Adventures in the life of an English allotment
Last Sunday was the final bee check of the summer. I am not sure what we are going to do on a Sunday afternoon now! We removed the feeder now after two weeks. The feeder fills a super and is designed to allow the bees access to the sugar water without drowning (which they are... Continue Reading →
It's been a manic few weeks at my new job and visits to the allotment have mainly consisted of running down to feed the chickens, clean them out and not much else. Today I went down to do a partial clean out of the coop and to turn over the soil in the coop. It's... Continue Reading →
Today was a full day down the allotment - chickens fed and watered. A couple of eggs but then it was still early. Molly has been moved back into our main coop and is bearing the brunt of the arguments between the chickens. Hopefully she will stand her ground and they will all settle down... Continue Reading →
It's been a manic couple of weeks, trying to get organised ready for the start of term which seems to be racing towards us at a rate of knots. Apart from dashing down to feed and clear out the chickens, the plot has been left to its own devices. Geoff's chickens seem to have almost... Continue Reading →
Yesterday I popped down to the allotment to feed the chickens - they are still in two distinct camps and never the twain shall meet except to peck at each other. Give it a few more days and they will have calmed down...hopefully! Birds fed, I started to clear more weeds from the centre of... Continue Reading →
Sadly no updates on the allotment the past week as I was suffering with a whopper 3 day migraine - it was all I could do to drag myself out to feed the chickens. Back to normality today and raring to go. I headed off to the allotment. Things have changed in the coop in... Continue Reading →
After the rain that has plagued us the last few days, I managed to spend a good amount of time down the allotment on Friday. My aim was to continue clearing the seemingly unending mass of weeds at the top of the plot. I cleared half before I got distracted by the strawberry bed which... Continue Reading →
Shocking though it is to believe, yet more progress has been made today! I went down a bit later than intended and got a resounding telling off from the chickens. The chickens fed and watered, I set off determined to make inroads into the weeds. I managed to clear a good section of the bottom... Continue Reading →
Ambled down the allotment this morning to feed the chickens - Evie is still being grumpy and attempting to be broody. I am not convinced - she is a Warren and very old so it's unlikely she is actually broody. I plan to check with Geoff tomorrow about her. I have also begun to clear... Continue Reading →
Ambled down late to the allotment this morning to sort out the chickens and in theory to do some weeding... You can guess what happened about the weeding. I quickly fed the chickens and checked on the mite situation - fairly under control but more dusting needed. So I left them to their food and... Continue Reading →
On first glance, this seems a silly title for this post. Anyone who has been following this blog will know the hives have been on site for over a month and I have been regularly helping with the weekly hive inspections. But today was different. Today I did the hive check! Well, not all of... Continue Reading →
After a manic two weeks at work, we are finally within shouting distance of the end of term. This means freedom and lots of time to spend down the allotment to make up for abandoning it these last couple of weeks. This morning, not only did I feed the chickens, but I have tried a... Continue Reading →
Two balls of fluffy cuteness! Mum is still very protective but the chicks seems to be exploring their enclosure more today. I didn't stay too long but you could just spend hours watching them both!
So my husband went down to feed the chickens this morning while I was at work and managed to get photographic evidence of both Molly's chicks! So there are definitely two! It's not brilliant to get only 2 from 12 eggs but everyone has struggled to hatch eggs this year for some reason. Molly is... Continue Reading →
A massive day of works at the allotment today! We went down fairly early, determined to make serious inroads into the weeds and to sort out the mite problem plaguing the coop. Whilst the hubby fed the chickens (a difficult task when they always get under your feet and try to climb into the food... Continue Reading →
This was so exciting, I thought this warranted an separate post! Molly's eggs have reached their due date and we have two beautiful Welsummer chicks! It's lovely to see Molly's hard work pay off and she looks like she will be an excellent mum. We are still down on chicks as none of Polly's hatched... Continue Reading →
Walked down to the allotment this morning to find our remaining two quail have died overnight. So ends our flock of quail. I spent some time cleaning out the quail coop and drowning it in anti-mite spray to make sure it is clear ready for quail in the future. It look a good while to... Continue Reading →
My long-suffering other half popped down to the allotment this morning to find that the mites were back with avengence. So there is tomorrow mornings jobs - dust the chickens and totally redo the nest box with anti-mite spray, yet again. I am going to have a good long search more more effective anti-mite solutions... Continue Reading →
Sadly we have to concede defeat on Polly's eggs. Several days overdue, she was still stubbornly sitting on them. She has been an excellent broody and hopefully next year she will be able to hatch her own chicks. In the meantime, Geoff has put her back in with the other chickens whilst we hope that... Continue Reading →
Popped down after work to check on Polly. Here she is. No signs of chicks yet. If nothing happens by tomorrow we are unlikely to get any despite Polly's excellent work
The Good Life Crewe 
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