Small Plot? No Problem!

Flushed by my allotment success, I've been looking at a high-tech chicken coop called an eglu, which is specifically designed for small urban gardens. They are quite expensive, though, so on a whim I checked on ebay - and there was one up for sale in Birmingham with only a few minutes left on the auction. Of course I couldn't resist bidding...and I won!

Then I was left with the problem of breaking the news to Rich - of course he was very sweet about it, albeit with much mock groaning and burying of face in hands :)

We collected the eglu today, and I also persuaded Rich that it would be a good idea to get some chickens whilst we were at it. So we took a cat carrier with us and called in at a poultry breeders near Grantham, and now we have Morag (a Calder Ranger) and Mrs Miggins a.k.a. Migsy (a Speckledy). They are only four months old, so it'll be several weeks at least before they're ready to lay.

The heatwave continues and indeed worsens - the BBC are predicting a maximum of 36C today! I shall try to put some thought into resuming writing, but mostly I shall be worrying about how the chickens are coping with the heat...

Sadly Morag died yesterday evening, probably as a result of heat shock and the general stress of having moved to a new home. We'll have to find a companion quickly for Migsy, as chickens are social animals and I don't need her dying of stress too!

We went into Suffolk today to collect some new friends for Migsy: two Silver Black-Laced Wyandotte bantam pullets (phew, try saying that after a few G&Ts!). I've decided to go with a herb theme for future chickens, so these two will be called Angelica and Cicely.

I'm keeping them separated from Migsy during the day and just letting them roost together at night so that they get used to one another, and hopefully the pecking order will be swiftly sorted out!

Cicely has died, leaving us with just Migsy and Angelica. As with Morag, it seems to have been some kind of tummy upset brought on by stress. Naturally I'm a bit worried that there's some kind of infection in my tiny flock, and am just hoping that the two remaining birds survive. Chicken-keeping is not a great success so far!

I got back from my trip to Cornwall yesterday, and this morning I discovered that Migsy had suffered a prolapse. I did my best to treat her, but she went into shock and died at lunchtime :(

Richard is even more upset than me - he's such a softie! - and we've decided to get a couple of bantams tomorrow to keep Angelica company...

We went down into North Essex today and picked up a couple of new bantams. They are crossbreeds rather than pure breeds, and about 12-18 months old, which hopefully means they will be laying eggs for me soon!

In a minor deviation from the herb theme, I've called them Pepper and Nutmeg. Pepper is white and rather large for a bantam, whereas Nutmeg is a very pretty grey-brown. The owner told me that Nutmeg was a pure-bred partridge pekin, which is frankly rubbish as she looks nothing like one - but as long as she lays nice little eggs, I don't mind. She is a bit shy, though, which is why the photo of her had to be taken inside the eglu run.

All three of my bantams are laying, now that the days are getting lighter :)

They don't lay every day (as you can see from the pencilled dates), but it's enough to keep me in fried and scrambled eggs for breakfast plus the occasional spaghetti alla carbonara. The eggs are rather small compared to a normal hen's egg, but the yolks are proportionately larger so they make very yellow omelettes!

Having found out that Nutmeg was not the breed I was told on the phone, I have been hankering for a couple of real pekin bantams, so today we went down to Thorne's Garden Centre in Letchworth, where they have a good range of chickens. Unfortunately they had sold out of the gold partridge pekins, so we chose a lemon cuckoo and a black. They are extremely cute, and very tame compared to Angelica, which is just what I was hoping for.

Poor Richard - his wife has turned into another obsessive chicken lady!

After some thought, I have decided to name the pekins after Terry Pratchett's witches, because they really look like they are wearing old-fashioned bloomers as they race down the garden! Esme is the black one, because Granny Weatherwax would never wear anything else, and Gytha is the flighty "redhead" ;)

Esme looks to be point-of-lay, judging by her red comb, whereas Gytha is probably a few weeks younger.

Unfortunately the two Essex girls have been rather aggressive towards them, so I have had to buy a small ark to keep them separate. Luckily I was able to get one at very short notice, thanks to a nice local supplier (Adam at Cambridge Poultry), so peace reigns again in the Lyle household!

After a long struggle to integrate the two groups of chickens, I have finally given up - I just don't think there is room for five bantams in an eglu run, and I can't bear the thought of coming home one day to discover one of the pekins injured or worse. So, today we took Pepper and Nutmeg to a new home in Wisbech, where they will be kept in check by cockerels! I think they will be happier in a larger mixed flock, as it is what they were accustomed to in their previous home. I'm just hoping that Angelica and the pekins settle in together without too much fuss...

In the last 24 hours we've had 9-10cm of snow! Now I know that's not a lot by continental standards, but here in England it's the most we've had for several years.

The pekins, who have never seen snow more than a few millimeters deep, are not at all happy. I had to throw away the winter cover for their run because it had ripped in the winter gales, and so this morning the run had a 5cm-deep stretch of snow between the eglu and the section by the run exit (protected by the standard cover). Gytha "flew" over the snow to avoid getting her feathery feet too cold and wet, but Esme refused to come out. Instead she sat in the doorway of the eglu, making little worried noises. I raked away the snow and gave them plenty of mixed corn to keep them warm, but they're still not happy!

Luckily we were sent home from work early since the campus is so far outside the city, and I was able to rig up a temporary cover using a heavy-duty binbag and the bungee hooks that I'd cunningly saved from the old cover.