And So It Begins

I was going in to town this evening to pick up Hannah and decided to change shoes. My jeans were rather shabby and my shirt unironed but I thought they might do. I was only going to Lidls after all. Off I went, ready for anything. No matter about the faded jeans and the wrinkled shirt, my shoes were shiny.

When I got home I had some chicken business to attend to for Flour the Silkie is sitting on eggs for the third time this year. I've decided to let her get on with it. I removed the original eggs and set three below her plus the one she laid this morning and moved her to another shed. Apart from feeding and watering she will be left to get on with it in peace. It is a little bit late in the year but very warm for September so it should be OK. She is in good condition and I will make sure she gets plenty of nourishing treats as the sit progresses.

When all was done I went upstairs to change beds as more guests are expected in the next few days. I was very surprised to see one of my new shiny shoes lying on the floor. Didn't I....? Then I looked down at my feet.

The bits on my shabby left foot are flecks of straw from making a cosy bed for Flour.

Waiting For Jessops

There will be more posts (I promise) when I get my new camera. That would be the one I ordered late in the evening before Easter Sunday, two weeks ago today! Jessops promised next day delivery but I didn't expect that, not on a holiday weekend. It might come on the Tuesday or Wednesday. I was very excited. Still waiting and the amount I've spent on ringing up and giving off has probably cancelled any savings I made from buying on-line.

One of the customer services people assured me that the problem was they couldn't send the camera direct from a shop because it was being 'delivered to Ireland'. This was most amusing to me. I know this is Ireland, my heart tells me so, but politically and postally we are  part of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. Another customer advisor assured me it would be delivered yesterday and it wasn't. Then a sweet girl said she was sorry for the mix up and promised me it was being sent from Belfast this coming Monday and I should have it by Wednesday. Belfast! I've been in Belfast twice since I ordered the damn thing. I could have been out there snapping away for over a week by now.

Still, as they say, a first world problem. I still have three cameras although two of them are shite. The one that isn't shite is an iPad and I only like to use it at home as it is unwieldy.

But it would have been nice to have had my new camera to take photographs of our solitary chick, the one that was part of a clutch that the two bantams, Honey and Flour were fighting over.

Co-Clockers, Honey and Flour

On Easter Monday morning Flour left the clutch, to eat and drink and Honey got on the eggs. I thought nothing of it and went to an eye appointment in Belfast. When Bert picked me up a few hours later he said there had been a calamity. He'd heard angry squawking coming from the inside and found Honey and Flour fighting viciously. The first egg had hatched and they appeared to be fighting over the chick. It was bloody and injured. Bert removed it and brought it into the house where it cheeped plaintively. It was marked on the back and near its eye and we thought it would probably die. Meanwhile out in the house the eggs had been abandoned. The bantams were separated. I considered hand rearing the chick but decided against it. Too much time and effort for a poor return. We offered it to the quarantined Honey who tried to peck it. Honey was put back with the flock and Flour put in the spare hen house. We tried the chick with her and she raised her wing and accepted it. And that was nearly two weeks ago.

An Only Child

A lesson has been learned. Next time they go broody we'll separate them from the flock and each other. That way there will be no adding to the clutch and no fighting. And maybe, next time, there will be more than one hatched. I still don't know if it is boy or girl. If it turns out to be a rooster Leitrim Sister might take it. After such a poor start it deserves a crack at life.

And that was another place where I could have used my new camera. Three days in Lovely Leitrim (and Sligo) at the beginning of the week and nothing but my ancient Canon for company. I did take pictures but they didn't delight me. But Leitrim, Sligo and Enniskillen did, that and the company of Leitrim Sister* and Yer Man**.

Pickles at Strandhill

*   Since February 2016 Dr Leitrim Sister.
** Evie's name for her Great-Uncle Nick.

Sunday, Muddy Sunday

Another drear and soppy day. It is a squelchy walk to the hen run these mornings but at least Flour the bantam isn't clocking any more. Imagine! Going broody in December/January. It's far too cold to bring out chicks and it's not good for chickens to spend three weeks sitting on a nest in the bleak midwinter. She was persistent. We'd keep lifting the eggs from under her and the next day there would be another two or three under her. She must have brought them to the nest herself. Our friend Peter said they gather the eggs up under their wings and transport them to the nest. He also said she needed to get a cold arse to put her off the notion so Bert put her under a bucket and set her in a shed. the next morning I looked out the window and there was a hard frost. Good part, ground not squelchy; bad part, Flour's arse might be a bit too cold so I raced out to the shed and set her free. She joined the others and is now (thankfully) completely off the notion of clocking.

And I've been walking every day since the year began. Today it was so wet I wore my wellies. Not great for tramping the highways but at least my feet were dry. Walking was the good part. The less good part is that I had trifle for breakfast. Roll on the eleventh.