Today is the first day we have got two eggs on the same day.. so now we know we have two chickens laying, we suspect the black Chicken has now joined in laying.
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Our first two large eggs have turned out to be double yoked, and today we are back the a small egg, that is unless another one of our chickens are started laying. After 5 small practice eggs, our one laying chicken is not producing lovely big eggs, two so far with a just a single day off so far. The other two chickens are looking like they will start soon, with the comb of our black chicken almost as red as the white chicken, we we guess is the one that is laying.  Our First Egg We have got our first egg, it is small, but we had not expected one this side of Christmas. What do you do with the first egg? I think we will have a family debate on this tonight. At least this means no 3 bird roast for Christmas!! I went to my office, a shed at the end of the garden today to write for my Chilli blog and after a while the chickens all arrived, in for them was uncharted garden. I kept an eye on them and sent a few cats running, but as I was writing there was a big commotion outside, a cat has stalked the chickens and was about to pounce. I jump up grabbed a stick and gave chase, the chickens are a little upset and are now keeping very close to the run. Last week, I went to Mole Valley and picked up a 50M electric fence, we have used this to make a larger run for the chickens, approx 3X6M, they loved that… So today we have just fenced off the patio and a few feet of grass for us, the rest is not the chickens to range free. We just hope they cannot find a way out, and that the cats are not a problems, we don’t have cats, but lots of them use are garden as a lavatory. No egg as yet, but they are still very young probably only 18-20 weeks. I have read the the chickens like Broccoli, so this morning I have hung some in the eglu run, this lead to a mass move in to the house (coop). They have slowly return to the run, but are keeping clear of the hanging veg. Update on the Broccili – they never touched it, it has now gone to the compost bin, I will try again later, mean while they have pecked at parsnip, celeriac and currents etc etc..
 Selecting a Chicken Today we have been to Dobles Poutry to collect our chickens, where we were shown to a small enclosed barn, we had decided to get 3 chickens, Mary wanted a white one, then Sonia and I then picked a black and ginger one and then a grey one. As we selected each chicken they were collected on a large net and then held carefully, while we selected the next one, I asked how to clip the wings so they could not fly successfully once released in our garden, and this was very professionally demonstrated, and look nice and simple, that is until I have to do it..  Our Chickens On the way home we visited Mole Valley for some Chicken supplies, picking up 5kg of Layer pellets and 5Kg mixed corn we will use as a treat for them in the afternoons. We had been given the chickens in a cardboard box and we then opened the box and tipped the chickens into the end of the eglu’s run, it was a lot more gentle than that sounds. All when well the chickens having a good look around and feeding on the pellets, that was until the evening, when we wanted them to enter the sleeping area, I must point out that I had not read this part of the Eglu’s instructions, we tried pushing the chickens with a stick, calling them, they had no interest, but always moved as far from the entrance as possible. Finally when we had all but given up one of them walked inside then the other two made a dash for it, Sonia then quickly shut the door and we retired inside for dinner and a glass or two of wine.
 Completed Eglu This looks simple in the instructions, and in most part it is simple to do, all I needed was a philips screwdriver. I placed the house on the grass and attached the first parts of the run with the bolts are large washers provided, the clips seemed easy do use (if the break I may just use tiewraps) to join the run parts togeather, it was only when I went to fit the cover back over the house that I had problems, it seemed that the run bulged out a bit holding the sides of the roof out so it could not be secured. After a little help( you need more that two hands to push the run to the correct shape) I was able to reposition the bolts and washers so that we could refit the roof and it was all ready. I placed the feeding (Grub) and water (Glug) containers inside the run and then attached the sun shade.. One complete eglu, time taken approx 30 minutes, 10 of which spent woking out why the roof did not fit. Still very happy with my purchase, I hope to take the kids out after the 20th( this is when they get new stock) to get some Chickens from our local breeder “Doble’s Poultry” who we had meet at the Sherbourne Show earler in the year.  Example Eglu from Omlet Our Eglu has arrived from Omlet, it is sitting in two large cardboard boxes on the patio ready to be errected. We ordered the purple one after a quick family poll, it cost a £353 including delivery, it was a lot more that a woodern chicken house, but after looking at the Eglu’s on ebay, I know I can sell this and only lose £100 max. I also liked the fact that is was easy to clean, and could be jet-washed if needed, I read lots of reviews and they all seemed positive. Delivery was very quick, we sheduled it on the web site for a Monday delivery, the courier tried to deliver it on the Friday before, unfortunatly no one was home, so they retried on the Monday. |
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