Rural Life

A more determined broody chicken

Most of the visits to this blog recently seem to be generated from desperate people doing a Google search on broody chickens.  So I had better 'fessup that the tried and tested method of getting the main culprit chez nous out of her broodiness hasn't worked with Black.  We are going to have to find a Plan D!

The first two batches of chickens we had were what I would describe as ISA Browns - the beige jobs that are bred for the battery houses and similar and which you can pick up very cheaply in the local markets.  They do a brilliant job at laying an egg a day for a year and after than the problems start as they are sadly not bred for longevity.  In a previous post I outlined why we don't buy them any more, but one good side to them is that in my experience of our six and feckless Joel's two, they don't do broody.

Last year we had dreadful problems with White - our mongrel Light Sussex, who went broody about every four to six weeks.  But while she is the largestof our girls, she is really rather sweet, and would fluff up when being lifted out of the coop and gurgle a bit, but was otherwise pretty resigned to it all.  Black, our youngest and a possible mongrel Maran, has decided that a stint of brooding is what she wants  to do, and she is taking it very seriously.  I haven't been pecked yet but it is only a matter of time, and I daren't try Plan E (send in the cats) as I think the vet bills would be too high!  Having been locked out of the coop for a little too long (her opinion, not mine), she has found her way under the coop and hasn't been seen for 2 days now.  Tomorrow we will have to move the coop and scoop her out.

From that description, you can see why there is no photo of Black being broody, just one of her before the mood came on her.  For the quibblers out there - you know who you are Roger - yes, I do realise she is much more gold than Black, but only from the front and side.  If we find a way to break this one, I may have to patent it!

Peach Blossom

Last month I published a blog with a picture of apricot blossom - I can now happily report that the tree is totally covered in tiny fruits about the size of a small broad bean.  Assuming no more frosts - which should be the case now, last year's late and disastrous frost was in the second week of April - we will have to think about thinning the fruit as it develops.  In 2003, we didn't do that, and a large chunk of tree got over-loaded with fruit and broke off.  It was a waste of fruit and damaged the tree.

Since then the peach has been covered in blossom, and this morning I lost count of small set fruits at about 40 on the one branch.  As the peach tree isn't very big, I will also have to keep an eye and thin fruit if necessary.  Fortunately Rob the Pig Man reckons that his free range pigs will be very grateful for any fruit thinnings.  It could be necessary with the pear as well.

The final two trees to break into blossom are the quince and the medlar.  Quince blossom should be at its height in a few days time, while the medlar could be a little bit later.  I don't want to second guess the medlar - it is the first year we will have blossom on it - but to my mind the quince is the prettiest of all fruit blossom.

Until I can get a photo of the quince, you will have to make do with peach blossom!

A nice clutch of eggs

With spring doing its thing, the chickens are having a lovely time.  There are still lots of juicy slugs around, plus snails (slugs with a bit of roughage one might say), and the worms are near the surface to have a go at too.  We haven't got much planted in the kitchen garden so they still have the run of the raised beds.  Much as I would like them to give the raised beds a good clear out and get every last weed and seed out, sadly they seem more interested in taking dust baths in them - heigh ho!

One thing that spring seems to bring out in chickens and in chicken owners is concern about broodiness.  While White doesn't seem to have succumbed to the lure of fixing herself in the coop all day every day yet, Black has decided that getting up in the morning is not as much fun as sitting on the odd egg, however as soon as the run door is left open for a rampage in the garden, any fascination with the inside of the coop goes, as she dashes for the choicest dust baths and best slugging terratory.

Lots of people come to this blog looking for advice on how to deal with broody chickens - good luck guys!

Here is a particularly lovely clutch of eggs that our girls laid last month - we hoped they would come up with chocolate ones over the weekend, but sadly we had to make do with shop bought ones instead.