Ace Jet 170

The Lost Birds

I was looking through some photos from the last few years the other night. Mostly family trips here and there. Hilarious photos of the boys and swoon-triggering photos of Karen. And some photos of miscellaneous farmyard foul.

Chicken Watch #30: The Return

I think it was my finest hour. Well, my finest 850(ish) days. Veteran readers may remember the beginning. So much drama. The thrills! The excitement! Chicken Watch charted the rise and, eventually, the tragic fall of our three feathery providers. After the death of the last foul standing, Virgil? Penelope? Scott? (to be honest, I lost track after a while) the coop has remained barren. Bereft of birds.

But, with spring all around, lambs frolicking in the meadows, the thought of a new set of layers has been aroused. Stimulated somewhat by an Easter strip to a nearby open farm. A potential supplier, it has a whole heap of varieties on show and, we hope in July, on offer.

Personally, I fancy a Dark Brahma.

Show Birds

 

The few that follow my Instagrams will know that we were at The Balmoral Show on Friday. For over 140 years Northern Ireland's farmers have been shipping their livestock into the city for what I'd imagine is the Province's biggest agricultural event. I've not been before but it's great. Probably a bit more commercialised than it used to be; all the major supermarkets have stands to show how much they're supporting local producers. They're pretty slick; cookery demos and lots of stuff to taste. Then there's a load of smaller, genuinely local producers with stalls, many of which are fab. Quite a number of them were clients in my last position at hamillBosket.

The Show sees the country in the town and I guess it's a good chance for the agricultured to check out the latest kit. But the best bit for us was the bit with all the legs; the livestock. And yes, for me (predictably) it was the birds that caught my eye. And my lens.

 

Chicken Watch #29: Survivor

Day 823: Only one survives. But flourishes in her monopoulic dominion.

Chicken Watch #28: Nogg

You want one, don't you? Via Daniel, via Ian.

Chicken Watch #27: Blur

Day 662: Balmoral Show last week and Karen plus boys sought out some others, with macro switched on. Seth (4) says it's better that way. He's right.

Postscript: I'm sorry to report Lady Penelope snuffed it yesterday. She had been ill for a little while and, we felt, was suffering too much. She was a good layer and a close personal friend. She'll be sadly missed. Lady P: we salute you. [Fade to reverie].

Chicken Watch #26: Chicken in a basket

 

Day 587: Well, a box actually. For the second time in as many months there's a chicken down. Different birds, different afflictions; the first was fixed with every parent's essential survival kit component Calpol; the current patient is recovering in the house, feasting on porridge.

Chicken Watch #25: Dazzled and Confused

 

Day 544: Blinded by the light, the girls dash about like headless...
er...oh...well, (they dash about).

Chicken Watch #24: Micro

Day 439: ...and the soldiers were like matchsticks.

Chicken Watch #23: Fine

 

 

Day 431: They're fine.

Chicken Watch #22: They think they're so smart

  

Day 222: Believing the grass greener elsewhere they dig for freedom, unaware of the lip licking dog just a fence post away.

Chicken Watch #21: Frozen Chicken

  

Day 215: Fearful of the chilly white stuff, they made a dash for the safety of foliage.

Chicken Watch #20: Meet the neighbours

  

Day 181:

The mysterious and exotic beauties on the adjacent patch were less than friendly.

Plot Watch begins early 2009!

Chicken Watch #19: Foul

  

Day 138: What do chickens and our weather have in common?

Chicken Watch #18: Monster Chuck Fest

Day 103: It should have been just an average weekend...but everywhere we went, there they were too...

 

   

 

Chicken Watch #17: Fancy

Day 93: The Hood distracts with some fancy footwork while to others make a run for it.

Chicken Watch #16: Not for sale

  

Day 90: Our attempt to add to their numbers was unsuccessful.

Chicken Watch #15: Got Shorty

Day 85: Someone isn't pulling their weight.

Chicken Watch #14: Clipping Path

 

Day 78: To avoid further wandering we have dislodged their cosmic equilibrium.

Chicken Watch #13: The Great Escape

  

Day 70: Over the fence and through the hedge forwards, Penelope and Scott made a break for it. Distracted by bountiful pickings next door, their delay soon lead to recapture.

Chicken Watch #12: Compound Path

  

Day 63: In order to re-establish the correct balance of power, we have decided to limit their domain.

Chicken Watch #11: Others

Day 56: When we are not tending our own we seek others of their kind.

Chicken Watch #10: Up close and personal

Day 50: As we have learnt, Penelope is not camera shy.

Chicken Watch #09: Coop Innovation 02

 

Day 43: Hot on the heels of a new removable, therefore easier to clean, perch for the nest box I've built and installed a covered food trough. Now fully road-tested, I got a thumb's up from The Hood and feel now we have a mutual respect previously missing from our relationship.

Chicken Watch #08: Hot pursuit

 

Day 36: Even by chicken standards, it seemed a little over the top; it was only a twig in Penelope's mouth but the two lower pecking order fowl's interest was, to say the least, ferocious. Then we realised, the twig had four webbed feet and bulbous eyes, and required human intervention.

Chicken Watch #07: A-ttaaaaaack!

  

Day 31: While The Hood remained detached, Scott gave me "the evils" and surprise, surprise, Penelope went on the attack. Thankfully, I'd attached my anti-peck...attachment.

Chicken Watch #06: Undercover Chickens

  

Day 26: Originally (5000BC) jungle fowl, there's still nothing a chicken likes more than a bit of scratching about in the undergrowth. Keen to understand their mysterious ways, I got in there with'em. Once discovered they wasted no time in letting me know their feelings on the intrusion.

Chicken Watch #05: Wash and brush up

Day 20: It might look like Mr Fox has been a-calling but those ruffled feathers are actually the result of a vigourous dust bath. Pass the luffa.

Chicken Watch #04: An Egg Cometh!

Day 17: From arse to egg cup in just 2 hours*. Celebrations heard streets away. 

 

We boiled, we dipped, we compared. And it was good, better. 

Think it was Scott; much patting of feathered back. Well done.

* Conservative estimate

   

UPDATE: Egg Count as of 16.30: 3

Chicken Watch #03: Special Branch

Day 14: Excellent perching technique. Well done girls.

Chicken Watch #02: Pecking Order

  

Day 10: Penelope's top dog and wants in (to the house). Well it's not bloody Animal Farm...get out and get laying!

Chicken Watch #01: Free

Day 5: And we decided to try a little free ranging. They didn't fly away.

Three French Hens

An uncharacteristic, niche-interest and personal entry perhaps but it's a sufficiently significant development in our home life to report that we now have a trifold of chickens. That "secret design project" I've alluded to recently being the two-week's-to-build bespoke chicken coop; I like to think, designed in the Shaker style (although I fear I'm horribly deluded in this).

I was all for naming them after type designers but my children pulled rank and have named them after (appropriately) Thunderbirds characters: Scott Tracey, Lady Penelope (a perfect chickeny name if I ever heard one) and The Hood.

For anyone interested (is anyone interested?) they're ISA Browns, the Ford Escort of the chicken world and their gentle clucking is now the soundtrack to our little corner of suburbia. Estimates suggest we could be harvesting up to 300 eggs for breakfast, per be-colmed head, per annum.