Little Green Space
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Little Green Space |
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| April 2008
April 29, 2008 Chicken SOS We had our first chicken health scare today. I went down as normal to let the chickens out, but Rosie didn't rush out with the others. She stood very still in the pen, with the feathers around her back and tail puffed out. There didn't seem to be anything else wrong with her - no feathers missing, no unusual clucking or other behaviour - she was just very still. I checked her again after an hour, and she was still standing in the same place, so I started to get a bit worried. I did a bit of research in books and on the internet and came to the conclusion that she might be egg-bound. This is when a large egg gets stuck on the way down, and can cause all sorts of complications. If this was the case the egg would need to come out pronto, so it was on with the rubber gloves and out with the vaseline. I'll spare you the rest of the details! Rosie was then treated to a warm bath in a washing-up bowl. The warm water is supposed to relax the muscles, making it easier for the egg to come out. I thought she'd hate this, and struggle, but in fact she loved it. She sat in the bowl, while I massaged her back, and then she drifted off to sleep. I took her out after about ten minutes, but still no egg. However, Rosie seemed to have perked-up considerably. She preened herself, shook out her feathers, then strolled off to do a bit of foraging with the others. She was completely back to normal. I think she just wanted a bit of pampering! April 27, 2008 Andy up a tree The barn owl box is now in place in one of the ash trees. It was fun getting it up there - our friend Andy, a keen rock climber, kindly volunteered to do the job for us. Here are the pictures:
April 26, 2008 Oak trees A few weeks ago, we received a phone call from a man called Ash, who had read a piece about Little Green Space in the Derby Evening Telegraph. Ash had 21 oak trees that he had grown from acorns, would we like them? Yes please! Ash arrived today, with his friend Andy, to deliver the trees. The acorns had been gathered from "The Old Man of Calke" - an ancient tree at Derbyshire's Calke Abbey which is believed to be over a thousand years old. We plan to plant some of the trees at Hackney Leys and others at local schools.
What a brilliant start for the creation of our new native, broadleaved woodland. Wouldn't it be fantastic if the trees we plant live to be as old as the Old Man of Calke? Thank you, Ash and Andy! April 21, 2008 New neighbours We have been very excited by the arrival of a new family next door. It is a family of Gloucester Old Spot pigs, installed in the field next door by our human neighbours.
We are allowed to feed the pigs, and today they feasted on cooked pasta and carrot peelings. The kids love the pigs, and we are pleased, too, as our household waste going to landfill should now be practically non-existent. Everything that can be is recycled, everything that can be is composted, and now between the pigs and chickens we can get rid of most of our kitchen scraps too. The animals can't eat meat scraps, but as we only eat meat around once a week anyway, that's no big deal. April 20, 2008 Squirrel feeder One of my favourite birthday presents this year was a squirrel feeder from our friends Andy and Debbie. (Tangent - Andy ran the London marathon last week and raised over four thousand pounds for The Stroke Association - way to go Andy!) The squirrel feeder has a compartment with a hinged lid: you fill the compartment with peanuts and, allegedly, the squirrel quickly learns to open the lid to get to the goodies inside. I just can't believe this is true, but will be watching avidly to see if we have any hyper-intelligent squirrels in these parts. I'll let you know! April 19 2008 Eggscellent! We returned home from a week in France today. While we were away friends Katherine and Paul were house/cat/chicken sitting for us. We asked if they would mind recording the number of eggs laid in the week so we could keep our egg counter accurate. This is what we found on the message board when we got home:
Incidentally, we stayed in a cottage in France, and were pretty impressed with the country's attitude to recycling. All our recyclable waste was collected in a paper bag then tipped into a recycling bin on the street - no need to sort. Also in the supermarkets, plastic bags were simply not available. If you hadn't brought a bag with you, you had to pay for a reusable, Bag-for-life type carrier. Pretty good incentive to re-use carrier bags - I wonder if Tescos, Sainsbury's and co could be persuaded to take the same approach? April 10, 2008 Chicken news The chickens are laying much earlier in the morning now - there are often already two or three eggs in the nest box when I go down to lower the ramp in the morning. We are having to watch the chooks carefully, though, as they are getting a bit too bold. They have started to range further down the meadow, to the spot where we have often seen a fox basking in the late afternoon sunshine. They have also learnt to climb the stone steps up to the house - a bit of a worry as there is no gate up here, and they could wander onto the road. So we have put temporary barriers up and we are looking into getting an area fenced off so they can range safely. If you're thinking about getting hens yourself, I can't emphasise enough how friendly our hybrid breeds are, particularly the Lohman browns. They do now come when they're called. In fact they hurl themselves across the garden at speed whenever they hear our feet on the steps. And they are so great with the children, whose favourite hobby at the moment is carrying chickens around. |
