it tasted extra good, nowing it came from one of my hens.

well done little chicks.

2 weeks

Yes you heard it, egg watch is going to last another two weeks.  I just cant contain my eggsciement.  he he did you get it. . 

Red faced

The chickens are enjoying their breaks of freedom in the garden.  That was until Robert showed me a video of some urban foxes, now im thinking they may have o live in the house....erm maybe not.

Here is some more chicken live webcam action

Back to red faces.  I have noticed the last few days, our chickens faces have started to go deep red.  This must be a sign of maturity in them, and soon, they should be laying those yummy eggs.

Eggies

The chickens are starting to look very big compared to a few weeks ago.  They definately are eating well.  They are enjoying the left over scraps, such as rice, pasta, sald, and today Emly fed them a smartie. . . . . 

I let teh chickens out to have aroam around the garden.  They were very well behaved, Molly the cat had a sniff and walked away from them.  At the end of play time, i single handedly caught each one to put back in their pens.  I noticed that each chicken is starting to get a red face.  This has to be a sign of eggs coming soon, a bit like in v, when the girl has a green ring grow rond her neck, when it toucehs kapow i think ill have eggs.

free range

Emily chief hn having a rest in the chicken shed.



Well today free range meant free range.  We let our 3 chickens out of their pen to freedom of the garden.  They loved it.  At first we were very hesitant on a nmber of levels

1. what if Molly the cat gets them
2. what if they jump into the neighbours garden, and we have to ask for our chicken back...
3. what if they jump in the road and we have to chase them down the street
4. what if they followed the cat through the cat flap and came in the house
5. what if they wouldnt go back in their hen house after their adventure

These were all our worries. They were out fo about 2 hours, and they loved it. They followed Emily arond the garden like she was pied piper or mother hen.  After their fun, they went into their hen house, well 2 did, 1 we had to catch bt between the two of us , it didnt take too long.

Emily the mother hen

Spot the chicken.

Fancy chickens

We recently went to Alton Towers, and what has that got to do with chickens, well, they have a petting zoo, and un beknown to us we went and sat and ate our lunch at the picnic benches. The sound of the tinfoil must have alearted them, and along came 8 chickens. These chickens were no barn chickens these were some kind od pure bred show species. They had the most gorgeous feathers, and they had feathers all down their legs, it looked like they were wearing bloomers.

In the mean time, our 3 little ladies are doing well. They are definately filling out and enjoying their food. They do seem to like super noodles, and today they had left over banana butties.

close up

wormies

Its official the chickens love to eat worms.  Roberts task each evening is to dig up a selection of worms and to make sure each hen gets one. They love them.  They love them too much, and now when they see Robert they race to him in hope he is bringing them a big juicy worm.  As there has been so much worm action, i went to put my hand in the pen to change their water, and i got pecked, they mst think my fingers was a big worm.

Live footage

Here is some live chicken action

Noahs Ark

Well the rain came and came an came, and the poor chicks got wet wet wet.

We thought our shed was watertight, but clearly not.  Every whole, gap and crevis has been filled in with wood, or waterproof sealer.  Hopefully the chickens will have a dry night tonight.  

The beauty of having the chicken shed inside a human shed, is that with the constant rain you are able to go inside, and clean them ot with out getting wet yourself.  My first chicken clearot was quite problem free.  I thought their poos would be like the birdie you get on the car, but not, these little hybrid birds leave poos like pellets which are very easy to clean p.  God made these creatures very well.

Today we witnessed the first chuck fight.  Gwen had caught a worm, not that exciting to you or i, but to the other two hens who had no such treat they started to kick off, and got very excitable. In the world of chickens, a worm is probably as exciting as a human eating some chocolates. Gwen soon wolfed it down and all was calm again in the garden of chickens.  weather permiting tommorow i may hunt for a few worms to give them one each as a treat.  Yum. Whilst i shall sit and watch them eating my bar of chocolate yum.

Here chicky chick

Today i went out to let the hens out of their house and give them some new feed. They are getting very perky.  They didnt venture out at that time,as i had brought them some lovely corn to eat.  Abot 1 hour later i walker over to the hen house, and went to the pen.  i shouted

'here chicky chickys '  and they all came running out of their hen house to see me.  How cute is that?

Here Come the girls

Here are our 3 lovely ladies.

let me introduce you to;

Jordan

Gwen

Lola

this is me, with Lola the Hen, and Emily.

Here is Robert with Gwen the hen.

cluck cluck

Here is emily trying to coax them out of their hen house.

The Hens spent their first day in the chichen shed. By the next day they had ventured outside, and were loving scratching the grass, and eating the little bugs they had found. Today it has rained so they spent most of the day inside. Come evening, we lock them away to make sure they are safe.

sssssshhhhh they are sleeping

At last the day has come, when the chicken shed is finally completed, and best of all 3 little ladies turned up.  

The breed is called Lomans.  they are a light brown colour with somespeckled white feathers.  We have some namesto call them, but as they were settling in for the night we wanted to let them rest.  they seem a little bemsed at the moment, but imsure they will be sparky come morning, and then they can have their first try living outside. I cant wait.

Facts i hav found out about lomans

Loman will lay in reasonably large quantities for most of the year. They are also good choices to start with as they are low-maintenance birds.

hybrid hens are 15+ weeks old, generally they will begin to lay at approx 20 weeks

They will lay around 250 eggs each in their first year.

They can last about 5 years.

they are bread so they are quiet.

From15-20 weeks is the best time to tame them.

more facts ill pass on as i learn them

Are we there yet?

the question I am asking. We hoped we could have the chickens this weekend, but the weather has let us down, and next weekend will be filled with the final construction of the chicken shed.

To keep me motivated i just need to look back at what we have achieved so far.

Here are the nesting boxes, e made a hinge ready to collect our fresh eggs.

This is the front view of the nesting boxes with the perch in front.

Outside the shed is all painted, and the chicken run has been built.

Please feel free to admire.

It looks finished you say, well, the list of jobs to do are:-

• Flatten the land so the run is level
• remove the nettles
• make opening in shed, and a door to open and close
• paint the run
• paint the wood inside the shed
• fill the gaps under the shed

The jobs only look small, but they are time consuming, so unless we have good weather this week, it looks like our chickens will be with us the weekend of 05 September.

Rain rain go away

Its been non stop raining.  How can you paint in the rain?  Lets hope for a sunny weekend so we can get this party started.

Naming ceremony

The weather let us down this evening. The wettest august on record. Im not surprised to be honest.

So we came to talking as some one mentioned that surely we shouldnt be allowed to keep chickens as they are classed as livestock. Well sunshine the message is, they are pets. They will have names, and you certainly do not eat your pets. Laying eggs is just the added brucey bonus. So what do we call our chickens? Any suggestions?

Celebrities are popular with jordan, Kylie and Shakira coming tops. Sci fi has also been mentioned such as Tosh, Rose and Cordelia. We would love Emily to pick some names, but she only knows the words Baa baa, yes , and juice. Maybe we have to wait and see some characteristics they have before we name them. Any suggestions for names greatly appreciated.

You can hire this outfitonly £30 may be we could have this for our naming ceremony.                                                

  

The plans on paper

So here is the wood.

The inside of the chicken shed

the outdoor workshop

The beginnings of the nesting box

Half way House

Well its now the end of the weekend, and our big idea was to be finished all painted and ready to receive the chickens.  Sadly this is not the case, as i have been a bit too ambitious with my sizes.

Today we completed the morrocan themed nesting box.  It has a hinged lid so egg collection will be easy.  Next up we built a lovely perch.  These birds are going to love it.  The door was hung on the inside of the shed, so no chucks can now escape.

The grand design was the chicken run.  Its massive if going by Hughs idea that you can house 16 battery hens a square meter that mean we can get 64 chickens in easily.  

Our Run is big, its going to have top loading, and side loading doors, and get on this we made a little hole in the top as i have a spare parasol for them so they don't get too wet or windy. The chicken wire is on the sides, and that is a job in itself.  I'm not the best hammerer, and its more like miss 2 hit 1.  We thought we would have had it all completed but alas we had to finish the day and out our tools away.  Its a bank holiday weekend next week tho so lets go full steam ahead and see what we can make, we have the task of painting everything too.  

The drinkers and waterers are on ordered. The food and grit has arrived, and we ordered a small bag of mite powder from ebay.  Can you believe they sell it there. Its better to have it in than not at all or waiting 4 days for an order from the pet shop.  

Emily had eggy bread again today, ready for our diet of protein.

Id show you some more pictures if i knew how to work it, so mabey next time. On our update.

How much is wood?

So today was the day we took our little drawings and sketchings for our chicken house to the timber yard.The man was very helpful, and no wonder when he said £150....... for some wood and a bit of chicken wire.  Admitedly the coop is 4 times bigger than the norm, and it is our little good life dream, so we paid up, and filled both our cars with our wood.

We went to my dads, and he had dismantled his shed already for us, and we walked back to our house with even more wood.  

The neighbours must think we are trying to cage a gorilla rather than a few small chicks.

So where do we start, well, the holes in the shed needed filling, and some rotten wood replacing.  Half the shed was then painted, then we had a break for lunch.

The afternoon came and it was time to be creative.  The frame from my dads shed was put in first as a start.  A few batons, a few nails, and wayhay its a start.Next up, a nest box.  Robert aka Jesus did a stirling start to this, his idea is also to make the front look like some Morroccan hideaway with arch cut outs.  get on him.  Then the rain came, and although we were working undercover under the arbour, it was time to down tools for the day.

Hopefully tomorrow we will have the same momentum and imagination to rock out a lovely chicken shed.

Welcome

Hello,

and welcome to my blog.  Well what is the big idea?  The idea has been rattling around for a while,that one day i could be the good life and live of the land.  What finalised my decision was everything is on the up, food, petrol, energy bills, the credit crunch is here to bite us, so what better way to start than to you guessed it have a few hens to have fresh free range eggs everyday.  Eventually id like to branch out and grow veg, but one step at a time, and its probably a crazy step to begin with, but you have to start some where.

My family used to have chickens when i was a little girl, and that was the norm.  Now the little Hens are making a comeback with us townies.  I want to pass on the excitement to my little girl as you wake each morning to count and collect your fresh eggs for breakfast.

You cant just get hens, like you can with say a cat, there are a few things you need to plan, for starters they need a house, food, drinking bottles, everything has to be rodent proof, mite free, and fox proof.

Since making the decision to go GLI that's the good life initiative, we have been busy.  a new shed was needed so the old shed could be cleared out, and this then turned into the chicken shed.  A new flagged area was made, the new shed was delivered, and the old shed is now empty.  We are making the house for them ourselves.  We have done several diy projects, and feel confident we can make a good home for them.  

Today the food has been ordered for them, some corn , I hope they like it, also some mite powder, i don't want them to get sick, and some grit.  yes that's right Grit, as i have learned hens have no teeth and therefore need something coarse to help break their food down.

On speaking to various people about my GLi, it turns out my dad knows  a man, yes that's right, and he raises chickens to go and live in a battery farm.  This said man has some chickens ready in 3 - 4 weeks, and the satisfying thing is i would be rescuing around 3 of them from a life of battery hell. I have no idea their colour or breed as of yet, but i am imagining they look like this:

My dad says the way they will be fed and cared for with a new warm home, and lovely corn,he cant wait to eat them, i told him to back off my chucks.

We have a busy weekend ahead as we build our coop.

The designs are on paper, here we go its good luck to the good life initiative 2008.