R.I.P. Bibo

Bibo the hamster, has passed over to Rainbow Bridge. We found him, or rather I found him, on Saturday afternoon. He was in his main area and it looked like maybe he had just fallen to sleep or had a heart attack or something. I just don't know. He was between 16 and 18 months old at least. We had him for nearly 15 months and I don't know how old he was when we got him last year in March. I've been told that they are normally around 3 months old. Anyway, it was a hard day. Isabella was totally heartbroken, but she decorated a little box for him - it was actually one of my 5 thousand egg boxes - it had a picture of Daisy and Dash on it. I told her that as they live in the garden, they would watch over him. She decorated it and then we wrapped him in some lovely flowery fabric before she wrote him a little note which she tied with ribbon, 2 white feather for wings and a little white flower. She was very brave about it actually and placed him into the grave that Steve had dug for him in the new area of the garden, which we only did last weekend. There is a large piece of slate over the top onto which we placed a candle and some flowers. She made a little tribute video for him and chatted to some of her friends who have also lost their hamsters so, three days on, she is feeling a lot better and is back to her normal self. It was harder for me really, watching her deal with the loss of this little bundle of fur, but I knew how she felt, so I think I was able to help her through it. I know the process you go through and how taking an active part in the process of saying "good-bye" is very healing. Anyway, rest in peace little Bibo. I'm sorry and hope you are now with Amber, Holly and Tibby in Grandad Thomas's garden. We will miss you. <3

Daisy's First Egg!!

Well done that chicken!! Or should I say "hen". Whatever...anyway, yesterday Daisy did something amazing. She laid her very first egg. Being a first time hen keeper and also a townie to boot, this was absolutely thrilling! I know, it sounds ridiculous, it's only an egg...chickens have been laying eggs for thousands of years. Okay, but this is no ordinary egg. It's special. Yesterday, when I got up at the crack of dawn to let them out of their coop, I noticed that Daisy seemed a bit out of sorts. Normally she is the first one out, she scratches about, comes up to me and so on. But yesterday she just kind of sat there doing nothing. Her face was rather red and she looked all puffed out, like twice her size. I thought she was sick, in fact, I thought she might even be dying and wrote as much on my FB status. One of my more informed friends assured me that Daisy was probably about to lay an egg. I wasn't sure I believed her. This didn't look like egg laying behaviour to me, not what I read about in the zillions of books and websites. Throughout the morning, I periodically checked on her before noticing that she had taken herself inside the coop. "Could she be laying an egg?"...I dared to wonder. At 12pm, Isabella and I went outside to see how she was and we were very happy to see that she was back to her normal self and was walking around cuckolding away non-stop. Isabella advised me to check the egg box "just in case". I said to her, "Don't get your hopes up - I'm sure there will be nothing in there." Of course, I mean, a chicken...laying an egg? What was she thinking? I proceeded to unlock the fort Knox that is the chicken coop, opened the nesting box door and nearly had kittens. There, sitting beautifully in the nest, was one perfect little brown egg. I was so shocked I quickly shut the door again and just stared blankly at Isabella, unable to say anything other than "Oh my God.". We both opened the door again and took loads of pictures of that egg, texting people, ringing people, updating FB all whilst squealing with delight. No doubt a farmer would be shaking his head with a mixture of amusement and pity. Anyway, we duly collected it and carefully placed it in one of our 500 egg cartons that we have been collecting for the past five years. We took yet more pictures of it sitting in the egg carton. So there we have it, our first egg laid by Daisy, the little brown hen. We haven't used it yet because it's a little on the small side so I'm waiting for her to lay another one which together should make one large egg...enough for some pancake batter for tomorrows breakfast. Three cheers for Daisy!

Chickens

Well, after many years of research and a whole year after orginally buying our chicken coop, we have finally got chickens!! It has not been easy, I tell you that much. About a month ago, I asked Steve to extend the run area because I really didn't feel that it was big enough for two much less three birds. So after much measuring and moving things about, Steve made a brilliant extention which I was very happy with. We had already purchased a whopping 20kg bag of organic chicken feed, grit, oyster shells, louse powder, Eglu feeder and Glug (which Steve managed to fit on to the side of the run - what a clever chap he is to be sure) plus bark for the run itself. Now all we needed were the chickens!! So it was that we went to Smilers Farm in Wickford (who were brilliant and have so many different types of hens including heritage) and purchased three hybrid hens for £15 each. I couldn't believe it when they arrived home - I couldn't believe that after so many years, I actually had chickens in my garden!! Isabella was so excited and helped to get the house ready by putting in their bedding etc. Anyway, after the first day and night, I decided to return one of them because I could clearly see that there was not enough space and there was some bullying going on (not the same as sorting out the pecking order) which would only get worse due to lack of space. So we sent that one back and now have two hens which have more than enough room. One is a speckledy (Dash) and the other, my favourite, is a little red hen who Isabella has named Daisy. Perfect names for chickens, I think! They have been here nearly a week and, although at first I was checking on them every five minutes and barely slept a wink because we have a lot of foxes here and, in fact, I actually bumped into one on the garden path in broad daylight only a few days before getting the chickens! On the second night, Foxy Loxy came to introduce herself to the hens and her paw prints were all over the hen house! She had left no stone unturned and had also knocked over my fly catcher on the roof which stank!! She had clearly had a good look to see if there was any way of getting in but seems to have given up for the moment. We've made it as secure as we possibly can - it has a concrete base, is risen up from the ground, has hardcloth wire all over it, a solid roof, locks on absolutely ever single opening, including the pop hole. I am hoping that it's safe. No doubt the fox will wait - will lure us into a false sense of security and wait for us to make one tiny mistake. Hopefully that won't happen. Anyway, I wasn't looking forward to getting up at the crack of dawn to let them out, but actually, I have very quickly worked out a good routine. After they have put themselves to bed, I go into the run and clean out all the poo etc (not a nice job but not as bad as doing the litter tray!), put the Grub (their food) into the feed bin (which is lidded and kept in the greenhouse) and lock the greenhouse up before emptying the water from the Glug into one of my plants and then placing it in the bike shed near the back door of the house. I then lock everything up. In the morning at 6am, I simply go out, grab the Glug and refill it, grab the Grub from the feed bin, open the house, put the Glug and Grub in place and then let them out. Easy as. In the afternoon I clean out the actual house which isn't that dirty actually, and that's it. I have tried feeding them various treats in the afternoon such as strawberries (they didn't like them), grapes (Daisy gobbled the lot), fresh yoghurt (Daisy gobbled the lot) and some bread (not interested). Now all I'm wondering is, where are the eggs?? If those chickens don't start laying soon, Steve isn't going to be very happy!

London Zoo

Ah, London Zoo...easily one of my most favourite places in London! Isabella spent her 10th birthday there back in March and we all had a fabulous time. It was such a great sunny spring day - it was in fact, a perfect day in every way. I didn't tell her we were taking her to London Zoo, I just got her up and into the car we went before stopping off in Islington to pick up some other relations! It was all a great surprise and she really had the best time ever. We opened presents and had cake when we got home, even though we were all very tired! Every year she tells me, "This was the BEST birthday EVER!". Every year, I have to try and top the year before (last year she got her hamster, Bibo who is doing very well and now lives in her bedroom) so I better start planning where to take her next year!!