June 2007

1 Tat, Titfer & Lacey off to a flying start for the month.  Will Tat reach 60 eggs without a day off?
2 Aggie's back in the broody pen and I'm not letting her out for at least 48 hours!
3 Well she kept us waiting, but after a gap of 36 days Clover has laid again  :-)))
And more, it's Tat's 60th today.  That's right, 60 eggs in the last 60 days.  I'm speechless.  How many more days will she continue without a gap?
Titfer laid late morning and was back in the nest at 3pm.  This seems to happen occasionally.  Boy, did she make a fuss when I threw her out.  The neighbours must have thought she was being prepared for the pot!
4 Tat spent ages on the table being tickled and Clover jumped into my lap for some treats.
5 Clover jumped into my lap again when Tat was on the table, both angling for nibbles of cheese scone.  Aggie was out & about and seemed ok.  She forgot about the nest and wandered with the others, but then went straight into the nest at tea time, so she's back in the broody pen.
6 Clover's lap visits are getting to be the norm.  Aggie was better, she even perched after tea but went into the nest later, so it was back into the pen again....
7 At last, Aggie stayed out on the perch this evening.
8 Lovely to see Aggie back to full normality and leading the pack around.
9 Paid a visit to a local exotic plant exotic nursery and we were amazed to find a whole array of chickens there!  Little Clovers with Mr Clovers, a bantam Titfer/Tat, some absolutely enormous specimens including Buff Orpingtons and many other breeds, as well as chicks of various ages, the funniest looking ducklings and two goats.
10 Tat's still going - now at 67 eggs on the trot.
11 There's a prowling cat in the vicinity.  It looks quite young, but it killed a small rabbit in our garden today.  The hens are wary and a little upset when it's around.
12 5 perched chicks It's been a long time since all five chicks have settled on the top perch facing front.

Can't say that Lacey looks comfortable, still being pecked by Titfer I think.
13 It's Titfer & Tat's second anniversary.
14 A five egg day!
15 Another 5 egg day but Lacey is acting very broody.  She was flat in the nest and gave me a nasty pecking when I tried to get eggs from under her.  Finally Crow removed her to the broody pen but she escaped!  We can't believe that she somehow scrambled up between the wire and the outside of the nest, in a gap no wider than six inches, onto the top of the nest box and then back into the nest, but somehow she did.  That's one very determined and ingenious chicken!  When we blocked the nest entrance, hoping she would perch, she wouldn't settle.  She kept jumping up on top of the nest box and we were afraid she would fall down the six inch gap and hurt herself, so we had to bring out the alternate triangle broody pen and put her in there for the night.
16 Lacey seems ok today.  No egg, but no nest either.  Aggie explored the triangle pen as an alternate nesting place before laying in the proper nest.
17 Lacey sat in the nest this morning then emerged making the loudest and longest announcement - but there was no egg!
18 Will Clover & Aggie miss their trips next door when our fence is replaced next week?
19 Lacey is a odd bird at the moment - she laid on the floor of the chicken run.
20 Our bewildered chickens were locked in until 16:30 today, as we went out.  It's been a long time since they had to stay penned up.
21 Dawn cracked this morning as I was dragged out of bed for a delivery of cement & ballast, so chicks were out really early to make up for yesterday.
22 Tat helped with the weedingTat helped with the weeding -->
23 Wow! Tat's up to eighty days without a break now.
24 Chicks love carrot topsChicks love carrot tops -->

I can't believe it and I don't want to believe it, but Clover is acting a little broody again.  It's only 22 days since she started resumed laying.  Surely it can't be. 

25 Big bad mummy hen (that's me) has had to banish poor little cute docile clucking Clover to the broody pen :-((
I'm mortified.  It's 8pm and after sitting for at least six hours in the nest before I moved her earlier, Clover has laid an egg in the broody pen.  Now I feel really wicked.
26 Last year Tat was broody at the end of May, through the whole of June and the first half of July.  What a contrast with this year.
27 Clover is definitely broody now and would spend all day in the nest, if allowed to.  I lifted her out today to get her to eat.  I should have known the danger of disturbing her then allowing her in my lap.  She paid me back for 25th by pooing on me.  How lovely!
28 Big bad mama has got Clover back in the broody pen.
29 Tat's building up very slowly for a day off.  Each day she lays a little later, so eventually she will miss a day.  She's now up to 87 days without a rest
30 Scores on the doors:  SuperTAT 30, Titfer 22, Lacey 21, Clover 18, Aggie 15
eggs this month
eggs this year