Chickens again!

So happy to be a chicken lady again, some sweet young things raised on Portland have come to join us at The Raggy Rat!

One conquers the apple tree before Daisy climbs up there. Then we clip the birds wings to prevent poultry walkabouts!

Much lighter than our old buff orpingtons, the girls enjoy some cuddle and strokes. I like the smell of the feathers and the glossy sheen as I stroke them!

And 26 eggs in 7 days! But ouch! I do not know who laid this beauty!

yarn ...

This lovely lap blanket perfectly reflects the fresh colours I used for my sofa curshions, and was sent to me as a Pay-It-Forward gift ... did you visit my facebook page and enter mine? I am going to give away 5 gifts this week!


Today, I made blind chickens see!

Look - No broken arm today!

at least, not in the chicken coup!

Three Eggs ... home grown ...

Three fresh eggs, three different sizes ... now we have had a wind-egg before, but what's this?



a dinosaur egg, me thinks!



And it really is a whopper, poor chicken, well done to my Buff Orpington!

Round up ...

I am going to make more bunting, but first, Mary had a go at decorating my pattern!



But what's this in the corner? Mary said she forgot to put her name, so I wrote on the board M-A-R-Y and I think she did very well, for a three year old!



This woollen tank-top feels lovely - it will soon be a fun crop of hamsters, though!



The face of barn owl number 5 appears!



and here is a little treat I got for myself, well for the family room...



On a sad note, skinny-chicken decided to leave us, and we all felt a bit sad. My older girls Drew her picture and gave them to me. This is Matty's...



and Daisy started her drawing with skinny-chicken's bright yellow legs - she was the only one of our girls with yellow legs!


Have you been busy? I feel as though we have!

Butter Chicken?

Daisy has progressed from cuddling chickens on the ground, to picking up one of our black-tails...



and they both seem happy with this development!



Don't look now little chicken, but...



That looks like a jar of Butter Chicken!



But it's ok, I am just a rotten tease - this is our favourite family sauce, but I only ever put Quorn pieces in it!

Great Eggspectations!

one day we decided to have an egg guess - we have 5 chickens and they had just had a very muddy grumbly day, when we took a vote at tea time!



and would you know it, daisy was right - I was so eggsited as it was our first time we ever had all five birds lay! Mary made that lovely egg box lable ...



Daisy made this lable, and said Matty's Chicken looked like a goose ...



Matty said it didn't ...



but all the egg boxes look lovely, would anyone like some happy eggs?

and then there were eggs!

we have settled into a nice routine here and chez raggy-rat ...



I get the chickens up before the girls, and then later on we look for eggs and share out veg and dinner scraps ...



and after a week and a half with us, the first egg appeared, just after Steve's birthday!



and the Orpingtons have really got used to us, in fact all the girls seem really happy around us now ...



and in the afternoon, we go in and throw a few handfuls of corn ...



one of the black-tails had a very pecked neck when she arrived, it is almost filled back in now, she looks great!



one hen likes cuddles ...



the girls have inspired some nice drawings, matty did this chicken and egg ...



and daisy drew this image, showing me and matty collecting eggs, and a nice tub of grit on a log, too!



Actually, with my red henna'd hair, I look a lot like a chicken!

looking after the feathered girls ....

The first time daisy took the scraps out, she threw it on the floor and ran away!



Matty and Mary are also happy to come close to the birds now ... they are looking t o see what the chickens choose to eat first!



no eggs yet, though ...

Chicken-Lady!

I was a bit busy today, getting to know some new pets ...



This is the most forward of the chickens, a buff Orpington (one of two) who let me stroke her as she inspected me and my camera ...



A sea of fuzzy butts, as my camera appears!



RUN! one of the three Black-tails is very camera shy!

three little chickens ...

the bigger chicken is my child friendly dining room doorstop - all these 1950's self-closing hinges would trap little people - and the two smaller softie chickens are presents...

i know that steve craves three chickens of his own, but for now, we just have chicken art ... and our pet rats of course!

visiting, and meeting up ....

on thursday we met lots of animals and birds, and also chris http://mygrandfathersgooseberry.wordpress.com/

arriving at jax's house with the help of my trusty sat nav ! chris helped me park and too pics of our first meeting. why do i always look half asleep?




daisy and matty stare at chris camera - they didn't cry tho !



i cuddled a baby african grey, who was quietly waiting to be fed (every two hours, how does jax do it!) the girls were very taken with the baby bird and want to see it again...



time to feed mary too, and laught at daisy's jokes!



thanks for a lovely morning jax, the very fresh eggs, and for the great photos chris
next time i'll bring my BIG camera along with everything else !

cat xxx

NUDE chickens ....

not really, that's just they way matty and daisy describe NEW things, they can't seem to hear that word any other way! funny how both of them make similar sounds for the same words, their first word was flower for both of them...


made 2 NUDE chickens, one for our dining room and one for a swap, the brown chicken should be landing in austrailia any time now, and the pinkish chicken is holding open the dining room door, and replaces a heavy cast-iron pig which wasn't at all user friendly, esp with little ones about.

so yes, some sewing got done, and i cut out some fabric the other day to made a small bag for my video camera to afford a bit of protection to it, moslty from the dust in this place!

vince is finnished now so give him a call if you would like him up some scaffolding near YOU...still waiting for mine to be taken down, and the light let in again

three big chicken pouffes for christmas!

and a happy new year to all blog readers, remember i am happy to exchane blog links with you ... its one of my favorate time wasters, hopping blog links

well all the girls enjoyed their chickens and louise carried hers all over the house to ensure comfort while playing small electronic games ...

daisy has got the hang of climbing on, but matty isnt so keen yet ...

i am very pleased with them and hope their cousin mia likes hers too ...