Chickens - At Last!

We’re finally going to collect the chickens, though not till next weekend, as this weekend I’ll need to give the old ferret house/run a clean out and scrub down as it has been vacant since we lost Stitch in July. I’ve decided that for now, and over the winter months, we will have the chickens in the run in our back yard, it’ll need a few adoptions making to it, for example a nest box installing and a perch inside the house and some sort of scratching pit for them outside as it is sited on concrete, but other than a good clean it’s good to go. When the summer months come, we’ll take them to the allotment and leave them there in the run that I’ll have finished building by then (hopefully!).

We are having 4 different hybrid varieties, a ‘Blue Haze’, a ‘Rhode Rock’, a ‘Columbine’ and a ‘Coral Nick’. One grey, one black, one ginger and one white, so we shouldn’t get them mixed up and will definitely (I’d hope) know who is who, and the good thing is that they’ll lay different coloured eggs, well 2 will lay brown eggs but the other two lay either a cream or a blue/green. Again this will help us in identifying who has layed, how many eggs and when. All are supposed to be hardy, docile and friendly, all excellent layers, and all are happy in a run or free range. With credentials like these, what can go wrong, lol.

Other plans for the weekend include digging up the remaining potatoes before the first frosts arrive, here in Middlesbrough they can come anytime from the middle of October, so the sooner the potatoes are up and stored the better. Clearing the sweetcorn, I’ve got a recipe for some chowder, so I’m going to utilise my crop and make some soup and freeze it. Also there will be more winter digging, you have to get it done whilst the weather permits. Oh and there’ll be holes needed to be dug for the fruit trees. So with a bit of luck, I’ll have the entire weekend to devote to my allotment chores, it’s all good fun.