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Feb 08 - Farewell Chicken Hilton! Sometime last year our good friend Mark decided to have a go at rearing chickens - he fancies himself as good with the birds!
As a novice, he did decidedly well and before long he was inundated with chickens.
Dan & Mark decided to go into chicken production between them - Mark would hatch them and raise to 8 weeks, Dan would then take them till slaughter time. A good plan, but it hasn't really materialized like that just yet.
In the end, we had a dozen chickens to fatten up - some have now long been eaten and were very tasty too!
Just when we were thinking about dispatching the remaining 4 chickens, one of the girls "pulled one out of the bag" and laid an egg - one helluva party trick at the 11th hour!!!
Unfortunately, the boys (who Tracey has named "Charlie" as they've got a similar hairdo to someone we know) were unable to master the art of egg laying, but they have been saved on the basis that Dan is an ol' softy at heart!
We knew that we had to start planting seeds soon as the weather has warmed up considerably. However, we also knew that we had to be mighty sure that we got rid of any field mice lurking around.
We couldn't put poison down with the chickens being so close by and given that the mice often steal any uneaten chicken food - we certainly don't want the little buggers breeding!
So, we decided that the 4 remaining chickens (2 boys,2 girls) could move in with the geese round by the pond and they could use the mini chicken shed that Ciaran, Victoria and Dan had made the previous summer.
The 2 girls (both affectionately known as Mabel) were put off laying for a day or two - well, to be fair, they say that moving house is a stressful experience and let's face it, it's always down to the women to feather the nest!
Anyway, normal service has been resumed and both Mabel's are popping out eggs every day.
Both Charlies are also happy enough - there's quick a lot of "hen-swapping" going on and their egotistical "cock-a-doodle-doo's" can still be heard from the house at 5am!!!
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