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Broody hens

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Some of the hens are still laying eggs – but two of them have gone broody.  Mrs Brown is really good-natured and lets me move her anywhere but Honey is very bad-tempered and pecks me when I go near her.  I have moved them to a rabbit cage so the other hens don’t bother them.  Once the chicks are all hatched and big enough to hop about I move them to a bigger pen but with a shallow water bowl.  Baby ducklings can also drown if they can’t get out of a water bowl.

When there are young chicks about I always put a brick in the big water bowl so little ones can get out.  Dane was helping me just after Christmas last year.  We had a chick that hatched on Christmas Day so we called him Jesus (he later turned out to be a girl!).  Dane asked me why there was a brick in the water bowl and I answered:  “It’s so Jesus doesn’t drown.”  Dane replied:  “I thought Jesus could walk on water!”

(L to R) Snowflake, Doris and Dillon

(L to R) Snowflake, Doris and Dillon

Autumn sweet peas?

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Can’t believe my sweet peas have survived into Mid-October – I was a bit late planting them out _DSC0027in the Spring but this Autumn has been very gentle on the flowers.  I pick a few sweet peas each day and add them to a vase on the kitchen windowsill so they smell lovely when I’m preparing vegetables for dinner.

Nasturtiums in October

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Nasturtiums in October – until the first frosts – then “… they’re gone willy-nilly, umbrellas and all”_DSC0021  The rabbits love nasturtiums and it’s a real treat for them to still be eating them so late in the year.  I give them just a few leaves a day – too much can cause tummy upsets – and they love the growing tips best – they must be the most tender leaves and shoots.

It was a crow! (Eating the hen eggs)

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It wasn’t the magpies, it was a crow eating the hen eggs – I found it in the hen house, shut the door so it was trapped – and John came and shot it with the garden gun.  I inherited this garden gun from my Dad, it is ideal for shooting at close range and you can use it in confined spaces as it doesn’t blow a hole in the wall!  You still need a shotgun licence for it.

Anyway, we put the dead crow on the hen-house roof and it does seem to have worked keeping other crows away as I’ve not had any trouble since.  Magpies are still around and I did find a dead one in the duck pond and put that on the roof alongside the crow.  That didn’t however, keep the magpies away.  The crow is still there but the magpie has gone – maybe they are more palatable than crows!  So, fingers crossed our chukkies are safe from egg-thieves.

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Hens use the pen for sleeping in and as a nest box for laying their eggs

In the meantime, we have been hen-sitting – some friends have gone to Cuba and we’re looking after their hens for two weeks.  They’ve settled in well in the front garden with Cocky Rocky, they lay lovely big eggs but they have voracious appetites, they eat much more than my smaller hens.  They are also very tame and come when you call them.

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Hens on holiday with Cocky Rocky

Magpies eating my hen eggs

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Magpies were getting into the hen-house and eating the eggs – I finally outwitted them with a fly curtain combination and by filling in all the gaps under the eaves with wire netting.

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I searched on the internet but all I found were lots of tales of woe with people having the same problem. The general advice seemed to be: “Shoot the b—ers”, but then of course you have to find someone with a gun who will sit there for ages and try and catch them unawares!

Hens of course cluck very loudly every time they have laid an egg – which is  like a dinner gong to the magpies!  Every day I’d try something new, find another gap under the roof and block it with wire netting, tried using the pop-hole again in the hope the magpies would not find it – all to no avail.  Then I fin_DSC0057magpie nettingSally went and bought this very pretty fly-curtain (used to keep the flies out but it works for magpies too).  And it works!  I thought it might stop the hens and ducks too but it really doesn’t bother them – they trot through quite happily but the magpies don’t like it at all.

This morning I wen_DSC0061magpie curtain close up st into the hen house and a pigeon flew at me – didn’t go through the fly curtain though, so there was a lot of frantic fluttering until I hid outside and held the fly curtain aside so it could fly out.  Goodness knows how it got in and I do hope the magpies weren’t watching!

The hens got really upset and kept finding new places to lay their eggs but the magpies nearly always found them.  I don’t mind the wild birds eating the food I put out for the hens but taking the eggs is just not on.  Evidently jackdaws are just as bad.  If you have trouble with crows a dead crow hung nearby will stop them but I’m told this doesn’t work with jackdaws or magpies.  Shooting them is of course the best option because it stops them taking the wild birds’ eggs – and they take young birds too.

So if you think one of your hens might be eating the eggs it’s highly unlikely-  and it’s almost bound to be one of the Corvidae family which includes crows, magpies and jackdaws – so try a fly curtain first.

Anyway I now have some very happy hens.

(L to R) Snowflake, Doris and Dillon

(L to R) Snowflake, Doris and Dillon

 

 

Hello world!

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“Today is the first day of the rest of your life, be careful how you use it.”

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When I’ve had really bad days – and everyone gets them sometimes – there’s always something that you can enjoy for just a moment – the scent of a wild rose, the wings of a butterfly, the liquid notes of a blackbird singing at the top of the tallest tree – and that’s what life is all about – those moments.  Treasure them and remember them when you need strength to get you through.

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Each day is special and my blog is intended to help everyone find a special moment in every day, celebrate high days and holidays with simple things – lighting a candle on Candlemas day, making a Yule log on 1st December and watching the stars on Midsummer night.

Today, 24th June is Midsummer, let’s share a little Moominsummer Madness:

moominMoominvalley is flooded by a wave caused by a nearby volcano. While escaping the flood the Moomin family and their friends find a building floating past, and take up residence there. They believe it is a deserted house until they realise someone else lives there, Emma, who explains that it is not a house but a theatre. The Moomins start to understand about the scenery, props, and costumes they have found. The theatre drifts aground and Moomintroll and the Snork Maiden decide to go and sleep in a tree. When they wake next morning the theatre has floated away again and they are alone.

Meanwhile, Little My accidentally falls overboard, and by some strange coincidence is rescued by Moomintroll’s adventurous friend Snufkin who is setting off to seek revenge on a grumpy Park Keeper. He tears down all the “Do not walk on the grass” notices, fills the lawns with electric Hattifatteners and sets free twenty-four small woodies who immediately adopt him as their father. The coincidences continue as Moonmintroll and the Snork Maiden meet Emma’s deceased husband’s niece, the Fillyjonk, and all three get arrested burning the signs that Snufkin tore up.

Meanwhile in the theatre, Emma helps Moominpappa write a play and the family decide to stage it. The woodies find a playbill for the play and cajole Snufkin into taking them to the theatre. The Hemulen who has arrested Fillyjonk, Moomintroll, and the Snork Maiden also finds a playbill and leaves his cousin to guard the prisoners while he heads off to see the play. The cousin is persuaded of their innocence and lets them out to go to the play too, where everyone is reunited and ends up on stage, the play itself collapsing into a big reunion party. When the floods recede everyone gets to go home.

The author, Tove Jansson, found her treasured moments in writing the Moomin stories.  Her life was quite difficult at times and Moomintroll and Snufkin, and all the other incredible characters she created, helped her through.