Newbie, our fourth chicken, has finally been accepted by the brood. I suspect she won a few fights to get there, but I'm so happy that they're all getting along. She was completely ostracised for about a month and I even had to put her on the perch to roost at night as the other girls wouldn't let her on. But somehow, one day, she went from outcast to best buddy, just like that!
One of the chickens is lame now though, hobbling around. It's happened before and I reckon she'll get better, but she may be chicken stew if she doesn't recover. None of the chickens are laying now becuase the days are too short, but at least they're also not eating much. The food scraps from our next door neighbour and ourselves seem to be enough as I haven't topped up their pellet food for ages, and they used to go through it in about a week.
I'm also knitting my son a jumper - he's nearly 2 and will still wear whatever I tell him to (except shoes, he's very particular about those and prefers mine). Like most new things, I got it a bit wrong, spent 7 hours untangling the massive ball of wool I'd bought and decided I didn't need to untangle before starting, and I've knitted the front of the jumper 3 times (thank god he's small, an adult jumper I would have thrown away in a tantrum by now) I'm now doing the hood and it's nearly done! There will be photos, and he WILL wear it every day during winter to make it worth my while :)
My husband and I have also made a toy kitchen out of a very large cardboard box, with other boxes inside and bells and whistles which make an oven, cupboard, sink and tap. I have some old CD's which will be the stove's hotplates and I think it looks really good! We've used nearly evey cardboard box in the house (and I'd saved dozens) and lots of egg cartons to pad the inside and make it strong. I'll put a photo of it on here too when it's done. I wanted a toy kitchen for my son and a nice one costs $400, this one is made of only what we have in the house so it's free!
Have to go to they gym now, will definitely post pictures next time
x mum to 5 now (4 chicks, one boy)
PS happy easter and enjoy the wedding if you're into that
Friday, April 29, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
chicken troubles
By popular demand (!) I'm writing another blog update. I forget this is here, mainly because I don't have my own computer. Anyways, the chickens have FLEAS! I noticed little critters on an egg recently, then on their water bowl, then when we looked closely, on the chickens too. My husband had agreed to do all the 'vetinary' jobs with our girls, so he cleaned out their house (which we'd planned to do at easter anyway), sprayed everything with anti-flea mixture (from pet shop) and powdered the ckickens with anti-flea stuff too. So far, so good, although we may need to do the chickens again as the fleas may have laid eggs on them. Despite feeling itchy every time I think about it, the fleas didn't spread to us (thank god) and apprently they don't bother the chickens too much either.
One of our hens has also stopped laying. We got our next door neighbour to check her out, as they've had chickens before and know a lot more than we do. She commented that the pale comb (the red bit on top of their head) indicates that the chicken isn't laying, but doesn't mean they're sick. We had been worried, so that was good to know. I've aslo noticed broken eggshell where the chickens lay their eggs, so I'm hoping they haven't started tasting their own wares!
All in all, although this stuff is annoying, we're still enjoying our lovely eggs, albeit less of them, and we're thinking of getting another chicken as we have the room and we just have so many requests for eggs!
Our vegies are also going really well - I've never grown leeks before but I have about 30 in the garden, an impulse buy, and they're ready and yummy. We're processing the last of our tomatoes and just freezing them to use in soups, casseroles, whatever over winter. We have soooo much preserved food from our efforts over summer which is great - I open the fridge and have so many choices for what to put in a sandwich, what sauce to use on my dinner, which fruit to put on my pancakes, it's great! The down-side is that with more choice often comes 'well, I'll just have one of each' and two people have asked me if I'm pregnant lately!!!! I'll have to get used to this new surplus - the food isn't going anywhere so I can always have it tomorrow.
I'm not cooking for the op-shop or CWA any more as I've started working 2 days a week. I was also getting a bit bored with making biscuits, although new recipes always kept me going. I think it may have contributed to the preggie look so there are no more left-over biscuits in this house, and no tempting bowls to lick!
I've also started knitting again. I'd made lots of fruit and vegies for my son, who thinks they're balls or frisbees and throws them around, but now winter's coming up I've realised he doesn't have many clothes, I don't like the ones in the shops, and I've probably honed my skills enough knitting food that I can try a jumper. There are so many great patterns on the net (a lot nicer than in the booklets you buy in knitting shops) so I've downloaded two patterns and I'm having a go.
Next time I'll try to upload some photos of the knitting - if it goes well!
Happy easter everyone x
One of our hens has also stopped laying. We got our next door neighbour to check her out, as they've had chickens before and know a lot more than we do. She commented that the pale comb (the red bit on top of their head) indicates that the chicken isn't laying, but doesn't mean they're sick. We had been worried, so that was good to know. I've aslo noticed broken eggshell where the chickens lay their eggs, so I'm hoping they haven't started tasting their own wares!
All in all, although this stuff is annoying, we're still enjoying our lovely eggs, albeit less of them, and we're thinking of getting another chicken as we have the room and we just have so many requests for eggs!
Our vegies are also going really well - I've never grown leeks before but I have about 30 in the garden, an impulse buy, and they're ready and yummy. We're processing the last of our tomatoes and just freezing them to use in soups, casseroles, whatever over winter. We have soooo much preserved food from our efforts over summer which is great - I open the fridge and have so many choices for what to put in a sandwich, what sauce to use on my dinner, which fruit to put on my pancakes, it's great! The down-side is that with more choice often comes 'well, I'll just have one of each' and two people have asked me if I'm pregnant lately!!!! I'll have to get used to this new surplus - the food isn't going anywhere so I can always have it tomorrow.
I'm not cooking for the op-shop or CWA any more as I've started working 2 days a week. I was also getting a bit bored with making biscuits, although new recipes always kept me going. I think it may have contributed to the preggie look so there are no more left-over biscuits in this house, and no tempting bowls to lick!
I've also started knitting again. I'd made lots of fruit and vegies for my son, who thinks they're balls or frisbees and throws them around, but now winter's coming up I've realised he doesn't have many clothes, I don't like the ones in the shops, and I've probably honed my skills enough knitting food that I can try a jumper. There are so many great patterns on the net (a lot nicer than in the booklets you buy in knitting shops) so I've downloaded two patterns and I'm having a go.
Next time I'll try to upload some photos of the knitting - if it goes well!
Happy easter everyone x
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