Mother Hen's Baby Chicks

Mother Hen, after disappearing for three weeks and only seeing her briefly during that time, presented us with her new chicks last weekend, all eleven of them! So cute!

It seemed a good opportunity to hurry up and get the two chicken coops cleaned out so that they could be used. We would never be able to keep the cats away from the chicks for the month or so necessary for them to grow big enough to give the cats serious indigestion! So that was the next job on the ever-growing list of things to do.

We spent the next few days hosing the coops out and disinfecting them, put nice clean beds in the smaller one, and lined them with wood shavings and straw. Everything a hen could possibly want to be warm and cosy!

The back paddock got watered as well, as there were holes in the hosepipe! Oh well!

The nursery coop was now ready for Mum and her chicks to move into, but how on earth do we catch them? Mum has never been handled before and certainly wouldn't get close enough to let us pick her up! A large net wasn't ideal either!

The chicks needed to be kept safe, there was only so much a hen can do to safeguard her chicks from predatory cats, or any other type of predator. Eventually, after giving it some considerable thought, Steve came up with a fantastic idea.  A 'boma'!

Later that afternoon, we arranged some (specially bought!)  shade cloth around the bird table and a couple of nearby trees and fed all the hens as usual. They were used to coming to this area, and we just needed to entice Mum and chicks inside the 'boma' so we could pull the shade cloth across the opening behind her and, hey presto, we would have them! Mmm, this operation could take some time!

The next day, we went out to start the process of encouraging Mum Hen into the 'boma'. When she turned up with her babies, Steve and I went out to see how close she would get to the enclosure. I stood inside it, shaking a bucket of feed. All the chickens know that sound! We couldn't believe it when Mum walked straight into the 'boma' where I was now crouching down throwing out the feed for her, the chicks all following closely around. Steve came slowly up behind her and pulled the cloth across the opening. He put a large box next to her and within a minute or so, Mum and all the chicks were in the box. We couldn't believe how easy it was!

We carried them all across to their much safer new home, where Mum took her chicks to a corner of the run and made sure they were all happy. They have now spent a night there, and seem to have settled in very well! I hope they enjoy it! We certainly feel relieved at getting them in there.

It's hard to believe that just a few short months ago, these coops were roof high with aloes - hundreds of them! What a job it was to clear them out too, but that's another story!

In between all this excitement, we have been getting the ceiling of the main room in the cottage painted, and have been trying to choose colours for the walls.

We have been planting more trees down the side of the back paddock, which should cover the fence beautifully within a few years.

The cats and dogs have been making the most of the warm sunshine we have been experiencing.

And we have been finding the tiniest of tortoises! Spring must be on its way!

A lot of rain and a lot of sunshine

It has been a real mixture of heavy rain and warm sunshine this week.  A couple of days of heavy rain turned the brook next to us into a proper river, which Alfie thought was great fun! Show him water and he is in it!

The heavy rain also showed us where the leaks are in the various buildings we have here.  Most of the leaks we have already fixed, but it takes seriously heavy rain to know where to find all the leaks! Actually, there weren't as many as we thought there might be, but today we are repairing some holes in the stable roof (aka the workshop), and the (soon to be) chicken coop.

Whilst Alfie was investigating the river levels, he found the biggest stick he has ever lifted, and insisted on bringing it back home.  He knows we are always on the lookout for any wood! We never turn any wood away, and I'm sure his stick will come in very handy one day!

The chickens visited the cottage garden a few days ago, always on the look-out for something new and interesting to eat.  We have just discovered that they do enjoy their fruit!

We give them their feed near the main house now and are trying to encourage them into the back paddock. We are repairing the larger chicken coop there, and want to move them to that to make it easier to look after them.  Although they do visit the back paddock from time to time, because they are 'wild', they don't consider it is somewhere they want to roost at night, and have never been put inside a coop.

 All the hens will be laying eggs somewhere by now, but we have no idea where, apart from two of the hens, who have made nests next to each other, We are collecting bedding for the chickens this week, and we will clean out the coop ready for them. Then, it will be a simple matter of waiting for them to move in! (That was a joke, that last bit!) Watch this space!!!

The first eggs we collected were enjoyed by all of us. We had eggs on toast, the dogs had one each in their evening meal, which they woofed down, and even the cats enjoyed one as well!

The biggest treat for Steve this week was the sighting of an African Goshawk in one of the blue-gum trees behind our property. Not an uncommon sighting as such, but it is not so easy to get a good photo of one. It sat in the tree for quite a while and, after taking about 100 photos, he got this one!

 We are still trying to dry out the cottage so that it can be painted, and we are getting there slowly.

In the meantime, we have been working on the climbing frame for the cats! Oops, sorry, I mean...

... the lapa!