Adventures in the life of an English allotment
Poor Gertie. She is holding her own well at the moment but she isn't happy. The others are tending to give her space but as yet, I haven't spotted anyone preferentially staying with her yet. I may yet have to strong arm one of the others into the role by putting them together in a... Continue Reading →
Why is it that whenever I go to feed the chickens, the heavens open? Even the merest thought of "I'll go and feed the chickens in a bit..." seems to send out some invisible signal to the clouds to ready themselves for a full monsoon. Usually this phenomena is limited to my leaving the house... Continue Reading →
Today was a very exciting day. Late this afternoon, Nikki and Dylan appeared at the front door with a pet carrier containing three beautiful silkies! Birmingham Silkies has sadly had to sell many of her birds due to a house move. I have been following her online for several years and the silkies she breeds... Continue Reading →
It's been a while since my last post due to trying to get Winnie back on the road to recovery. Sadly, she has been steadily deteriorating over the past week and I have been in regular contact with a lovely American lady who has extensive knowledge about chickens. She has recommended a range of different... Continue Reading →
Having got the chickens through the nightmare heatwave, I was just beginning to relax when Winnie took a turn for the worse. Thankfully, the Crossbeak and Special Needs group were able to help by telling me what medicine to order and how to help Winnie while we waited for it to arrive. With Harker's Coxoid... Continue Reading →
Just before dinner, I dashed down to the allotment to check on Cliff's black leghorn. Each evening I have been going down to make up a fresh batch of antibiotics for her. When I got down there, I was struck by how different the familiar landmarks looked, especially the greenhouse! Making up antibiotics which require... Continue Reading →
I arrived down on site early this morning ready to meet with a representative from the Allotment Federation. I got the stove up and running ready for a hot chocolate apiece before going to the car park to let Kerry in. Our meeting was very productive and Derek came to join in for a bit... Continue Reading →
The rain this morning was torrential. One look outside and I decided to go down to the allotment later. The chickens in the garden still needed feeding but it was much quicker to dash from the kitchen to the garden and back to get their food and water sorted. Maude and Mavis were sitting in... Continue Reading →
So today I went down twice to try and help out Cliffs black leghorn. She didn't look very good this morning. Fortunately, I had some Flubenvet powder left from when I last wormed our flock. I measured out her food carefully and added half a scoop of powder. Mixing it in thoroughly took time and... Continue Reading →
The last two days, I have been woken up by Gordon doing his best impression of a cockerel. Despite having very accommodating neighbours, I just couldn't keep him in the garden anymore. The fact he set off three times yesterday shows he is getting more confident in his voice. So my plan was to move... Continue Reading →
What a day! I can't remember the last time I spent a full day at the allotment, work has been so busy! I arrived down on site at about half nine, determined to finish hoeing the plot. A mere fifteen minutes later and the job was done! I love my WolfGarten tiller, it makes life... Continue Reading →
This morning I ran down to the allotment armed with paperwork and a laptop for the first meeting of the new committee. I suspected it might be a long meeting as there hasn't been a committee meeting in a few years. There was a lot to discuss! Afterwards, I ambled back to the shed and... Continue Reading →
I ambled down to site this morning to discover the sunshine had tempted out lots of people. I say and chatted with Geoff, Cliff and Michael. Geoff has decided to give away two of his Rhode Island Reds as they have been bullying his other girls quite badly. He is completely unimpressed with collecting a... Continue Reading →
This morning before work, the AP's and I walked down to the allotment. After several days of overcast skies and rain, the sun had appeared. Our first priority was to check on Phil's Buff Orpington. There was condensation on the inside of the greenhouse so I opened up the front and back doors to get... Continue Reading →
We had a sad phone call from Geoff today letting us know that one of our Rhode Island Red hens had suddenly died. Neither Aggie or Cassie had shown any signs of illness or discomfort so our best guess is a heart attack. Sometimes chickens do have sudden heart attacks, suddenly dropping down dead where... Continue Reading →
Opening up the nest box this morning, we discovered Nimbus cuddled up with Cirrus and Stratus breathing normally and back to her usual self. as the best box door opened, Nimbus was the first one out and ran the length of the coop to get to the food bowl. There's no sign of strange breathing... Continue Reading →
The last couple of days I have been beavering away on a project - more to be revealed later! When I got home, I went out into the garden to let the silkies enjoy some time roaming the garden. As my husband made lunch, I noticed that Nimbus, our black Silkie, was making strange noises.... Continue Reading →
This morning I ambled down to the allotment to check on how our latest arrival was settling in. As I came onto the main path, I found Cliff and Geoff enjoying the fresh air and having a chat. Somehow half an hour passed by as we put the world to rights and caught up on... Continue Reading →
Over the past two days, Pop has shown some improvement and is now standing independently again. She has just started to take very tentative steps today and I hope this means she will be back to her usual cheeky self in a few days. I am still getting high doses of vitamins into her by... Continue Reading →
This evening when I went down to feed Pop, I spotted something rather unusual on the side of the greenhouse. It appeared to be a large bee! I instantly recognised it as Will's handiwork. He really does have a talent with woodwork. I had a quick chat with Geoff and we both agreed that Pop... Continue Reading →
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