The Nelson Road chicken flock increases in number......

I wanted you to meet the new girls!

They came from a breeder in Dorset and picked them up while I was down there last friday.

I have 3 little Pekins (Millefleur, Mottled and a Blue) and a Partridge Silkie.

They are about 8 weeks old- and are all girls- however im a little suspicious of the Mottled Pekins comb- it looks a little large for my liking but ive got my fingers crossed as its a long way to go to take her/him back!

Because they are still young they are staying inside at night for the next weeks or so before going out permanently- and intergrated hopefully with the rest of the girls later in the summer.

We have decided the names of the new girls are:

Storm- the Blue Pekin
Twiggy- the Mottled Pekin
Fleur- the Millfleur Pekin
and Dodo the Partridge Silkie


Me trying to make friends with a Pekin Cockeral at the farm!

Could you give a chicken a new home?

Hey everyone,

I don't know if you all know but I recently started keeping chickens in my back garden, and havent regretted it- as they are great fun!

However I have just received the email below and wanted to spread the word to see if I could help save some battery hens from slaughter- perhaps you or someone you know might be able to help by giving them a new home.

If you think you might know someone just forward this and the email below on to them- any questions just ask!

Thanks
Owen :)

>> Hello lovely people,I needed to get your attention - and quick!!

Little Hen Rescue are about to attempt the unbelievable.......by trying to rehome 10,000 hens in less than 2 months....

Yes, 10,000 hens in 2 months.....

As some of you may know, we have been working hard to empty a Norfolk battery farm for the last 9 months or so.

The girls in these barns have been in quite a frightful state and we have given thousands of them the chance of a new life.

However, this farm is now closing and going into something different (not livestock) BUT there is approximately 10,000 girls left in there. The farmer has the slaughterman booked for the 29th June. Any girls not rescued by then will go to slaughter, with no if's or buts and no second chances.

So.........Here's your opportunity to help!

Please you lovely lot, this is your chance to help rehome some of these beautiful girls. I really do believe that we can pull together and get these girls out.

Em

Little Hen Rescue

littlehenrescue@googlemail.com

More info here:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090508/tuk-wanted-homes-for-10-000-scraggly-hen-45dbed5.html

If anyone can take some hens and find them safe homes, please get in contact with Little Hen Rescue.

http://littlehenrescue.co.uk/default.aspx

(NB Try ebay for a cheap hen coop)

Hens cost next to nothing to feed, provide you with entertainment and fresh eggs!

Thanks

Owen

Let the sunshine in!

You can see in the above photo the newest leaves on the Tetrapanex Rex unfurling- the reason why the sun is shining so nicely through them is that I have cut down some of the branches of the Sycamore tree that you can see behind it.

The tree is on our boundary on the south side of the plot so casts quite a lot of shade at the back of the garden. The branch actually was about 20ft tall! So when it fell there was a real danger of it it flattening alot of plants in my garden! Luckily while i was on next doors shed roof sawing the branch P was down in the garden to catch the huge branch!

Luckily the branch fell slowly and a Bamboo and Arundo donex took the brunt of the branch.

Now something i didnt see happening after the cutting down the branch was that along with the branch fell literally thousands of Greenfly that covered all the plants and pots below in the garden- however the chickens got a welcome snack of greenfly from the pots- and despite the insects small size the hens were easily able to pick them from the pots.



The mini greenhouse is full of baby vegetables ready for being planted out on the allotment in a few weeks time.


The Persicaria Red Dragon has been moved from the sunny border into the shade and seems to be doing well so far- also in this photo is the Mouse plant, Astillboides tabularis, Bugle and a Schleffera impressa.


The Maiden Hair Spleenwort has pushed up its new leaves- and really glad i chose to plant it up in a pot rather than plant it out. Hopefully it will fill out much more over the summer.

This is one of my Dicksonia antarcticas- this is a potted plant- and sends up a larger set of fronds than any of my treeferns which have been planted out. It is also grown in full sun- its a lovely plant.

The Cyathea cooperii I got from Fibrex has been potted up- and become the central plant in the garden. You can also see to the left of the fern in the blue pot the flowers of the Sarracenia flava var Maxima.

Here is the large Aloe I bought from CGF, and also the Purple Aeonium, Echeveria and Agave attenuata from the plant swap. Now when i bought the Aloe it had a label but its disappeared since getting it home- any ideas what type it is?

The beautiful Adiantum aleuticum 'imbricatum' I got from Fibrex nursery. Trying to decide whether to grow it in a pot or plant it in the fern bed under the Dicksonia antarctica. Im thinking it might be a bit dry in the fern bed.

These Asarum europaeum will be planted out in the shade borders. Ive been looking for the plants for ages after seeing them in the Natural History museum wildlife garden! I love the shiny evergreen leaves.

Feeling Broody?

What would you have seen if you were my neighbour looking out of their window this morning??
Well….

You would have seen me walk out into the garden to the hen house- pick out a chicken from the nest box and then dunk her in the pond then put her back in the house and go back inside.

Call the RSPCA!! He’s mad!!

Well the reason I have done this is because the chicken has gone and got itself broody!

Its Hermione the brown chicken- its very funny to see as she simply wont budge from the nest box and when you go near her she fluffs up and growls at you!

Broodiness is when the hen decides she doesn't want to lay and egg and just leave it for us to eat- but that she wants to incubate it and hatch out some chicks! It can last 3 weeks- it sounds cute but in that time you don't get any more eggs laid, and they are so strong willed about sitting on the eggs they don't leave the nest very often so don't eat or drink as much as they should which could mean their health deteriorates rapidly! Plus on top of that as I don't have a boy her eggs aren’t fertile so will never hatch no matter how long she sits on them!

So ive decided to try to stop her being broody. Some places recommend you put the hen in a small wire cage made of chicken wire event he floor where the hen cant settle as the chicken wire makes it uncomfortable. However this takes up to a week- and ive nowhere to put such a cage if I had one.

I had read on the Omlet forum -the best method is to dunk the chicken in a bucket of cold water a couple of times a day to cool her down as broodiness is accompanied with a rise in body temps. I didn't have a bucket of water to hand this morning so I picked her out of the nest box and dunked her rear end in the pond!!! I felt a bit mean but when I put her back in the house she went straight down to eat! I closed off the door to the house so they cant get back up – so I might find an egg in the run tonight.

Lets hope this works! Think of it a bit like a cold shower to snap her out of it!

Chickens ehh?! Who would have thought the things id have to do!

The only other option is to buy some fertile eggs and let her hatch them! Im not sure the neighbours (or my garden) are ready for more chickens!

A new Echeveria!

On thursday I met up with Chris from the HTUK forum to swap some plants, Chris works in central London so was easy to meet up for a chat and a beer (well i had the beer- Chris had a coke as it was his lunch break).

Id been meaning to meet up with Chris for months as he had a plant for me that id asked about ages ago and never got round to meeting up to swap it.

Its Echeveria rosea a beautiful succulent plant that turns a fiery red colour in winter. And best of all its hardy :)

Mine is only a baby at the moment- but i can look forward! to it turning into this before too long!

Back in the garden noticed that there are some plants you have in the garden that you just dont appreciate how well they look after the winter we have just had- this little Puya i bought from an RHS London Show 2 years ago as a unknown species and has been left unprotected and has shrugged off the cold. Its lovely apple green colour with silvery undersides and reminds me very much of a pineapple top- which is not surprising seeing as Pineapples are Puyas. It is a prickly little plant though- watch out fingers when moving it around!

Lastly we set up an area at the back of the garden for the hens run. This was they can be outside of their pen and scracth around in the soil without eating all my good plants- which they have been attempting to do up till now! I know its looks a mess but i intend to make the pen more pretty and make the sides a bit better with corner supports but the roll of wire and 4 bamboo canes will do for the moment! Its a 3ft fence so I hope the hens wont even think about trying to clear it! The plant in front wrapped up like a mummy is my Musa sikkimensis Red Tiger which has been there 3 years and grown from a 6inch plant to a 15 foot monster! :) The area between the hens run and the front of the border is to be plante dup with all the new ferns that are lined up in the pots on the bed. Anything inside the run is chicken food but the bamboos and Arundo donax and Paulonwnia tree are quite tough so should be ok.

Sunny day so out in the garden!

Today spent the day in the garden, and really had a major tidy up- and i have to say the garden looks 100% better than it did before if i do say so myself! I planted a purple cordyline tat had been living in a pot for about a year, into the sunny bed to replace a Phyllostachys Shangahi 3 bamboo which did not seem to do very well there- probably lack of moisture (ie me watering!).

The photo above shows just part of the view that looks out over the new grass border and onto the butterfly border in front of the palms in the bed behind. The whole bed where the butterfly border will be was dug over and manure added, and 2 yuccas were taken out that didnt deserve their prime position! The Butia palm in the bed in the centre of the photo almost was dug up today as it has never settled in even in 3 years and its new leaves always came out browned- i assumed frost damage but it should easily have coped with the winters we have had. I have given it 1 more year to prove its place as this winter it has put up 2 new leaves but both seem damaged- there is just something that the plant doesnt like about its new home.

The Acacia is in full bloom and looks and smells beautiful! Will have to cut it back after flowering as it is a huge tree already about 20ft tall! And its only been in the ground 2 summers! I wonder if Acacias reshoot from bare branches after being cut back (pollarded) or does there have to be a bud/branch already there? Will have to do some research.

We are up to 4 lots of frogspawn in the wildlife pond! :) I wonder how many more we will get?- its only a small pond! I counted roughly 200 eggs in one lump of spawn. I managed to catch the white goldfish that is in the pond as he would definately look at the tadpoles as lunch! I left the Golden Minnow in the pond as I hope his mouth is fairly small! Although may take him out and put him back once the tadpoles are out of danger in a month or so.

This little plant above is an Orchid. Dendrobium kingianum. Now its only a small plant about 4" tall but has beautiful sprays of pink flowers in spring. This little plant has proved to be prefectly happy outside over winter on my window ledge. I was surprised how well it has coped. It prefers growing in shade and fingers crossed for some flowers soon!

Lastly a photo of Susie having a drink from the wildlife pond. Am getting increasingly twitchy about whether the chooks are going to have free range in the garden for much longer- i guess there is going to be a period in the spring when all the new shoots are emerging that will be particularly prone to chicken attack so will just have to keep a close eye on them when they are out.

Could spring be officially here?

For me there is no better sign of spring than the fact there is frogspawn in the ponds! :)

The Common frogs (Rana temporia) have been calling in the ponds outside for about a week now- but today was the first lot of frogspawn of the year. Its also the first lot of frogspawn ive had in the garden since moving in 3 years ago. Best of all it was laid in the wildlife pond i built for them last year! There are however 2 fish in the pond one Golden Minnow and one goldfish. If i want the spawn to survive i must remove the goldfish at least. Im not sure if the minnow could eat tadpoles it has a very small mouth so I hope not. The minnow was introduced to eat the mosquito larvae that are found there.



This is Blechnum tabulare its a beautiful evergreen fern - however the winter temps haven turned a few fronds brown but wont have caused any fatal damage. This will be probably planted in the shady border- its spent the winter so far on top of the wormery however since adding the most recent layer to the wormery its no longer stable enough for such a heavy pot.



Lastly some good news my Yucca rostrata which I had almost given up all hope for looks like it is finally showing signs of recovery. I bought it bare rooted 5 years ago from Germany however it never re-rooted properly and i moved it around a bit and in the process managed to break the roots that had started to grow. The central growing point browned off and died away and I thought uh-oh ive managed to kill it- sure enough it started loosing its crown and thought it really should be chucked as it looked awful!

However instead of chucking it I potted it up about a year ago into a pot and forgot about it- putting off the inevitable. And then about 2 weeks ago I decided to have a closer look at the plant.


There right in the centre a new crown had begun to grow- now it will take many years before it looks halfway decent again but im so chuffed its regrown that im looking forward to nursing it back to being respectable again. Im hoping this means its root system has been established now.

This morning the chooks got a porridge breakfast made with moist layers pellets, chopped tomatoes, grain and some Diatom powder. Yummy! Or at least they thought so! Flo went straight for the tomatoes, Cilla and Susie the grain and Hermione hovered around and waited for the others to finish. I think this is showing how Hermione is now lower down the pecking order than I originally thought- Cilla has certainly starting pushing her way up! Susie crouched for me when I put in the food- ive read that this is a sign the hen is amost ready to lay. Apparently about a week after they start crouching properly you can expect your first egg- lets see if thats true! Watch this space!

A day in the garden

Spent the day in the garden today- fixing up some more trellis to the top of the fences, and tidying up the garden.

The chickens got a good run around which i know they really enjoy! I dont know what they are actually eating but they are constantly picking at things from the soil and the plants. Ive had to chase them off a few plants like my Digitalis ferruginea and the Gentiana lutea- and im dreading when the hardy orchids come up in! Do chickens eat emerging fern fronds? I guess i will know soon enough.

Cleo seems completely relaxed around the hens, however India still seems to get excited aorund them so im not completely happy to leave them all alone in the garden.

(left to right) Hermione, Susie, Cilla and Cleo the Chocoloate Point Siamese.

I was tidying up some of the pots on the window sill when i noticed the Echeveria agavoides looked like it was sitting strangely in the pot- when i moved it the whole plant came up in my hand- that could only mean one thing- VINE WEEVILS :( I hadnt treated my pots last year with Provado and obviously these grubs have been eating away at the roots all winter. I doubt the plant will recover which is a real shame as its one of the hardier echerverias available.

However I did feel a feel alot better when i fed the grubs to my wiling helpers!

I've been tidying up my carnivorous plant barrel and was pleased to see some flowers beginning to form. The plants remain pretty much evergreen but by the spring the older traps begin to go a bit brown and its easier to cut them off now before the new leaves emerge in the spring- as trying to cut around new leaves always leads to mistakes and i always seem to cut off new leaves by mistake!

Flower buds just emerging on the Sarracenias

The hens are really settling in which is really good to see, Susy and Hermione are happy to feed from my hand but Flo and Cilla are more reserved and prefer to wait back until you scatter food for them. Cilla the Barred Black Rock, who always seemed to be the underdog is beginning to asert herself over Hermione and Flo, through mock threats and runs and some pecking. I know this is normal behaviour with establishing a heirachy but its not nice to see and I hope things settle down soon- it makes it worse as Hermione and Flo just take the pecks and bullying without retaliating which makes it seem worse!

Oh well this is all part of understanding chicken behaviour! Strange creatures!

Oh and lastly my Tree of Life poster came in the post today! You could order it for free as part of the Darwin season on BBC2. Ive stuck it up on my kitchen door! Really pleased with it! :)

Off to Crews Hill tomorrow and hopefully start picking up some plants for the new beds im planning. I need shade lovers, butterfly plants and some grasses for a prairie bed ive decided upon as the new theme for the main bed this year.

Meet the girls!

Introducing the girls... :)

Suzy- a Light Sussex Bantam- she should lay creamy to light brown eggs.


Hermione- is a Blue Laced Wyandotte Bantam (the brown hen in the photo)- she should lay light to rich brown eggs.


Priscilla (Cilla to her friends)- she is a Barred Plymouth Rock Bantam- she should lay light (or pinkish) to medium brown eggs.



and Flo- she is a White Silkie Bantam- she should lay light coloured eggs.


Now we got Flo the day after the other girls but has settled in easily- we were a bit concerned as introducing new hens to a group is normally tricky but as this was only the day after we got the others it was very easily done with no real squabbling.

I blame Jamie Oliver

Its Valentines day and we have just been to Essex to pick up a chicken coop in preparation for getting our chickens next weekend!

Chickens?? I hear you cry!!- where did that crazy idea come from? Its like the Leopard geckos all over again! (remind me to tell you about the geckos another time!)

I know.... it seems like a random thing to do- especially for someone in their mid twenties who lives in suburban London- however its been an idea in the back of our minds for about a year now.

I blame our next door neighbour, Jamie Oliver, and my mum for putting the idea into our heads in the first place.

Our next door neighbour (who keeps bees, and has the allotment) randomly one day said he thought it would be a cool idea if we kept chickens in our garden- we laughed about it at the time - but the idea must have stuck somewhere.

Then Jamie Oliver did his program last summer about battery farmed chickens which from that day I stopped buying cheap chicken, and it made me wonder about chickens welfare.

Then lastly on a visit to my mum and dads down in dorset I was given some freshly laid eggs from her neighbours chickens. I decided to try to incubate these eggs as they were fertile instead of eating them- (they didn't hatch) and it completely started the ball rolling down the chicken route.

So doing some research on what makes a good chicken house- the Eglus or Cubes from Omlet look amazing! However our budget did not stretch that far! So we decided on a wooden house, with fox proof wire, the house off the ground to deter rats, and a covered run would keep the girls dry in wet weather.

Ebay seemed the best place to get a good deal so early Valentines morning saw us driving to Ongar in Essex to pick up our house. It cost us £170.

Putting it together was easy- we have decided to keep the hens on the concrete near the house to prevent any foxes from digging into the run. Also being nearer the house means added safety and ease of access to let them out, feed and close up in the evening.

Now all we need are some chickens!

Choosing the chickens!

After a great deal of research on what types of chickens to get- we decided to go to a chicken show to buy our Bantam hens.

Luckily for us the Reading Bantam Chicken Show was being held the week after we had put up our house so we went along to see what we could learn and hopefully buy our hens there as they have a sales area at the show.

We were looking for some specific breeds of Bantam chickens - these are chickens that are normally about 1/3 of the size of a normal chicken- abit like you can get miniature dog. We felt these would be better suited to a smaller urban garden.

The breeds we decided on were chosen for their friendliness and their quietness! Both essential attributes for hens in a suburban garden! Oh and egg laying was a good quality we looked for too!

We were looking for a Light Sussex, a Blue Laced Wyandotte and a Barred Plymouth Rock- however there was no guarantee that any of these breeds would be for sale at the show.

Wow it was an experience- it was very exciting and people took it very seriously! In the sales area to our luck we found one of each type of the hens that we were looking for! However unfortunately these girls were only for sale as a pair (as in you had to buy a Cockeral too!). We definately would not be able to keep a male chicken in our urban garden let alone 3!

We were very dissapointed we could not find single hens for sale- and almost decided not to buy any that day- and look elsewhere, as the sales staff were not very keen to sell the hens separately as can be expected as they would be left with them-so the only other option was to buy both the birds and try to find new homes for the boys! Not an easy task!

Extremely luckily for us I had met a lovely lady at the show earlier who after we explained the situation agreed to take the boys for us and keep them on her farm- where she had loads of chickens- so it worked out perfectly for us. Probelm solved!

These arent the best photos i know sorry! But they were the only ones I took of the girls in their sales pens with their 'boyfriends' that we had to buy but then went to live on a farm! Im sure the boys are having a great time there!

And the lovely lady who took the boys to live with her!


So we have got our chickens! :)