Adventures in the life of an English allotment
Another year gone! It seems only yesterday that it was the start of 2022. Doesn't time fly when you are having fun? I always love spending today looking over the blog, reminding myself of all the changes, successes and failures during the year. I've tried to pick out some of my most memorable adventures but... Continue Reading →
I love lunchtimes at the moment. It's an opportunity to let the chickens at home explore the garden. I find watching the interactions between the different groups fascinating. The silkies are the first out, always keen to destroy another patch of the lawn. Cirrus is always first out and she usually wanders near to the... Continue Reading →
Today, the sun was out and the sky was blue so I headed out to the allotment armed with a huge list of things to do. As I arrived and walked towards the plot, I heard a loud buzzing ahead. As I passed Phil's plot, I discovered the source of the noise - one of... Continue Reading →
I leapt out of bed this morning and dashed downstairs to check on Cirrus and her chick. From the frantic high pitched cheeping I knew that it was hiding somewhere under Cirrus. Cautiously, I lifted Cirrus off the eggs to find a tiny white ball of fluff. Unsurprisingly, Cirrus was not impressed and pecked me... Continue Reading →
This morning I walked down to the allotment to find the place a hive of activity! Steve and Andy were busy assembling Steve's new polytunnel, closely supervised by Mick the Greek, Ken and Will. When it's finished, it will be massive! A fee years ago I did wonder about getting one myself but I decided... Continue Reading →
With the wild weather continuing today, I thought it would be a good time to do an update on Trixy's chicks. They are now nearly seven weeks old and fully feathered. The millefleur chicks I have been able to sex for three weeks - one boy and one girl. I am so pleased that the... Continue Reading →
It was definitely a day of two halves - one quick dash to the allotment in the morning, chicken cleaning out at home in the afternoon, and a second visit to the allotment in the evening! Busy it was, but very enjoyable! The first job of the day was to collect Trixy and take her... Continue Reading →
Over the last couple of days, the chicks have grown massively. The milliefleurs are feathering up rapidly, their beautiful light yellow fluff giving way to pale grey and cream secondary feathers. Even the smallest chick is doing well, keeping up with the others and cheeping as loudly! Trixy on the other hand, is moulting feathers... Continue Reading →
Spotting the rain this morning, I delayed going down in a fruitless effort to stay dry. As I was chatting to Phil, the heavens opened and we sprinted to our respective sheds to shelter from the pouring rain. After several minutes, it didn't seem to be stopping or even lessening. Resigning myself to getting utterly... Continue Reading →
Today was a manic day at the allotment. With no broody hens, I could finally clean out the new coop and whilst I was at it I thought I might as well do the other two. The first nest box was so much easier to clean now that Will has added hinges to the roof.... Continue Reading →
Another busy morning today saw me arrive mid-afternoon at the allotment. Upon my arrival, I walked down to the main coop to check on Millie. She seemed alright although she is clearly at the bottom of the pecking order. What was wonderful to see was that all of the girls were on the perches including... Continue Reading →
This morning when I checked on Trixy's coop to discover a dead chick. It was at the back of the nest and it was difficult to get to it without being eaten alive by an irate broody. Once I got it out I checked it over. There didn't seem to be anything particularly wrong with... Continue Reading →
This evening, I checked on Trixy's remaining eggs. One had a big pip in it but nothing seemed to be happening and Trixy is spending more and more time off the remaining eggs. Choosing to help the chick, I took it out of the broody coop. Slowly, I gently removed fragments of shell, trying to... Continue Reading →
When I checked on Trixy this morning, there was a new little arrival! Light brown and incredibly fluffy, I only caught a quick look before Trixy got in the way. By this point we had hatched one millefleur and two partridge bantams. The question was, would we get anymore? After work, we did another check... Continue Reading →
After spending the afternoon in the shed wrestling with paperwork, I gave up. Granted it was much nicer to look outside and see the plot with Roxy busy foraging away. But paperwork is still paperwork. My ancient laptop battery holds minimal charge but the solar power set up meant I could plug it in to... Continue Reading →
Despite the sub-zero temperatures this morning, the sun was out and the sky was a bright blue. In the sun, it was surprisingly warm and I decided today was the day to let the chicks explore their new home for a couple of hours. The coop is set up in our garden and has been... Continue Reading →
And just like that, it's a new year with new plans and opportunities. In the works are big plans to continue the shed upgrade, a new growing area, add raised beds to the greenhouse, finish the vertical garden and build a small terrarium area as well as finally getting some more quail (much to my... Continue Reading →
Being a weekend, I spent quite a long time with the chicks. Over the past two weeks, they have grown enormously and their secondary feathers are coming in. Now that they are seven weeks old, I am slowly transitioning them onto grower's pellets. These contain a higher amount of protein than layers pellets, helping them... Continue Reading →
The past week has seen our beautiful little Silkie hens busy exploring their inside coop. Although they are still quite timid, I have managed to handle them quite a bit and even had one take a tentative peck at the chick crumb in my hand. But their lack of names has been concerning me. Before... Continue Reading →
So today was a day I have been looking forward to for years. For my birthday, my husband had agreed to let me get some silkie hens! I adore these ridiculous looking chickens with their 5 toes and beautifully soft feathers. I have held off getting silkies for years due to concerns over Marek's disease... Continue Reading →
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