Melting in the heat

This morning I walked down to the allotment to make sure the chickens were all coping with the heat. They are prone to over heating and it is important to give them lots of water.

On arrival, I found Leia and her buddy had been moved into the broody coop to protect them from being baked in the greenhouse. There isn’t as much room as I would like for them but it’s a temporary measure during the heatwave. Knowing the fickleness of the British weather, I am sure it won’t be long until they are back in the greenhouse. They both seem happy and Leia continues to enjoy eating sunflowers from my hand. The cream legbar chick hasn’t been brave enough get, but hopefully with time she will!

The old girls are doing well and enjoying digging holes for dust baths. The ground in the coop is looking increasingly like the surface of the moon! I filled their water bowl up to the top and spread out their treats. Our newest girls are still the most friendly and can usually be found around or between my feet. This is fine when I am stationary but can be lethal if I take a step without looking first! We had five eggs today which is impressive and shows that they are enjoying the weather.

I had a chat with Cliff and Geoff At the clubhouse before Geoff went home. Cliff was having a few technical difficulties with setting up his new phone. It’s a lovely thing about our allotment community, it doesn’t have to be veg or chicken issues, everyone looks out for each other. Technical issues solved, Cliff and I went for a walk around the site to check that everyone’s chickens had enough water. There are some beautiful chickens on site and some I have never seen before. One guy has a selection of about 8 gorgeous bantam chickens, all of different varieties.

Remembering I had promised Phil I would check on his new Quail, I dashed into his shed on the way back from our walk. They were all there and these are so much tamer than our Quail. I replaced the water, filling it to the brim and topped up their dust bath with more chinchilla sand.

Finally, with the heat continuing to rise, I shut up the shed and called it a day. Time to work on the back garden which currently resembles Paddington Bear’s home – deepest, darkest Peru!