You may call it characterful. I call it annoying. I'm on bedtime duty this week which currently involves heading out at dusk with some apple scraps to tempt the chickens back to the run. Five have got a clue. One spends at least half an hour running around the run past the open door and back round again while I make gormless clucking noises interspersed with insulting references to her intelligence or lack thereof. Not that she'd understand because she is daft. And of course a chicken.
We are now up to an average of 4 eggs a day. They are varied in size, colour and contents. Today we had a double yolker, an egg which practically exploded when fried (and it was only two days old so that wasn't the reason), and a particularly gross one which I cracked in to pastry and turned out to be bloody. Luckily I could fish it out without affecting the dough too much. We are going to crack into containers before adding to food from now on while the chickens settle down. Presumably all this is down to the chickens' youth and will settle down but if anyone knows any other reasons for the gross one and I need to be concerned then let me know. We don't have a rooster so that's not the reason.
The chickens are making themselves thoroughly at home in my garden. They haven't touched Sue's which would involve flying over a wall. But mine which is a simple march down the hill and under the gate is proving very tempting. I did some weeding on Saturday and they were all over the bed so that every time I turned over the soil a chicken would forage for ants and other things. The veg beds have been decimated - good thing there wasn't much in them. One likes sitting in the asparagus bed. And today a couple headed down to the woods near the trampoline. Not on the trampoline yet but you never know.
4 comments:
Hi ,
chickens always follow straight line s- so put a board or something else sticking out from the run entrance and they will find it easier to go home ! Also, no need to give them sscraps at bed time it leads to bad bellies and bad habits .
Blood in the egg - do you mean just a couple of spots ? or more ? If it is just a couple of spots this is quite normal ,some hens are more prone to it than others .
HTH
Suzanne
Okay. No apple tonight. Will think about the board - might have to wait for the neighbours.
The blood was one big spot which had coloured the white a lot. I'll let you know if it happens again.
E
any straight piece of wood or a tray or anything straight will do the job - doesn't have to be special in any way .S
I've got a dumb chicken too - though it is the only one that comes when I call 'chickchickchick-chick'. It can also find its way home but is prone to standing around in a sort of lonesome way. I'm hoping it has the wit to lay - that shouldn't challenge its bird brain too much surely?
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