Scrambled!

8 days after purchasing the two Warren chickens, a perfect pale brown egg with darker speckles appeared in the hen house. I was suprised how impressed I was. Chickens don't lay if they are stressed or ill, so I was pleased that we had provided the correct environment for a chicken to be happy enough to want to lay an egg. I have my suspicions that it was Cicero as she is the healthiest looking of the two warrens, and until recently Beatty was occasionally sick. Since the first egg, Cicero has been providing us with an egg a day without fail. That was 3 weeks ago, and today Matt went to the hen house after work, and there were two eggs in there. After some probiotic yoghurt, cider apple vinegar and chicken spice, and more likely some more time to get over her moult, Beatty has started laying also. She also looks like she is back to normal health.

I have learnt how impatient me and Matt are, we haven't been off the internet trying to find out why Beatty wasn't laying and why she was sick etc. Now that both Warrens are laying, we can relax. I have discovered that the other two hybrids are still very young, and can start laying between 18 and 30 weeks old. As they are only 19 weeks at the moment, we could be in for a long wait. But at least the bullying has pretty much stopped, and all four are getting along much better now.

Things at the allotment are not going so well. I was going to go on Bank Holiday weekend, but the weather was bad, so I missed out. Last weekend, I took some courgette plants thinking I could plant them and then go again. Instead I was met with tall grasses up to chest height all over the allotment. The onions still looked strong, althought they needed weeding. The potatoes could barely be seen for the weeds. I started work on weeding the potatoes, but I had to use a trowel to get the roots out, and ended up damaging some of the potatoes in doing so. The allotment looked almost as if we hadn't done any work over the last six months, and with all the other stuff I have going on with working and study etc, I felt like this year was going to be a right off like last year.

However, despite the problems with the veg I had planted, the rest of the allotment was taking care of itself. The apple trees are all full of fruit, the gooseberry plant is doing great and the fruit is nearly ready for picking. I also have a new favourite plant - I dug up a blackberry plant from the old allotment as well as some raspberry plants and put them into a bag with the intention of planting them at the new allotment in the spring. Spring has turned into summer almost, and there is still no room for planting due to the pile of dead brambles. But still my blackcurrent plant has produced at least a dozen fruits. Not bad going to hardly any soil and no room for root growth!

Our next project begins this weekend. Matt ordered a home brewing starter kit, and we are going to pick some rhubarb from the allotment tomorrow. Watch this space...

photos courtesy of Broken Fence Photography. www.redbubble.com (search salmonmattus)