How to have a productive garden

Now I have a garden full of chickens, it is a little difficult for me to still grow some of my own food. I have found a solution, grow vertically!!! This way I can still grow strawberries and lettuce and other stuff but high up like a plant wall out of my little darlings way. Mmm I wonder if I can grow currant bushes high up too.

Fantastic idea to grow my strawberries

Why my chickens wont put themselves to bed

For over a year my chickens have got themselves to bed at night. They obediently go through the automatic pop-hole before it goes dark and settle themselves in the coop. Now for some reason 3 of my chickens are always outside in the run squeeking when I go in to check they are all in. They all use the pop-hole when they need to go an lay an egg, but when it is bed time, these 3 rascals only see the main door of the coop as the only way to get into roost at night. These 3 are still out. I have tried to remove all the perches from the run, so they should have no option but to go into the coop, but no, they wait by the coop door until I go in and open it up. Only then will they go into the coop. It is positively doing my head in. I might just leave them out all night to see if the next night they are more keen to go through the pop hole to get to bed. Once a chicken gets into a habit of what they do, it is very difficult to change that habit.

Egg Trauma

Have you ever thought that everything seems to be going too smoothly and then wallop something turns it into a crisis. Well I borrowed an incubator from Heswall Hills Henporium, because my sister is nice like that, and we were merrily listening to it clicking away and happy in the knowledge that it was taking good care of my eggies. Then the obvious happens, the incubator suddenly loses power. Despite Keiths best efforts of changing the plug and the fuse and fiddling about in the lid, he pronounced it dead, just as I suspected. Now I have to find a home for 48 eggs mid way through their incubation period. I tried the airing cupboard and even with the heating on full the eggs were still too cool. I then decided to try to squeeze them - bearing in mind they are eggs - into my other two incubators which are King Suro's and they rock. I had to take them off the rockers and turn the whole incubator through 45 degrees several times a day. The King Suros did a sterling job of keeping the temperature and humidity right while I waited for my new incubators to arrive via the trusty Royal Mail. A spot of panic buying resulted in an increased egg incubating capacity so now I can do nearly 200 eggs at once. It still remains to be seen whether I managed to save all the unborn chicks, but I am hopeful. Luckily I didnt put all my eggs in one basket!!!

Hatchlings Galore

We are just listening to the chirping of day old chicks. They have just struggled their way out of their eggs and are just drying off. The ones below are ones that came out first and they are cute and fluffy.

They are very difficult to photograph as they are constantly moving and the flash makes them jump. So this is the best I could do.

Yes I will stop talking - eventually!

I cant stop visiting the incubator to see how many are out now.  It is stopping me from doing the housework as I cant concentrate on anything. This is obviously a job for someone more patient than I am. If you want to reserve our chicks please go to our booking site here Chick reservations

I know I have to part with them but they are soooooo adorable it is very difficult. It is though I laid them myself.

If you would like a chick or an older chicken please contact us here or via our website here  as they grow really fast and we sell out quickly.

Dont look at me, I'm shy

Chucky Heaven

We have just taken delivery of a batch of eggs all the way from Ireland. They are hybrids of the highest calibre. They have been selectively bred to produce top notch egg laying ability (300+ eggs in their first year) whilst at the same time looking fabulous in the garden or smallholding. Once they hatch I will be posting pictures for you all to see how cute they will be.

They are to be a Blue chicken, an Amber, a Sussex and a Rhode Island Red x Sussex or in other words a Buff Blacktail. If you would like to put your name down for some of these little darlings please use our contact form at the bottom of this blog page or email HERE  They are sure to be extremely popular so be quick.

New Chicken Keeping Course Dates

Big News!!
We have added a few more dates just to keep us ticking over until January next year. I know.....January already. Sorry folks. I don't know if its my age. Alright then, it is my age, but this year has flown so much I think I have missed most of it, or forgotten it. Either could be true at this stage.

Our new dates are:
Sat and Sun 26th and 27th October
Sat and Sun 23rd and 24th November
Sat 14th December
Sat and Sun 11th and 12th January 2014!!!

Our new booking system is also now on line and easier to use. Click HERE to book.
Read our Testimonials page to see how we are doing.

Come and join us to learn all about chicken keeping and avoid expensive pitfalls. As a bonus, you get to enjoy our homemade Lemon Drizzle Cake and Cream Scones as part of our Cream Tea.