Busy, mischievous chooks

I've always delighted in watching any chooks that I've owned. I love hearing them "chat" to each other and I've acquired a group now that also "chats" to me and follows me around whenever I'm doing jobs outside. The rooster, Figjam, is a real comedian without even trying. He reminds me of Basil Fawlty. His partners do what they like and he pretends to run the place and strides pompously around making noise about it.

The flock was allowed run of the 3 acres last week and, of course, they wandered down to the pile of grass/weeds behind the compost bins and turned it over for me! The closed off north-western section of the chook run is flourishing after the rain and will provide some greens for them over the colder months.

Sunday I noticed the dye berries were ripening in the eastern sheds so I collected those and they had a mini feast.

Yesterday, I discovered some naughty girls had found a nice corner (far left back in picture), in the back shed adjoining their run, to lay their eggs. PC had left the side door open so they had alternate shelter in case it rained heavily again....lol, spoilt chooks....and closed the main double entry doors. I closed off the access last night to encourage them to use their nesting boxes again. Lastly, Henrietta likes to supervise anything I do around the chook pen/yards so she had to jump up and investigate the eggs when I placed them outside to take a photo.

Cheers,

RobynLouise XO

p.s. - to enlarge photos click on them :).

A bit of this and a bit of that....

MrHM made a request to know what's happening on the 'farm'. To this end I'll be doing a daily update for the last few days of March. It also gives me an excuse to play with the photo arranging :).

After the rain last week these began popping up. The huge ones on the left are some kind of toadstool I think as they are completely enclosed. The centre is a regular mushroom and on right is the underside. Shame the rain was so heavy it impregnated them with sandy/clayey dirt as there were enough to fill a 2 litre ice cream tub.

The dwarf beans also benefitted from the rain by shooting up about 15cm and flowering. The difference in sizes is due to staggered planting times....and an ant bean seed eating invasion...grrrr.

My worms are breeding up nicely and making lots of fertiliser. The bottom tray (left) is worm cast and some adventurous worms, Middle tray (centre) is filled with shredded paper to 'catch' those who venture down from the top tray. The shreddings are also damp from worm wee so they can be used as compost for the garden. Right picture is some bedding from the top tray and the, hopefully, worm free bedding/cast from the top feeding tray separated into the box to be used to either make worm tea or as compost or a potting mix addition.

I had begun to remove these  a few weeks ago as we had no idea what bulbs they were. Now that they have flowered I think I'll keep some and plant clumps of them in various places as they are so cheering to look at. I will research what they are as well. Anyone care to help by naming them for me?

The end of the day today and my two "assistants" are having a rest. They are good mates to each other as well as to us.

Cheers,

RobynLouise XO

Photo collages

Part of rearranging my blog involved locating a free photo editing program. After much searching I found one and it is https://www.befunky.com/. The reason I liked this one, apart from it being free, is that I can create collages with it and I can download any edited photos/collages to my computer for future use without having to save them in a file online. This appeals to my sense of privacy. I created my new blog header with it.

It is also handy for upgrading the bad photos that my mobile phone takes, where the colours are washed out because the phone is trying to add more light, as it doesn't have the settings a true camera does. I took this one on the way home from Kempsey. It is from the Cowra side of Bathurst and I'm glad I could edit it to show how magnificent the colours actually were to the naked eye. I particularly like the bright orange arch above and slightly to the left of the road.

Cheers,
RobynLouise XO

WIP on this blog

I'm currently re-arranging my blog as I want to add some new gadgets and change the layout around.
Please follow the example Maddy, aka the Mad Cat, has taken as I'm away for the next week and won't be able to work on it as much as I'd like.

Cheers,
RobynLouise XO

Eggsasperating!

There's always one hen that just won't be happy laying in the nesting box in the chook pen!

Cheers,

RobynLouise XO

Berries and bugs

There's a "weed" in my garden that I know as a dyeberry. I've been cultivating them as I'm going to start a self sowing crop of them in the chicken yard as hens love them. They usually only grow in Summer so I will need to sow some now and see how I go with drying the berries so I can sow them next Spring.

I have no idea what this "weed" is but the flower is very pretty. I may have to see what this develops into and if  hens eat it too.

My little aphid eradicators were all sunning themselves earlier this week but as soon as I brought out the camera they scuttled off. It took me ages to take this photo as each time I turned a leaf the quick little beasties shot off across it and ducked "under" it again. Lol, people say kids and pets are difficult to photograph but I think a minute 6 legged bug is a real test of one's ability!

Cheers,

RobynLouise XO