Fairweather Fallen

Without so much as a bat of an eyelid, the last few months seem to have flown by. To my disgrace, it has been nearly three months since I last went out to the plot, and also since my last post on this blog.

With the nights (and mornings) drawn in, and schedules busier than a potting shed in March, I found it increasingly difficult to find a good batch of time in reasonable weather to get over to the plot to check on progress.

Flooding in Kenilworth at the beginning of December

Of course, the weather has been horrendous - flooding and more flooding; the second wettest year on record... it was a genuine shock recently to have a day when it didn't rain and you could enjoy being out in the fresh air.

I have to thank Maggie and Anne that the plot has been maintained in my absence. As I write, I remember all those plants that I had laboured over last summer - the beetroot and the cabbages - which have stood outside in the wind, rain and hail, with no assistance from the grower who put them there.

I have absolutely no idea how these have got on - all I know is that the last radish that was left in the ground apparently is now the size of a large turnip(!). I'll probably go over there at some point soon with my tail between my legs, and confess my carelessness to the small remnant of neglected veg.

I guess in the next few months I will begin to heed my own advice from my posts last year, and start planning in advance for the forthcoming growing season. I was kindly given a grower's handbook for my birthday last week, from which no doubt I shall garner some more nuggets of wisdom...

Frankie hen and dandelion

In the meantime, it is a pleasure to announce that Em, my wife, has embarked on a blog of her own about domestic chicken keeping - called Happy Garden Hens. She has a great eye for a photo, and you can find out a lot more about the smallholder trials and tribulations we have faced with our brood.

One chicken, two chicken - three chicken, four?

Towards the end of last week we were getting set for new arrivals... two more chickens to add to the two we currently have...

Frankie and Jerry - residents at Fallen Towers

We bought an extension to the existing coop and run, which now gives the chickens a lot more floor space, and given that we are likely to be in the garden less and less as the nights draw in and temperatures drop, more room to scratch about without needing to be let out into the garden quite so often.

The original house (r), with the extension in the foreground

I extended the concrete bowl, already fashioned for the coop move some weeks ago, and after only a few adjustments to make the surrounding bricks more level, the run was installed and ready for the extra chooks.

Two un-named Cotswold Blacktails

They were picked up on Friday - two good-looking Cotswold Blacktails - Em and her sister Jo introduced them to the run extension, with the two existing birds in their original house (the idea being that they would get used to each other before we put them in all together).

Frankie, who is top of the pecking order, appeared to have very little issue with the two extra companions... she even appeared to come over to the mesh between them to say 'hello'. For Jerry however it was a different story...

As soon as they came out of the box and were put in the extension, Jerry 'bocked' and squawked for what must have been 5-6 hours straight. She can be a bit mother hennish, but even so, this was so loud and prolonged Em had to go to the neighbours either side to apologise and to let them know what was going on.

Jerry was getting more and more distressed, and also laid a soft egg in the middle of the run, which is most unlike her... she seemed unable to take her eyes off what I guess she must have seen as intruders, or a threat to her second position. We were prepared for a bit of pecking between them - a few squawks and flying feathers - but not this much audible and visible distress.

We're responsible pet owners, and we've given Frankie and Jerry a great life here. We wanted to do the same for these other two chickens, but we were coming to the slow realisation that unless we were willing for our own sakes (and for the neighbours) to put up with this palaver for another few days, and continue to see (and hear) Jerry in this much distress, we were going to have to take the the two new ones back... which in the end is what we did.

Our supplier very graciously refunded us, despite the contamination risk posed to the rest of her flocks (because they had been in close contact with our two hens) - the Blacktails were put in a separate run back at the farm to undergo a quarantine procedure before being sold to someone else.

Rulers of the roost

Oh well, you live and learn. We haven't ruled out adding to the brood in future, but with the loss of a chicken so recently, we weren't prepared to see our other beloved chicks come under unnecessary distress too.

If we had a farm / weren't surrounded with neighbours, and we hadn't named our chickens and treated them like pets, I think we would have just got on with the noise and let them sort it out... Jerry would I'm sure have got used to it. But for now, it remains just Frankie and Jerry.

Benny

Sadly, earlier this week we lost one of our hens - Benny.

Benny having a cuddle with Em

We were blessed to have her as a pet for the time that we did - she was a real character - bright and friendly, inquisitive and docile. Out of the three hens, she was probably bottom of the pecking order, but she didn't seem to care.

Benny 'helping' me with some potting

She was very partial to mealworms and Jacobs crackers(!), and had taken to following us around the garden, even if we didn't have food in our hands. She was also the easiest to handle, and would purr and close her eyes when cuddled... very cute.

However, a few weeks ago she started behaving out of character - not laying, eating very little and preferring to stand still rather than walk around and investigate the garden with the others. At first the problem seemed to be an impacted crop. Once this was treated, she returned to something of her former self - however, she had been developing a limp over the course of the last week, and her demeanour took a turn for the worse on Monday.

After a visit to the vets later that day, the diagnosis was egg peritonitis, which is fairly common among chickens and nearly always fatal. So on veterinary advice, and given the fact that she appeared to be in increasing discomfort, we took the decision to have her put down.

It was extremely sad and upsetting - any of you that has taken a pet on a one way trip to the vets will know how that feels. After all our efforts to protect the chickens and keep them safe from foxes and the like, we were beaten by something entirely out of our control, which leaves you feeling angry and helpless.

Some people will probably say 'you shouldn't have named them; you shouldn't get too attached'... well, we took the decision to have them as pets rather than just as livestock, and particularly in Benny's case we were rewarded with a real character.

Frankie (top) and Jerry (bottom)

So, we are down to two chickens now - Frankie and Jerry. After the last few days your instinct is to pack it in - sell these two and the house, and spare yourself the pain. However, over the last few days with grief and upset replaced by thankfulness and good memories, it is looking likely that instead at some point in the future we will add to the brood... we figured, just as Tennyson did, that 'it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all'.

Fantastic Mr Fox?

6am Saturday morning, I was up, and having let the chickens out of their house and into their run I was settling down to my morning routine.

About half an hour later I could hear a little noise from the chickens, but this is not uncommon when they are laying. Em however, who is far more observant when it comes to the various noises they make, was stirred from sleep upstairs... the next thing I knew, Em shouted 'MATT! FOX! IT'S A FOX! GET OUT THERE!'.

Benny chicken - one of our three hens

I remember when we first got our chickens over a year ago, we were super aware of the threat posed by foxes; but as the year has passed, we had not seen any nearby and believed that because we live in the middle of an island of houses whose gardens back onto each other, that a fox would not be able to reach our chooks... we know better now.

After Em's alarm-raising shouts, the fox cleared three low fences along our row of houses and disappeared. I didn't see it myself, but Em said it was a big one - it looked as though it had already caught something and was making off with it... thankfully all our chickens were left slightly startled, but unharmed.

So - a plan of action was required! We decided that we would move the chickens from the back of the garden (which is more overgrown) to much closer to the house. Our garden is about 60ft long, so they weren't that far away - but our hope is that foxes will be far more reluctant to come right up close to our house.

We have a really decent chicken house with built in run that we got from Flyte So Fancy, who also supply the egg boxes that we use to sell the chicken's eggs outside our house 50p for a box of four (shameless plug I know, but it's a great price!). However, wherever you place the house and run, the chickens scratch and tear the floor to pieces - a lush section of grass is reduced to bare earth in around a week.

Moreso, once the chooks have scratched down to the bare earth, they then start digging to the sides of the run, effectively scratching away at their own foundations... another side effect is that holes start appearing through which either chickens could escape or predators could get in.

The 'concrete bowl', dug and laid into the lawn

So my fairly foolproof method to prevent this is to create a 'concrete bowl', using paving slabs and bricks to create an impregnable base which is impossible for them to scratch through downwards or sideways - we then cover the concrete base with wood chippings, in part to soak up the mess, and also to give them something to scratch around on.

The hen house and run, re-sited on top of the foundation

So after a couple of hours of digging, lugging bricks and paving stones, a vertical hen house lift over a short fence involving four family members, and the attachment of various extra locking safeguards against lupine visitors, the chickens now seem content in their new position.

Jerry, Frankie and Benny (l-r) safe and happy

We have not seen anything of Mr Fox since - long may that continue...