Fight....fight...fight...

Things are certainly hotting up in the broody cage! There is lots of flapping and fighting going on! The cage is tall so I have installed a perch and some bits of branches - to give them a bit more space and for them to practise their roosting.

Nancy was the first to flap up (no surprise!) with the others watching closely. Now they are all doing it! Tail feathers are really beginning to show on all of them apart from Mertyl who still looks remarkably like a penguin!

The guy at the hatchery said that Mertly was a white Orpington chick but Cockerdoodle Mark thought she might be blue and I have to say the feathers that she has got are not pure white some are a definite grey - so I think Mark might be right again.

Pearl looks brilliant at the moment - she is a combination of chick fluff and really beautiful mottled feathers that stick out all over the place! She is like a walking feather duster!

Sickness and...

Can't believe that it is Monday! Where did the weekend go? Well I know where it went in our house...It was like a house of the ill with sickness playing havoc with our plans!

We were going to fence the chicken area on Sunday but too many poorly people at our house so we have postponed.

Thought the chicks were changing fast before but the change seems to be accelerating. They eat loads more and therefore poo loads more and therefore smell loads more - I think their days in the corner of the kitchen are numbered....

Still really cute though - although I can't get the buggers to stand still!! All photos have a lot of soft focus today as none of them were still enough to get a decent picture - tomorrow I use double sided sticky tape!

Ahhhh Haarrrr!

Bit of a Pirate theme today!

Also discovered  a bizarre website today that provides nappies for 'house chickens'!!(http://www.chickendiapers.com/) I mean, I am all for chicken keeping...but nappies??

Now then, cockrdoodle Mark has had a good look at the photos of our birds. Although he is not guaranteeing anything... he suspects that Dolly and Nancy are cockerels! We will see!!

Lilac time!

Missed a day yesterday! It was a bit of a funny day in our house!!

There is a beautiful lilac bush growing in the wilderness at the workshop. I wouldn't normally cut it down, but no one can see it and the smell is divine!!

Here are our girls 'in lilac'!
It is getting harder and harder to take their picture. Dolly and Pearl are always very well behaved, but Mertyl is a nightmare!! She is lucky she is not stew!!

I blame the incubator....

Cracked open the eggs to have a look and see what happened. Both chicks were well formed an black and white. They looked like their insides were in a bag on the outside. It wasn't like a yolk sack - it definitely looked like innards! Was glad they hadn't hatched as would not have been a pretty sight for the kids!

From what I can find out it is often a result of inconsistent temperature in the incubator - which might explain why the others didn't develop. The problem with a little amateur dome incubator like ours is that the temperature cannot self adjust - so if there s a window open or the sun shinning, the chicks just have to put up with it!

Sticking with the four we have until we can properly determine their sex and then...who knows!

Craaaaaayzzzzeeeeeee!

So, turns out I have ANOTHER dead chick and a crazy husband who hears noises! Ok, I may have said I heard tapping, but I never heard cheeping!

Just hoping all our lovely girls are indeed girls. I have asked if there is no way of taking the cockerdoodledoo out of a cockeral but apparantly not. Was worth asking!
Fee x

(Mark, if Crazy asks you for some more eggs, please say no!)

I hear tapping!

Oh yes, just when I thought that I was as mad as I am feeling at the moment, Fee confirmed that she too hears it...tap....tap,tap.....tap.

Maybe it is 'chicken morse' for 'will somebody get me out of this flaming egg!!'

Coco started tapping around 9am and there is still no sign of the shell breaking - was sure I heard her cheap at one point (but as you know I have a 'history' for that sort of thing)

Thought I heard Geordie Boy's tapping when I held it to my ear, but now think it might have been the egg squashing my ear hairs!

OMG I just wrote ear hairs...in relation to me! Being 40 has a lot to answer for! Will get the strimmer out tonight!

Of course, as always, will let you know! About the chicks, not my ear hair!!