RIP Emily

Sad news when I got down to the allotment this morning – Emily has died. She was a cracking chicken and an incredibly successful broody. The coop won’t be the same without her. Geoff has done a stirling job of looking after her since she left her chicks. By my reckoning she must have been at least 7 years old and has hatched several broods of chicks.

Emily survived a fox attack and lived wild on site for a week before my husband managed to catch her. She was fiesty and always near the top of the pecking order. In Geoff’s capable hands, she had started to mellow and became far more sociable and friendly. We will really miss her.

Leia and Rey have been busy growing over the past couple of weeks. Rey has caught up more with Leia in size and they are utterly inseperable. Always sitting next to each other and following each other around.

The rest of the girls were busy scoffing fresh greens that Cliff had dropped in for them. I topped up their food and water. Whilst I was doing that I spotted a small hole near the log in the centre of the coop. Suspecting a rat, I squashed it closed and told Cliff about it. He grabbed his rat poison kit and put a few bits around the coop out of reach of the girls. Hopefully it will work and we will be rat free within a few days.

With all the recent wet weather, the plot is somewhat overgrown but hopefully it will stay dry tomorrow so I can hoe it over. Autumn has definitely set in and the leaves are beginning to turn.

The trimming of the boundary hedge has revealed the two hedgehog boxes and although there was no one in them, Cliff and several others have seen little ones pottering around the site. We think these are this year’s litter as they aren’t marked.

Life has been so busy and it shows no sign of slowing down that I haven’t managed to do as many updates as usual. As winter sets in, the number of people on site dwindles down to just us chicken keepers who need to be down every day. Over the next few weeks, I plan to hoe over the plot and clear away the old plants from this season. Always assuming the fickle Britsh weather lets me!