Lots was done this weekend in the garden, but most of it wasn't done by me! Still suffering with my knees, so my parents, very kindly, decided to dedicate most of their Saturday to my garden (despite the fact their garden is about 5 times the size!)

The red cabbage and broccoli plants were planted, the swede, beetroot, carrot and parsnip seeds were sown into the ground. Ditches were dug for the kidney beans and peas and filled with some well rooted manure (and a small amount of grass cuttings).

I started off the sweetcorn in the propagator and some cabbage and purple sprouting broccoli in some seed trays.

Our next door neighbour gave me some lettuce plants, so have transplanted those into individual pots and put them outside to harden off before transferring them into the ground.

Planted the rosemary bush from a large pot into the ground, apparently it much prefers that, so hopefully it will flourish again! Some parsley, corriander and thyme was also planted into the herb patch.

The chickens are all getting on fine now, pecking order is established! Beatrix - Dorthy - Molly - Penny

Whilst the eggs from the new ones are small, they seem to be laying quite regularly now.

The Sun is Shining!

And the chickens are making the most of it! Dust baths all round!



Got a load to do in the garden over the weekend.... seeds and plants to plant, plenty of weeding, just hope my knees are better!

Weather forecast is good anyway http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/today.asp

4 eggs! I feel so proud! They must have all appreciated the efforts I went to this morning putting up a tarpaulin over their run to keep them dry!

One of them was layed outside in the soil and had already cracked, but still, they can't be expected to get it right first time!!

Well the chickens are now getting on a lot better together. The pecking order seems to be mostly sorted and the "attacks" are less common. We can see the chicken run from our house and when you are watching them from there they are all fine. When I go up there to feed / clean them the boss starts bullying more, but it's not too bad.

We had three eggs in the hen house last week, so one of the new ones must have layed. We are not sure which it was and we haven't had any since.


Goats got into out garden over the weekend and decided to eat the tops off my garlic, not happy about that, especially as they were the only things that have come up so far!

My parents dug me a herb garden on the weekend, when I was away.

My broccoli and red cabbage is ready to go in the ground, so that's a job for this week. Got a load more seeds I need to start off as well.

New Arrivals!

Whilst driving home from the Lake District where we went for a few days, I was getting bored of motorway driving, so decided to cut through Wales to go home. Was driving along the A49 and saw a sign for "Rare Poultry Collection" so thought we'd give it a visit, not quite sure what to expect!
http://www.wernlas.com/

Well we really didn't expect what was there! Hundreds and hundreds of chickens and all breeds were FOR SALE!

Well, we couldn't leave empty handed, so got one speckled sussex and one partridge cochin. After a long journey home, we put them in the run and kept our fingers crossed! They seemed to be ok but then war erupted!
The sussex is terrified of everything and seemed to just spend all her time hiding in the corner and the cochin, who I thought was going to be able to stand up for herself, was getting bullied by the original 2. I've had to corner off a bit of the run this morning and put the new 2 in there, going to do this for a few days and see where that gets us!

Finally got round to putting up the chicken run today. It looks good, I'm really pleased with it! Still not sure what material to put at the bottom, currently there is a mix of earth, gravel and grass.

Also managed to fit the automatic chicken door opener! No more having to get up at 6 every morning to let them out and will mean we can go away for a couple of days without having to worry about them.