Its been a while I know but....

Brutus!

Its been a busy couple of weeks, hence an abscence of news from the garden.

We have 5 new additions to our menagerie, 4 ex battery hens and a stunningly handsome Cockerel called Brutus, no other name seemed to fit.

The girls are settling in extremely well, although they seemed a little overwhelmed by the amount of space around them on the first day we got them home, but now, almost a week later they are happily exploring the paddock which is their new home.

They also seem to have got Brutus exactly where they want him, it's a cold night here in Hockwold and when I checked on them a little while back, all 5 were crammed in one of the nesting boxes in the hen house, and who was in the middle? Brutus.

Two of the girls

 The girls aren't looking their best just yet, these pictures were taken a few days ago, but already we are seeing a change in their confidence, and they also seem to be putting on a bit of weight.  They have given us 10 eggs so far and very lovely they are too.

They now follow Brutus around and its lovely to hear the gentle clucking coming from the hen house in the morning. Coco and I go and let them out first thing, fill up the feeders and put down fresh water.  

Coco has got the hang of throwing some corn down for them, that is now she has discovered its not that nice to eat it and it is in fact a bit hard to chew when you only have four teeth!

We got the Chooks, as Nanny Southwellski calls them, from Little Hen rescue, at Flordon near Norwich.  Their website is www.littlehenrescue.co.uk and even if you don't want hens you can find a whole wealth of info about chickens, and while you're there why not put your hand in your pocket and donate something or better still get some chooks!

This isn't our first experience of ex battery chickens, we had three a few years back, they came to us after our dog, Lou a Rottweiler cross, killed our two young hens we had only just acquired. She thought she would try and do the same to the three ex batts.  When she tried they cornered her, and we found her penned in tight against a fence and squealing like someone had beaten her. She never went near them again. Beanie, the leader, had real attitude and on more than one occassion fronted up to me. If she was human she would have carried a knife!

We hope the new chooks are as happy and live as long as Beanie, Irene and Ida.

One piece of advice though, and ignore it at your peril, if you have chooks, DO NOT GO NEAR THEM WEARING CROCS!

Anyhow, we are planning to start planting tomorrow on the garden, our onion sets will be going out, and we should finish the bed for the potato's, we did have a bit of a disater, our runner beans which have been living happily on the shelf in our potting shed protected from frost by the pariffin heater got scorched by the sun on the one really warm day we had last week and we have halved our plants.  Never mind we can plant some more.

Anyway enough for now, busy day tomorrow.