Moonzie Doos

Spring has sprung

2011-04-16T15:58:00.000+01:00

At last after a really cold and long winter spring has arrived and as in previous years everything in the garden is shooting up. The doos are as prolific as ever and I have removed 16 eggs and it is only April. They have got very canny though and the other day I found two china eggs unceremoniously turfed out of the nest and onto the ground.

The chickens too are laying very well and every week we get at least one double yoker which puts my calorie calculations out a bit but tastes delicious so I just eat it anyway and don't bother if it takes me over my target for the day, an eggs an egg for all that. I have been on a new eating plan since Feb 1st and am amazed that A, I have stuck to it and B it has worked. I am now into a size smaller dress, trousers and top.

I have been just like a domestic goddess of late too, last weekend I made Rhubarb and Ginger jam and this week I made Rhubarb and Pineapple jam. The rhubarb above is in a hand made date palm basket that a wee Omani gentleman made me in Nizwa ten years ago, little did he know it would travel thousands of miles and be used for my annual rhubarb harvest. Next week I am making Rhubarb Chutney and Rhubarb Vodka. We do have quite a lot of Rhubarb this year. I also harvested the very first two shoots of my asparagus this morning, brought it in and steamed it and ate it! Delicious it was too! The apples we stored last autumn are still doing really well, so well that I gave away 10 kilos the other day and we still have two boxes left, they stored amazingly just put into plastic boxes with mesh sides, no newspaper or fancy shelves. There are plenty to put out for the blackbirds and the fieldfares had a load too. Yesterday morning the Moonzie wildlife came up trumps with seven partridges visiting the greenhouse area. Limpy the pheasant is still a regular visitor in the garden and still waits for me to fill the doo food hopper so he can get in first.

The green stuff in the picture above is Woodruffe, which is a strange German herb I brought back from Ardorf last year. The Germans make jelly from it and also use it to make a strange drink, only consumed in May in Ostfriesland, must get the recipe for it now I have the herb growing everywhere.

The front of the house is looking very pretty with pansies popping up everywhere, last year I had to do with 'volunteers' from the previous year but this time I am managing my time a bit better and am actually getting some planting done.

Happy Easter wherever you are!

Stop press: The Victoria Plum tree has 24 blossoms on it and the Lizzie Plum has five. The Thames Cross has nothing at all. I have decided to plant a Nuttery at the side of the garden and will have pictures and details in the next blog, also news of our new Log Cabin in the trees ( overflow accomodation, all mod cons for extra visitors who like dogs) ( Should read who like the sound of dogs!)

Long time no blog!!

2011-02-06T11:32:00.000Z

I know it is an age since I was last here but working full time and Caribbean holidays, partying over Christmas all take their toll.

We had two weeks in St Lucia again in November and as ever had a brilliant time, we arrived just after devastating hurricane Tomas ( not enough loss of life for the BBC or the world to take much notice ) but for the island it was a sad time, loss of life, loss of homes and loss of livelihood. When we got there a week later than planned we could see just what destruction there had been. Jans garden had lost a few trees but for us not a lot changed. Some poor folk were without water for weeks. We had taken a few meager supplies of water purification tablets and baby clothes to help out via the Red Cross but it was mere token gesture.

We came back to Scotland suffering the onset of one of the worst and coldest winters for years, actually we sat at Gatwick for two days in bright sunshine unable to get home and when we did it was a journey of fairly epic proportions, we were jolly lucky, our luggage and more importantly the Chairmans Reserve Rum did not make it for two more weeks.

Once we got back to Moonzie sadly we were effectively marooned as the snow continued to fall and I did not make it in to work that week apart from a brief foray on the Friday but heavy snow fall caused me to have to leave early and come home again. So late starts and early finishes were the order of the day for the next week.

Christmas arrived all too soon along with a houseful but we had a grand time, had no champagne related incidents apart from sore heads and all in all had a jolly fine time despite the track resembling The Cresta Run. We became very adept at getting unwary travellers out of seemingly impossible ice related situations, including the very odd couple who had come down the track to 'look at the stars'.

January arrived, we had a lovely New Years mini party with six of us here, it felt like twice that amount though. Sam was offshore earning more buckets of money but we raised a glass in his general direction.( Some 150 miles North of Lerwick on the raging North sea.)

The blog is supposed to be about doos and Chickens and so here goes, the hens are wonderful, especially the Black Rocks Tia and Maria who seem to have thrived on the bitter conditions and have not missed an egg laying day since we got them. Rosie and Arriety being slightly more delicate have missed a few days but have now started laying again.

The doos have continued to be as amorous and as productive as ever and late last year when we got back from St Lucia discovered a new baby who we have called Lucky. One of the very few of the class of 2010. This year we already have two doo babies, Bittofadoo and HairDoo ( named by Jan ) We also have two more eggs incubating but as we seem to have lost 4 over the window this should top the flock up nicely. After these babies I will be out once again removing eggs every weekend.

I was out today looking at the raised beds, hopefully the asparagus will have survived the freezing weather and we may get a crop this year. The Jerusalem fartichokes are as abundant and productive as ever. I have ordered some plug veg plants for may as I do not have the time to plant seeds and raise my own veg, Sam and I have formed a cooperative and he will help out I hope, otherwise I could have visions of the Chicken Licken story.

Bruces little beech tree has survived the winter and looks like it will be wonderful this year, it has grown much bigger and thicker and looks to be a stayer. Four years this weekend since we lost old Properjob Watts.

Had a rush of blood to the head yesterday and have ordered 15 tons of gravel to put on the parking area, it arrives on Tuesday, sadly I shall be at work but rather fortuitously Herb and Sam are both off and at a loose end.

Apples suitable for Snow White

2010-09-13T09:56:00.000+01:00

We have started picking the Beechgrove Apples and they are truly wonderful, fabulous flavour and texture and the flesh is tinged with red where the skin colour has bled though to the flesh. They have almost been too successfull as one branch has broken off due to the weight of the fruits. I think next year we may have to pick off a few small apples to prevent the same thing happening again.

The new double glazed window are coming on apace at the front of the house, so much better for bird and doo watching. The picture above is the old secondary glazed set up and below are the not finished new windows.

It was the Leuchars Air Show this weekend, weather grim in the morning but better in the afternoon, shame the traffic arrangements turned into a shambolic debacle and most folk took 6 hours to get in and then some who got back to the park and ride at 6pm did not leave the car park until 9.30. Herb watched from along the track by Pusk Farm, I had seen it all before!

Off to try and find a recipe that involves copius quantities of broccoli and red apples. The farmer has ceased harvesting now the price has dropped too low and I have tons of apples to deal with. The hens like the free broccolli greens and florets though. Shame that they won't eat apples.

Talented chickens?

2010-09-05T13:28:00.000+01:00

Discovered today that the chickens have a liking for shoes and dangly bits on trousers! They are getting bolder by the day but still refusing to eat pellets or mash and seem to be doing pretty well on scarps and forage. The guy in the pet shop says that I am too soft on them and to withold all scraps and treats until they start to eat. I guess like kids they will not starve themselves.

We have taken down the original dove cote for cleaning and refurb although the doves seem not to have noticed, maybe with less nesting holes we will have less eggs to discard this month.

The doo on the right is Stumpy who sadly lost a foot in the roof accident earlier this year. She manages very well and the next picture shows the stump if you loook carefully.

I dug some Pink Fir Apple spuds today, they look a bit odd but am told they will be delicious. I also harvested the onions whioch look fabulous and enormous! the next picture also shows some of the Moonzie goodies we have been producing this summer, Blueberry Jam, Bramble Jelly and Bramble Vodka. The Crab apple and mint jelly took 7lbs of crab apples to make one and a half pots of jelly. I was looking to buy small jam jars and ended up buying full jars of Tesco Mint sauce at 24p each and binning the contents to get the right size jars at a resonable price! Amazon wanted £3.99 for six wee empty jars!

SLAUGHTERED

2010-08-15T15:51:00.000+01:00

Should have been a good day, sun shining, bright blue skies and warm. Out of the sky came a killer and this is the result. Killed by a hawk only six feet from the back door this afternoon. It takes twenty minutes for a hawk to kill a bird, as it takes that length of time to pluck the breast clear of feathers, then tear through the skin to pluck out the heart while it is still beating. And some misguided people still think that sparrowhawks should continue to be protected. They once were a threatened species now they are so abundant they are eating all our songbirds, sparrows and thrushes and MY DOOS! Next time you wonder why you don't see or hear so many you will know why.

This was one of my original doos so it is either Ben or Jerry.

On a happier note Nikki came round today and we ringed two babies, Cocka Two and Voodoo Two.

When I grow up will I be lovely like you Mum!

2010-07-30T15:07:00.000+01:00

A baby doo is not exactly a thing of great beauty, but I am sure his/her Mum loves him!

As Sam said Like a Bollock with a beak!

After having no babies all year I decided to allow three eggs to hatch and two have done so but sadly I think the third baby has been devoured by a predator, maybe a weasel or a rat. Yesterday the third egg was just 'chipping' when I checked on it, the other two had newly hatched. When I checked again today the broken egg was in evidence but no baby so think it must have been taken overnight. The mother of the little beauty above was none too pleased when I took her baby for his first photo session and gave me some mighty wing flaps and pecks and growls but soon settled when I returned the youngster to her.

The pergola is looking glorious with some amazing trusses of roses all over it, the honeysuckle is also blooming well and it makes a smashing place to sit in the evening when the weather is right. Not that that has been happening too often this summer as yet .

The chickens are laying three eggs a day and have turned out to be the friendliest lot of hens so far. They are loathe to free range too often but are happy enough in the run.

Just a quick update not much doing down on the farm these days, having a lazy week off work but I did make some Pittormie Raspberry Vodka, ready at Christmas!

" I wonder when I will grow into my beak!"

At last an egg!

2010-07-03T12:53:00.000+01:00

The new girls have settled in very well, are really friendly and Rosie has started laying eggs at last. Not very big eggs but lovely brown eggs with firm whites and golden orangey yolks. It has been lovely and dry so the run does not resemble the quagmire it did last year and hopefully by the time we do get some rain Sam will have constructed the long promised boardwalk so I can safely cross the Bog of the Eternal Stench.

This is a picture of Mary and I at Kinshaldy beach after we scattered Auntie Maureens Ashes in the general area where her younger brother Sam was scattered. It is a lovely spot, great views for the sea and nicely sheltered from the harsh North Sea winds. As we drove to the beach through the forest I remarked on the lovely smell of woodsmoke, forgetting all the dire warnings about forest fires. On the way back we spotted the second of the 7 fire appliances it was to take to put the fire out after nearly 12 hours.

My birthday was celebrated quietly with a fish and chip and Bollinger supper by the stream, a warming fire and a few neighbours over to join in. Sam and Dan lit a fire later on as you can see. Moonzie looks great at this time of the year and the stream is a lovely place to sit and enjoy the peace and tranquility of the countryside, until, that is, the gas powered pigeon scarer starts up accompanied by the drone of the water pump to irrigate the broccolli. Still the farmer has taken up my kind offer of being on-site-qualty-control for his broccolli so as soon as it is ready I will tell him and he will arrange for the ten acres of the stuff to wing it's way to Morrisons.

Cheers!!

The girls really wanted to come and join the fun but stayed safely behind the wire for now. The doos are stll laying eggs just as fast as I can remove them but so far we have had no babies this year at all. As soon as I can get an accurate head count I will see if we can allow at least one pair of chicks to hatch. We appear to be down to 17 doos but it is difficult to count them. Due to the Gas Banger Bird scarer, and the giant plastic hawk bird scarer they spend a lot of time hiding around the roof and cotes and it is hard to get a good count. Still now the crops are established hopefully all the noise will abate.

Looks like we may be in for a spot or two of rain tonight, great for the garden, not so good for Captain Ahab who has yet again headed West on what is forecast to be an interesting week weather wise, 60mph gusts tonight for a starter! Then rain, rain and even more rain, great for the reservoirs, awful for the sailors.

Here come the girls!

2010-06-05T12:50:00.000+01:00

This is Arriety and Rosie and Tia and Maria, the new girls.

They arrived a couple of weeks ago and quickly settled in, Tia and Maria, the Black Rocks quickly established themselves as right at the top of the pecking order by temporarily becoming the fowl version of a velocoraptor by taking great chunks out of Rosie and Arriety. But now they have all settled down and at night all cuddle together in the nest box and seem to be the best of chums.

No eggs yet but it is early days as they are still young. I decided that we would just use the Little Hilton Chicken House and the Old House leaks and so that will soon be consigned to the dump or the bonfire, it will make for a bit more space in the run too. Once the new girls are settled in I will let them out to free range and they can take their chances with Roly and the Fox. Much better to dine on worms and slugs and have some fun, to see a chicken chasing a butterfly is a wondrous sight, they literally run and jump and then usually bump into a fence or a wall as they are too busy looking up to look out!

I found this sign in the garden centre and just loved it, Herb is not so keen!

The weather has turned well and truly summery and today it is yet again almost too hot to be outside, never a happy medium here! (Arriety by the way was the daughter in The Borrowers book and Rosie is named after my dear friend who bears no resmbalnce apart from her lovely nature and lovely name!)

The veg garden is looking great, the hot weather has caused all the Pak Choi to bolt but everything else is looking grand. Time to go and get some watering done now, no doubt there will be a hosepipe ban soon. The farmer has very kindly planted about ten acres of broccolli all around us so I will not bother this year!

Spring has well and truly sprung!!

2010-05-16T16:29:00.000+01:00

Sincere apologies for not blogging for ages but the job really has filled my time but I don't mind as I love it. It is so interesting, I get to meet loads of really different types of folk, murderers and the like, and the days just whizz by...and they pay me and I get to buy gorgeous stuff.

Just for the girls, just one of the gorgeous stuffs I have bought so far!

And for the boys this is some if the gorgeous stuff Herb has bought too. It is a Mulching, Self Propelled mower and Herb says it makes moaning the lawn a positively enjoyable experience. Actually they were not his exact words but it makes it all so much quicker, for the uninitiated, it clips all the grass into tiny sharp pointy bits and shoots it into back the ground, so you never ever have to collect the grass ever again or so it says on the box, whatever it does, it works!

This is the Beechgrove TV Apple Tree and it is laden with blossom this year, looks like we will have a bumper crop later on. Sadly this year the plums look like they will bear no fruit, we have not got a single blossom on any of the three trees, maybe it was just too cold or mybe they are just too young.

I have planted up the raised beds and devoted one to being an Asparagus Bed for the next twenty years, that should see some of us out! I also have Pak Choi, Bulb Fennel, red and green frilly lettuce, red and yellow beetroot and Pink Fir Apple Spuds, not to mention onions and radishes. The greenhouse is also bursting to the seams again with the fig which this year has 18 fruit, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Some interesting herbs including a little known herb called Sweet Woodruffe that I brought back from a recent trip to Germany.

This is the pergola that Herb put up last year and already the roof bit is getting covered with lots of lovely climbers and ramblers, we have roses, honeysuckle and just flowering now, a rampant clematis Nelly Moser. As you can see the sun is shining today, in fact so much so I have been out with just a t shirt on, and some jeans of course. This is not something that is seen very often in Scotland, the sun I mean , not jeans!

The other thing that has taken up our time has been having a new kitchen put in. This is the old kitchen.

This is the new kitchen!!

Love the wine cooler! No beer just wine and bubbly!!!!!

And another one. Right now I am going to take a bottle of something cold from the chiller and head up to the summer house for a well earned rets while I contemplate the next week at work. The summer house is looking good too.

The doos continue to be very active on the egg front, so far this year I have removed 27 eggs and replaced them with china eggs. We appear to have lost one doo, possibly to the hawk but as we had two with leg injuries it may just have left to die quietly. On the injury front, one doo has lost a toe and Stumpy has a leg that is about to drop off, but otherwise Stumpy is healthy, flys well and hops about very happily.

Sun is over the yard arm, I'm off!

Doo-sastrous weekend

2010-03-20T14:05:00.000Z

After having nothing to blog about for weeks last weekend we had a fairly awful time. Not exactly sure what wnet on but it looks like two doos that were on the gutter somehow got their legs trapped under the slates and damaged their legs quite badly. We think it was a combination of the legs becoming trapped and then Randy taking advantage of a trapped doo and bonking them senseless.

The first wee doo we rescued was DooDooRonRon and sadly her leg was so badly broken, her foot was hanging by a thread of tendon and she had lot so much blood, that we had no option but to gently cull her. The second doo was Pixie and I was able to paint her wound with iodine and she is doing OK, she hops about on one leg quite well and is eating and drinking.

The next day we again noticed a commotion and a third doo was in the same predicament, same place on the gutter so once more the ladder came out and Herb recued the doo, this one was DooDoo ( the second Lucian Doo to come a cropper) and she flew off but was having real problems. I was unable to get to her to deal with the le injury. I caught her one day but agin she escaped. She was spending a lot of time in the dove cote and was very quiet, so today I took the chance to have a look at her leg. As soon as I picked her up I smelt a dreadful smell and suspected a very bad infection but in fact on looking at the leg saw she had gangrene in the foot and leg and a fair way up to where the leg joins the body. Sadly she had to be culled as she would not have survived and must have been in terrible pain.

This is Pixies foot after the application of iodine. She is doing fine now.

The spring warmer weather has got their juices up and today I had to remove 5 more eggs from the nests and replace with china ones. I am hoping that we will have no babies all year but think that the doos may be wising up to me and we think that one doo may have started nest building in a bush.

The garden was looking great until we had some foraging deers pass by and they chewed the red curly kale down to stumps! I had not even tried any. Have prepared the beds for the arrival of the very expensive asparagus crowns any day now, will have to take precautions to make sure the deer do not fancy of this particularly tasty delicacy.

All my gardening is going to have to be done at the weekends now as I have got a job and start at the end of the month, goodbye to lovely long days in the garden in the summer, hello rat race!

After the Great freeze...the Big Thaw

2010-01-18T12:11:00.000Z

The snow stayed on the ground for 24 days before finally melting, in the process it managed to turn to ice and then deposit great sheets of the stuff through my greenhouse roof shattering six panes of glass and covering the fig and the overwintering geraniums in shards of glass.

The ice on the track still remains in places, at one point the track was like a bob sleigh run with ice three or four inches thick, treacherous underfoot and difficult to move about on. The chicken run is still a quagmire with icy puddles remaining. However the chickens have moved on and have been adopted by a friend and are now happily living at Earlshall Castle in an oak wood with three big cockerels and 60 other hens for company. I was finding looking after them just too much due to my incapacity with my ongoing arm problems. I may get some new hens in the summer once we have had a chance to look at the drainage of the run and maybe install some boards for walkng on to keep me out of the slippy zone, having mild panics about slipping since my Lucian banana adventure. Am actively looking into getting a pig to rear on for 20 weeks for some good home grown pork and bacon for the winter, the run is large enough and the stock fencing pretty strong so it would make a good short term home for said pig!

The doos are as prolific as ever and I have had to remove 5 eggs this year alone. Two are now happily sitting on plastic eggs none the wiser. I am going to have a go at selling on any youngsters that we do get and will convert the little Hilton Chicken House into a temporary house for them. At the last count I had 21 doos, more than enough for a garden like ours. I am having to rethink the feeding strategy as the hopper which was a good idea for holidays now never stays full for long as all and sundry are feeding from it, a new lighter coloured pheasant has joined Percy with the limp and we have also had a weasel and a rat. Herb saw the rat off with a well aimed shot, it leapt a foot into the the air before it succumbed!

The veg garden is still producing stuff and today I picked two lovely cabbages destined for tea tonight, the red curly kale looks healthy enough but has not grown overly large. The sprouts are coming to an end but we still have plenty of gorgeous leeks for cock a leekie soup! If only I culd persuade someone to like Jerusalem Artichokes, just have to store them until the pig arrives!

Today it is like a spring day up here, blue sky and sunshine and we have not put the heating on for the first time since we got back from St Lucia. I will light the fire later as it is bound to get chilly later. Snow forecast for later in the week, ho hum, life goes on!

Happy New Year from the Menagerie!!

2010-01-01T11:44:00.000Z

Christmas came and so did the snow. We had a fairly full house for Christmas with Mum, Stu and Sam and Sarah and Fiona and Nicci and Carmen popped in now and again too. All that was missing was our Soldier, out being a Bah Humbug in Afghanistan. Stu built the Snowman above in his honour it is a Snow Muz!

We all had a ball, no fights, apart from snowball fights. The boy Cousins decided that the girl cousin should be treated appropriately and everytime she left the house she got snow down her neck! Boys will be boys!

The doos seem to be really enjoying the snow, it makes them slightly less of a target for the hawks although just this morning we saw a very graceful Peregrine swooping low over the garden, it set the doos up but they all seem to have come home. The doos have definitely not read the Dove book as since December 1st we have had five babies with more on the way if the bonking is anything to go by. We are going to remove all the eggs that get laid from now on, a bit of a task for me as I am still unable to fully use my hand despite being out of plaster for two weeks. The doves continue to take daily baths in their drinking water even when they have to break the ice to get in!

The chickens are still laying well and loved being looked after by Fiona over Christmas. They are totally free ranging at the moment as Roly is in Kennels!

Moonzie is looking lovely at the moment although the ice is treacherous, the track is like a bob sleigh run.

The one thing we have noticed with all this freezing weather is the fact that many more animals and birds are in the garden. The pheasant and hare are regular visitors, as are the hundreds of Fieldfares, a sort of Scandinavian Thrush. We also have a pair of woodpeckers, all the usual suspects and today for the first time spotted a weasel darting about under the doo cotes. We think it was a Weasel and not a Stoat. The difference being a weasel is weasily recognized while a stoat is stoatally different!! There has been a fox prowling about too but so far he has steered clear of the chickens, we saw 6 deer in the field beyond the orchard the other day too so the cullers never managed to get the lot.

That is about it for today, it is still way below freezing so no chance of me venturing too far and there are masses of left overs yet to be consumed, I just love left over Moet accompanied by left over Quality Street.

Happy New Year!

Hatches, matches, dispatches, thrill and spills!

2009-12-06T14:30:00.000Z

Just to get the glamour picture out of the way right at the start!!

Well since I last blogged in October there has been such a lot to tell. The Broody Ronnie got sorted by simply denying her access to the comfy house for a few days and she turned from being Mrs Angry to being nice sweet natured old Ron once more.

At the end of October having left the house, the doos and the chickens in the tender care of Dan and his Mum, Herb and I headed off for a month long break in St Lucia. Break in this case was very apt as will become clear later. We arrived in St Lucia after a good flight and also a welcome catch up with a very dear old mate from Brize Norton days.

The plan was that after a couple of days with Jan and Jeff we would take over the care and security of the house, the dogs and the care of three lovely boats while they headed back to UK for Fionas Graduation ( she won the Sword at Cranwell!!!!), a haircut and lots of shopping.

Getting into the swing of things with two arms!

We really enjoyed our first ten days but sadly one day when Herb was despatched to harvest the bananas I came cropper and managed to fracture my wrist rather badly and damage a couple of teeth to boot. This was all sorted in Tapion Hospital, St Lucia, things wired together by a wonderful surgeon by the name of Dr Horatious Jeffers! Thereafter things were not so comfy for me but Jan and Jeff duly came back with Fiona and after a few discussions it was decided that Herb, Jeff and Fi would do the planned sail to Mustique and Bequia whil Jan and I did relaxing stuff at home. We were lucky enough to be able to celebrate Flying Officer Bullens birthday while there and the champagne for breakfast complimented the pain killers admirably!

This is the skipper and crew drinking MY cocktail at Basils Bar on Mustique.

Once the sea dogs got home we set about catching up on socialising and we ate the best Coconut Prawns I have ever had in a strange restaurant perched high on a hill with an assault course to get to the loos, I decided that I would forgo the experience but the others all made it unscathed. We also met up with an old mate from Herc days, here seen with the whole gang at a lovely bar called Chatea Mygo.

We all had a good time doing our stuff and all too soon it was time to come home, no amount of grovelling would get us an upgrade but we got good seats for the disabled and the flight home was uneventful.

Once home it was great to be met by all the boys especially Murray who was home on mid tour leave. We had great time all together, Morrisons had put Bolly on at half price for the occasion so we bought lots of bottles, drank them all and saved none for Christmas. Since I have nbeen back I have had two new casts, the first a rather bright shade of pink but the latest is up to the minute purple with glitter, all courtesy of the NHS!

The first night back we had a bit of a disaster as VooDoo our Lucian Doo was attacked and scalped by the Bloody Hawk, it removed all the flesh down to the skull bone and also did irrepareable damage to his wing. I decided that with only one arm I would be unable to care properly for Voo Doo even if he survived infections and stuff and reluctantly we decided to cull him. On a brighter note we have had three new babies since we went away, not quite planned, the china eggs fooled nobody and they had all been unceremoniously dumped out ofthe nesting boxes. The new doos are Voo DooToo, HoratiousDoo and Dr Doolittle.

A couple of days ago I amazed myself with my speed and agility as I saw the hawk grab a doo midflight and tumble it to the ground, I ran out purple plaster waving about madly, brandishing a fishing net and I was able to get the hawk to release the doo on the ground and they both flew off! Hurrah Success!!

We have a had a few additions to the Moonzie Menagerie of late, we are regularly having a pair of Spotted Woodpeckers in the garden, have hundreds of mice in residence and today have discovered that we do not have supermice in tackety boots but we have a grey squirrel living in our study walls! All suggestions gratefully received for his prompt removal.

This is me and Jan my lovely sister who gave up her holiday to the Grenadines to look after me, very grateful for that, she was a great nurse/companion. When I win the Lottery and get even more doddery she can have a job! The picture below shows a tiny humming bird that the self same nurse revived and liberated, good with birds, (big and small )dogs and everything!

So all in all quite an eventful time. This has taken ages to type as I am still one handed so if I do not blog before Christmas can I wish you all a very very Merry Christmas anda Happy, Peaceful and Safe New Year.

Ronnie has gone Broody!

2009-10-12T16:25:00.003+01:00

No, not Ronnie in Eastenders although those that follow the soap will wonder at how life echoes Eastenders!

Ronnie, of Ronnie, Roxy and Peggy fame, my three little red hens, has overnight turned into a snarling demon as she sits on eggs that get laid and repels all boarders who try to claim said eggs. She has gone broody. It is amazing how a docile gentle hen can turn so quickly into a demented, troubled soul ( just like Eastenders characters actually).

Going Broody is when a hen has had enough of just laying eggs that constantly get taken away and wants to sit on them and hatch out baby chicks. Alas as we have no cockerel this is never going to happen but poor Ronnie does not know that ( again a bit like Ronnie Mitchell not knowing her sperm donor boyfriend Joel had had the snip). Now we have a problem with poor old Ron, we could just let her sit until she comes out of it but that could take weeks. The other option is to get her back to normal by giving her a boot up the backside figuratively speaking. She can be dunked bum first into a bucket of cold water, made to sit on ice packs or put into a cat cage with no comfy straw and left in a draughty place for a few days. However I am going to leave her for a few days more and see if she comes out of it naturally. This could go on for weeks and weeks and meanwhile she will get very little food and become thinner and thinner, not what I want for her with the cold weather coming on.

Meanwhile I have excellent news about Fondoo who is now flying with the rest of the flock and apart from looking a bit lopsided with a droopy wing is holding his own and doing fine.

I have had to remove ten eggs over the past few weeks from the nests as despite my best efforts they are all still bonking like mad. Hopefully once it gets really cold all this canoodling will stop. A flock of 19 is more than enough for anyone. They are ranging far and wide now and love the field of corn stubble on either side of the track, they are a little too obvious for my liking as the bloody peregrine is a common visitor as is the sparrowhawk and also the buzzard. The buzzard has been scooping up the voles who feed on the dove food and last week I caught a sparrowhawk picking up a vole right in front of the lounge window.

I have got the feeding down to a fine art now and have bought a long covered feed hopper that contains enough feed for about 6 days so no more rushing around first thing in the morning to feed them.

Everything else in the garden is rosy!

Update on Fondoo

2009-09-20T12:47:00.003+01:00

The sun is still shining and there is not much wind so after a first abortive attempt at letting Fondoo go solo a few days ago, I have yet again put him into the air, droopy wing and all.

Things were looking pretty good and as I sat in the lounge watching him pecking at grain on the ground I could not believe my eyes, a bloody Peregrine Falcon landed in the garden close to the well and also took a great interest in all my doos! A couple of years ago I would have been delighted but of course now my views have changed a little. I will admit he was magnificent, just like in the book but NIMBY! Well he set the doos up and all flew, Fondoo only managed to get as far as the guttering on the roof but he was safe as the hawk was after sport today and not just an easy kill and he headed after the others. Well, he was not that good as after a bit all 18 fit doos and one sickie were on the roof looking suitably ruffled.

We have also had two juvenile Common Buzzards at the end of the garden on the posts but I think they may be looking into the field for voles and mice as the corn has been cut and stubble remains. It will be there all winter so good for kite flying and walking and next year we are to have broccoli planted in the two huge fields on either side of the track. Very handy for collecting to check when it is ready, might have been nicer to have had spuds in one and broccoli in the other though. Onions and carrots would not have gone amiss. Must speak to the man who actually own the land!

Harvested some lovely blackberries yesterday from the bushes behind the rhubarb and last night we had a good old Moonzie Apple and Blackberry Crumble. Smashing, to quote himself!

Fondoo remains grounded unlike the Arrows!

2009-09-14T14:41:00.003+01:00

The Air Show this year was fabulous, the sun shone for the whole day, it was 22C all day and we were able to be outside, All Day! Quite a record for Fife in September.

We have had to move Fondoo into the Little Hilton Chicken House so that he can exercise his leg and wing and so that hopefully he may be able to fly again. We had a few tosses into the air but he just flew sideways into the bushes and lay there stunned. The Hilton will give him space to stretch and move about and we will try and fly him in a few days. If we cannot then we may have to cull him. I really don't want to but as a grounded doo, life would be grim and probably very short.

I have recently bought a long galvanised grain hopper for the doos so that I don't have to feed them every day. The doo feeding trial started today to see how long a hopper full will last. Of course I will have to take into account the sparrows, blackbirds and hare that also seem to think I feed them.

I harvested the plum on Saturday and we celebrated the somewhat limited harvest with a bottle of champagne courtesy of Mary and Eric, thank you! When I say harvested the plum, it was only one plum, but we are hoping that next year from three trees we may get considerably more!

The apples are great though, the Discovery from the BBC Beechgrove tree looked great, tasted wonderful but have gone off very quickly so definitely not keepers. The Bramleys as ever are superb and today I picked and froze seven batches as stew and apple sauce. I have spotted that the Blackberries behind the compost bins are ready so will make a crumble and freeze it to await the next batch of visitors.

New Stitches

2009-09-06T17:02:00.001+01:00

Just a quick picture of the new stitches, the yellow stuff is iodine.

More stitchery

2009-09-06T16:00:00.003+01:00

We had a rethink on Fondoos wound and a few days ago Herb and I restitched the wound using blanket stitches, good knots and oversewing the edges to hold it. Fondoo sat very quietly while the op took place and is once again back in our Hugh Doopendancy Unit in the barn and is eating and drinking well. This time we will keep her in until the wound has completely healed over.

I have to say my stitches were very good, no wonder I got my Needlewoman badge in Brownies!

In the garden, today I planted out some red curly kale and also got rid of the last of the courgette plants that had become triffids. Still cropping tomatoes and peppers and the sprouts will be wonderful in due course.

Grounded again......

2009-08-31T15:41:00.002+01:00

A few days after the surgery Fondoo was looking a bit uncomfortable and we realized that the stitches so expertly put it had failed to hold the wound which has now broken down. We sprayed with antiseptic spray powder and decided that the doo should take it's chances out side as there seemed to be nothing more I could do. He was flying OK but was getting bullied by the others this had also happened when we had a doo in the house for a day or two and when Hindoo reappeared after her chimney adventure. Anyway this has not gone well and after one night out we found Fondoo tucked down on the ground by the log store so yet again he is inside in the cat cage. He is looking quite perky, is eating and drinking well and it maybe that the open wound needs more time to heal, it will be healing open but with daily dry sprays it should heal and he should be able to fly.

Post op Day 1

2009-08-25T15:58:00.004+01:00

This is Fondoo today a day after her op. The stitches look good and clean although he/she is somewhat bruised. The wound edges have come together nicely and we hope that Fondoo will soon be back out with the big birds.

Casualty Moonzie Style

2009-08-24T21:07:00.002+01:00

Well what a day for me, new job and an injured doo to deal with. Yesterday we spotted one of the newest doos, Fondoo, was limping badly. Falling over onto one leg in fact and through the binoculars we saw that he had lost feathers from his breast and had a large open wound at the top of his leg. Luckily Fondoo is one of the few doos that sleeps in the cote so after he went to bed I was able to catch him. The wound looked awful so we kept him in the new cat cage and today I contacted Harry my lovely Pigeon Pal.

Harry has just left after coming and instructing me in the fine art of doo stitching. Firstly we cleaned the wound and then removed all the torn feathers, then pulling the edges of the gaping wound open I put in four silk stitches. Harry held the doo as he knew how to restrain it without crushing it! Luckily I had surgical sutures in sealed packs with attached surgical needles. The reason I had the suture sets was that when we bought the boat in it we found the worlds oldest First Aid Kit, it contained such delights as a Umbilical Cord Clamp, lots of suture sets, expiry date 1965, a silver tracheostomy tube, Brooks Airways various sizes, Mucous Extractors and a War Office , Army Medical Department Shell Dressing dated April September 1945. The previous owner of the boat had been a Doctor funnily enough.

Anyway Fondoo is now in recovery and will remain inside for a week or so until he puts his leg down, he seemed quite unperturbed about the sewing going on and should make a full recovery. the stitches will remain and be absorbed eventually.

I thought that the hawk had had a go at Fondoo but Harry seemed to think it was more likely a close encounter with a wire or a branch or a particularly bad landing into a tree. Fondoo had only been out of the nest box a week so maybe was just inept at landing and should not have been flying solo just yet!

Tomorrow I will attempt to get some good gory close up pictures for the blog.

Poppy died

2009-08-20T14:47:00.002+01:00

Yesterday Poppy was looking really tired and was sleeping most of the time, in the afternoon I picked her up and put her into the Little Hilton House so that she was off the muddy ground but could still see out of the door. She had given up eating and could not even be tempted by grapes or strawberries, not a good sign. She was as light as a feather and had lost more than half her weight. I went back after a couple of hours and she had died, I like to think that it was calm and peaceful and that she just snoozed away. Sad thing as she was the oldest of the girls and the friendliest and funniest.

Life goes on, she has been cremated with all due ceremony and the ashes will be floated off down the burn. Just three hens left Peggy, Roxy and Ronnie. Yesterday one of them laid a double yolker at 90 grams by way of consolation.

New Style created at Moonzie

2009-08-16T13:12:00.004+01:00

This is the new addition to our garden, a style so that weary pub goers do not have so far to trek

and also to aid in getting Diane home safely, we had to resort to a wheelbarrow recently so think the tipping her over a style may be tad easier.

It is built to last ( of course) and with a few weeks weathering should fit in very nicely.

On the dove front we have managed to call a halt to the egg laying and just have the final two babies in the nest box. In fact both have been out but seem to prefer to be in the nest box and both go back in to hide at every available time. We have seen a lot of the female sparrowhawk flying around and one morning she was perched on the telephone wires right outside Tamara's house. No doo attacks so far but there has been a lot of wild racing off so I think all concerned are aware of the hawks proximity. We have also had an osprey

Moonzie has been having some improvements of late, on Thursday we got a Velux window into the kitchen roof, what a difference it has made, the kitchen looks bigger and brighter and even warmer when the sun shines. Herb also fitted new down lighters in the ceiling. However on the downside the new illumination has caused me to see filth that I never knew was there before. I have spent the last couple of days cleaning like mad. On the same day we had the window fitted we also got a new wood burning stove fitted in the lounge, this involved a huge amount of mess, soot and dust and while the stove looks brilliant the wall behind it is a mess. I attempted to wash some sooty hand prints from the wall and have to had to now redecorate the whole thing!

Poppy the old hens life is coming to an end I think, she has no energy and does not even free range with the others. I think the time may come soon for her to go for the big sleep and join Daisy in Chicken Heaven. Good job the boys are home!

A new place in the Country

2009-08-04T10:43:00.003+01:00

This is the one of the new dove cotes and after three weeks of studiously ignoring it the birds have now taken to it really well. In fact if you look closely you can see two doves in one nest box on the left of the picture. I think they liked it better after we put a perch on the post that we had recycled when we eventually removed the homing cage surround from the original dove cote.

After thinking I was being very clever blocking off nest boxes in the original dove cote I had to uncover one as the bird that had been on the plastic eggs decided to move in with the squabs who are not yet flying and Mum doo was not impressed. There was a lot of squabbling and pecking and I was worried for the safety of the babies so uncovered a single nest hole and the intruder moved out and promptly built a nest in the new box. She has laid one egg which today I removed and replaced with another plastic egg. She had also laid a softy so that was never going to hatch anyway and she had kicked it out. So in about a months time I will remove the plastic egg and we will start the cycle all over again.

The chooks are coming to the end of their free ranging month with Roly being on holiday, they have loved it and the egg production is excellent.

The figs are coming in thick and fast now as are the tomatoes and other veg. The Cabbage White Butterfly has wreaked havoc with my brassicas so no prize winners this year. The blackbird has taken to eating the blueberries even before they are ripe and I am fighting a losing battle keeping her off, despite the net. I suppose at £1.99 a punnet I should accept defeat , take the nets off and give her a treat and just buy my own.

It is very warm outside but and it looks like a thundery sky. Rain we don't need.

Hen Party

2009-07-29T14:36:00.003+01:00

The hens are having a fabby time in the absence of Roly, today they discovered the delights of eating on the well!

I have ringed the two newest babies, Fondoo and DooDooRonRon and was surprised to see that Fondoo also has two black tail feathers, I think his dad has been about a bit as VooDoo also had similar markings so guess they are siblings.

Yesterday when the dove sitting on the plastic eggs was out for the changeover I removed the eggs as she had been on them for a month. today I have covered all the nesting holes with paper in an attempt to encourage them into the new upgraded doocottery arrangement. So far they are just sitting on the 'balconies' of the old doocote looking vaguely puzzled. How can I tell puzzlement in a doo, no idea, I just can!

Sadly we only have one plum left on the Victoria tree but on a positive note today Herb and I had a large ripe fig each, that makes about half a dozen this year with more on the way. They are every bit as good as any I have tasted in countries far warmer than this. I think leaving it in the greenhouse has been the secret of my success this time. The Family Beechgrove BBC Tree has produced its first fruits this year, all looking very healthy. All the other veg in the garden are looking good yet again this year. We have loads of courgettes of all shapes and colours and are once more getting into broccoli overload. If only I had realized that the farmer was also growing broccoli in a field very close then I never would have. The 'volunteer' Jerusalem Artichokes have come up brilliantly, I think I will have them for evermore. I should have been more careful harvesting them last year if I did not want any more but they are quirky and a fun vegetable, if non stop parping is your idea of fun.

Off to feed the tomatoes, not a fabulous crop, more leaves than fruit but from my other gardening friends this seems to be a trend, maybe it is something to do with the 'barbecue summer.' Actually when a barbecue summer was forecast they were actually dead accurate, as we all know in UK, arrange a barbecue and it is bound to rain!

Speckled Jim made it home

2009-07-15T21:42:00.002+01:00

Just had a call from Mr Ivor Myers of Huntingdon and he has told me that Jim made it home last week! He is fit and well. Well, he was a champion homing pigeon, but after his collision with the window I did think it may have knocked his homing skills off kilter.
Well done Jim!

I've got a crook chook!

2009-07-15T16:04:00.003+01:00

Poppy the very old hen is not too well. She appears to have an impacted crop, it is huge and swollen, far more than normal, she is quite blue around the wattles and is sitting hunched up and looking sorry for herself. This is quite odd and even more odd is the fact that she did not even bother to come out and free range with the others in safety as the dog next door is away in kennels at the moment.

The picture shows Ronnie, Roxy and Peggy tidying up the spilt dove feed at the base of the bungalow cote. I have forced some olive oil and water into Poppy's throat and have massaged the same every few hours, she still looks a funny colour but the crop is a lot less distended after four hours of therapy. I am quite glad as the next step would be a bit drastic and involves the use of a scalpel blade and then superglue. Apparently farmers do it all the time and the chickens never feel a thing...how do they know, speak chicken do they? She is a sorry sight at the best of times, being four years old she is quite old in human years, but she is a nice friendly wee thing and will live out her days with me if she remains well. She laid her last egg some time ago so is a bit of a sponger but we don't mind! From free ranger to freeloader!

Bit of excitement down at Moonzie this week, some rapscallions pinched a Land Rover from a nearby town and dumped it on our track after removing all the good bits. If only we had a Landy we too could have had some spares before the police took it away. Mind you it was fingerprinted and DNA taken so perhaps it might not have been a wise move.

Off to check on Old Miss Poppy, fingers crossed.

Courgette, garlic and cream cheese soup

2009-07-13T13:22:00.002+01:00

I have had a request for the soup recipe so here it is:
If you are going to freeze it leave the cheese out and stir in when reheating. I also made it with some double cream added at the last minute, delicious.

Ingredients
Serves 4
1 kg courgettes - any size and colour
250g potatoes ,peeled or scrubbed
2 cloves garlic, peeled & crushed
1 medium onion, peeled & chopped
30ml olive oil
150g soft cheese
Handful fresh chives, chopped
Handful fresh summer herbs of your choice, chopped
1 ½ mild-flavoured stock made with Bouillon Veg powder

Method
Wash the courgettes and chop them into chunks. Cut the potatoes into cubes (smaller than 1 inch).
Heat the oil gently in a large pan. Add the onion and garlic.
Gently cook for about 5 minutes, to soften.
Add the potatoes. Stir. Cook gently, covered, for about 15 minutes, until about half-cooked.
Add the courgettes and stir. Cook for about 5 to 10 minutes until softened, stirring occasionally.
Add 1 1/2 pints of veg stock - just enough to cover the contents of the pan. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft.
Remove from the heat and blitz the soup.
Add the cheese & herbs.
Season to taste with salt & pepper.

Hope that you like it.

This is the Courgette Cake recipe which is wonderful!

225 g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarb of soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
3 beaten eggs
1 tablespoon golden syrup
150 ml sunflower oil
100 gm brown muscavado sugar ( I had none and used that granular brown, worked fine)
225 gm courgette grated
1 tsp vanilla essence
50 gm walnut pieces

Preheat oven to 180C

Sift together flour, BP, Bicarb , salt and cinnamon

Add all other ingredients and mix very well

Transfer to baking tin, I use a round 8" tin you could also use a loaf tin

Bake for 45 mins to 1 hour until skewer comes out clean

Cool in tin 10 mins and then turn out and allow to cool completely

Top with butter icing and bits of walnut.

Voo Doo

2009-07-11T13:46:00.003+01:00

This is VooDoo with his rather wonderful tail feathers. He is now out of the nesting box and spending a lot of time on the nearby rowan tree. It is a shame he is a singleton as usually the new babies have a mate to sit with but he is a friendly wee thing and is feeding well so should soon be up in the air with the others.

Speckled Jim never came back thank goodness. Hopefully he headed south to Huntingdon.

I have been harvesting veg like mad as lots of things have come at once yet again, and have made and frozen several pots of courgette, garlic and cream cheese soup which is delicious and I also made a courgette and walnut cake which was exceptionally good. Yesterday I made four jars of beetroot and chilli relish (own beets and own chillies) Today I sowed more fancy Italian lettuce seeds and spring onions. I have had to put a net over the blackcurrant bush and also over the blueberries which are laden. The blackbird seems to have discovered if he alights on the net and bounces up and down he eventually gets to the fruit anyway. I have already had two figs from the Turkey Fig in the greenhouse and it looks like we will have six more to come this year. The Victoria Plum tree by the summer house has four plums on it! I have now decided to have a go at Asparagus so Herb has measured out a plot for the deep hot beds and after his trip to Ireland will be making up some long lasting raised beds. Asparagus is a wonderful perennial vegetable that once planted will give spears after two years for up to twenty years, should see me out!

Sun is shining again, time to water the garden and delouse the hens.

The Saga of Speckled Jim

2009-07-07T15:13:00.002+01:00

This is my dove cote arrangement in the garden. The doos are now feeding from the new feed tray as I have stopped putting feed on the well, this has not impressed Harry Potter or Percy Pheasant who have both been sitting on the well at various times awaiting the next free handout.

The saga of Speckled Jim continues. On Friday, as advised by his owner, I released him early in the morning and he promptly flew up, over the house and onto the dove cote for breakfast.

Not South towards Huntington as he should. As I was away for the weekend I let him have his liberty but planned to trap him on Monday and try a release a bit further away. However before I could trap him yesterday afternoon he flew into the dining room window and stunned himself so I was able to pick him up and put him back into the cat box. This afternoon I drove him about five miles away and liberated him him Lidles car park. I watched him for a bit as he wheeled around and flew in the right direction, South, before he turned and flew back overhead where I was and then headed right out of Cupar on the road towards St Andrews! He has not yet reappeared and hopefully will not.

I have replaced two eggs with china eggs to halt the baby factory that we have got going in the dove cote. I felt dreadful doing it as the eggs I removed were warm but as they had only been laid for a couple of days the chicks would not yet be formed. The mum doo has not noticed the swap and is patiently sitting on the impostors.

Doo Count is 17 with 2 eggs, hatching due on Thursday.

Bath Time and a visitor

2009-07-02T12:10:00.007+01:00

The hot weather arrived at last in Fife yesterday and we had temperatures as high as 25C. The doves love a bath and yesterday they were queuing up to take a dip and cool off. Needless to say Bully took to hogging the water but eventually they all got a turn and really enjoyed it.

I forgot to say last time that the new doo called Voodoo was fine after the crow attempted to get in and he is now almost ready to leave the nest box. He spends long periods on his own with his mum or dad coming back to feed him regurgitated stuff every few hours. I ringed him this week with a red ring and was fascinated to see that he has a single black feather in the middle of what looks to be a lovely fan tail. He also has feathered feet which only a few of mine have. A very special doo indeed!

Yesterday I trapped a visitor who had arrived to feed with my gang, I was able to trap him under a transparent plant cloche by the string and stick method, and it worked! I looked at his leg rings and discovered he belongs to the Royal pigeon racing association and was able to contact his owner, a chap in Huntingdon. The bird is three years old and quite a champion racer. he was released from Lerwick for the race but the fog and heat put him off so he has stopped off with us for a rest. I am going to liberate him tomorrow after a good days R&R and hopefully he will head back to England again.

Yesterday we cemented in the posts for the two new cotes and this evening will get them up with all due ceremony and a beer in the summer house to celebrate being a Three Cote Family.
I will post a picture next time.

More doocotes, more doos.

2009-06-28T13:31:00.004+01:00

Been away for a great weeks sailing and painting on the West Coast and had a brilliant time. We rented a lovely old farmhouse by the Loch for the second year running and were able to enjoy the outside as much as the inside due to the great weather in the second half of the week.

Back at the farm while I was away we had two new doos, DooDoo and DooVet making a total of 17! One more doo on eggs, Ivy I think and that will be the last lot for the summer. I have also acquired two new dovecotes. I it is a fairly long boring story but I bought one on EBay. It arrived but it was the wrong size so the guy who made it said he would sent a replacement. That never arrived but after a month it did plus a free feeding tray. When I asked how he was going to arrange to collect the first smaller dovecote he said to either keep it or bin it as it was not economical to collect it. So I now have two lovely shiny new cotes. Hopefully we will get them erected this week and then when it rains the doos will all have places to hide.

Off to ring the three newest babies later. While it may be sunny in the rest of the UK we are blanketed with a thick haar and look to remain so. You will be laughing on the other side of your faces next week when you cannot sleep because it is too hot, when lightning knocks out all your power and when you have to paint your house white and stay inside for fear of sudden death. I heard a spokesman for NHS 24 state "people WILL die next week" Duh! Do the nanny state Elf and Safety Police not know that many grown adults holiday in exactly such conditions!

Off to put another log on the fire.

Strange goings on?

2009-06-10T11:50:00.003+01:00

We have renamed Stillard. He/she is now DULLARD following his attempts to get back into the nest with his mother. On two occasions now we have had to remove him from a different nest hole as his Mum who is on eggs again was getting pretty angry about the while affair, Dullard seems confused as to which nest box is his, he has been out and about with the brighter Wellard but on going back in gets confused and heads for the wrong nest hole. Wellard always makes it back to the right home. They will be flying free any day now but I am concerned about the possible repercussions should the eggs start hatching.

Yesterday we saw a large ugly crow going for the lower ( sanctuary) nest box and after it had gone shooed away by a pretty angry wee doo we saw that one of the latest eggs in the lower nest appeared to have hatched, this will be named Voo Doo, sibling to Doo Doo should it hatch too ( named by the Lucian arm of the family, Doo Doo is the Lucian word for sweetheart). To be honest from what I could see Voo Doo did not appear to be moving and it was very small and I don't know if the crow had managed to crack the egg open or if it was coincidence that the egg had hatched just prior to the attack. All efforts to get a look at the baby today have failed.

Later in the day I spotted the crow back again so took a shot at it but missed . It has not come back though so maybe a pellet whizzing past its head was enough to scare it away.

Doo count possible 15 if little Voo Doo has survived.

Ladies in Laburnum

2009-06-05T16:28:00.006+01:00

Despite doves not liking perching in trees ( according to the books) mine love it and not only do they love it but they enjoy pecking at the deadly laburnum flowers too!

This morning Sam and I ringed the latest babies, Wellard and Stillard ( Pink and Blue Rings) who will probably be in the nest for a couple more weeks as they are still being fed and have not yet developed their full adult feathers, still some wispy yellow feather around the neck areas.

The eggs are due to hatch this weekend and thereafter if any more are laid I will replace them with china eggs which arrived this week. The new dove cote should eventually arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday and then we will have enough shelter for all the doves. Dove count still 14 with 2 due this week and 2 more a week or so later.

The eagle owl is a failure

2009-05-25T11:08:00.004+01:00

New baby prior to being ringed ,Pixie Doo!

I have started feeding the doos on top of the well as I get a great view from the lounge window, Percy the pheasant thinks it is a wonderful idea and loves the fact that the very scary eagle owl is there to scare away predators while he eats lunch.

A few days ago we noticed some damage to the bark of some of the trees in the garden including the Beechgrove TV grafted apple. We have had deer in the garden and it looks like the damage to the Sandringham Pippin Graft on the family apple tree is terminal. The bark is stripped round the branch so I don't hold out much hope of recovery. It was shame as this year we had our first apple blossom on the 'family tree'.

We have also had some damage on the veg patch too, earlier I spotted two leverets in Tamaras orchard and when I went down to check the veg discovered they had also been in and helped themselves to several newly planted cabbage plants nibbled right down to the stalk.

This morning I noticed that some of the doves seemed to be quite irritated and were trying to peck at their breasts so suspecting mites or lice I have given them a bath of apple cider vinegar and garlic, just the thing for any self respecting dove. When I say I have given them a bath what I do is, put a shallow basin of water in the garden with said ingredients in and the doves cannot resist getting in and splashing around, the vinegar kills the mites and the doos end up smelling like a plate of chips minus mites.

Dove count 14 and two confirmed eggs.

Doos on top...of Eagle Owl

2009-05-19T11:28:00.004+01:00

The eagle owl has been completely accepted by the doos now. I am not now convinced that it is going to scare away some marauding sparrowhawk!

Doo Number 14 has made an appearance, Young Stillard, sibling of Wellard ,was spotted yesterday when mum briefly left the nest.

The doves so far are:

Bully and Lily ( Originals from last May)

Ben and Jerry and Ivy ( Christmas Doos ) Thank you Janice and Jeff for the Doo Voucher.

Ist Babies: Fugly and Didgeree ( named By Nicci)

2nd Baby: Pipsqueak (sibling died in egg)

3rd Round: Moby As in The Great White Doooooooooo ( Murray) and Cocka...Doodle Doo (Stu)

4th Batch: Pixie and Dixie ( Named by Carmen after her t shirt, we think!)

5th lot: Wellard and Stillard ( Sam )

RIP: Hindoo, Huffy and Holly

The nesting frenzy appears to have stopped now so maybe a flock of 14 is a good size for our housing arrangements. They hate the new pink pigeon pellets by the way and I have discovered to my cost that the discarded pellets turn to pink sticky porridge when rained on, even the wood pigeons won't eat them.

Quick Update

2009-05-14T16:17:00.002+01:00

Pixie and Dixie are now in the lower nest box and today I caught my first glimpse of Wellard. I have gone ahead and ordered a new dove cote and am hoping that Herb will build me a mass feeding table as the flock is now quite a size. The small feeding area is just too small. I bought some specialist pigeon pellets the other day, a lot cheaper than mixed grain, however, the doos are apparently experts at sifting through the bowl and discarding all the pellets on the ground. Maybe the mix was too rich in pellets, I tried the conversion on half and half but am going to have to be a bit cleverer than that if I want to substitute it again.

Brilliant weather today, have planted loads of young veg today and as rain is forecast it should all get nicely puddled in pretty soon.

Doo head count up to 13 today!

Hello Pixie! Doo Number 11.

2009-05-09T12:16:00.004+01:00

Lovely day yesterday and the doves spent a lot of it lounging around on top of the well as you can see, undeterred by the Large fierce eagle owl watching over them.

This morning when I braved the torrents and wild winds to feed the doves I caught a glimpse of the newest addition to the flock, Pixie ( named by Carmen) She/he is in the lower cote hole and I think her mum is Ivy, one of the Christmas doos. I will attempt to ring her in a few days if ever mum or dad leave her alone long enough for me to get in, I got a peck this morning while trying to check if Pixie was a singleton or not. As her eyes are fully open and she has a few feathers I think she is about 4 or 5 days old.

We are planning on taking the homing cage surround down over the next few days and am ordering a second dove cote for my ever expanding flock. Herb declined to build a new house. Once I get up to about 20 I will be removing newly laid eggs and replacing them with china ones to deter any further babies for the time being.

Cocka gets ringed

2009-05-06T10:35:00.002+01:00

Yesterday when I got home from Dundee I saw that one of the newest baby doos was out and on the ground so I took the chance to catch it and ring its leg. This is Cocka, named by Stu and it now sports a yellow ring on its leg. Most of the other doos are ringless but the idea is that I should be able to determine who is who and who is missing, God forbid. I think that they could now be a called Yellow, Blue, Green, Purple and Red and eventually Yellowred, Bluegreen, Purplered and Blured etc etc, depending on how many baby doos we get. It would make it much easier.

I am already thinking about more family accommodation and Herb has graciously decided to look at the problem for me when he has a few spare minutes.

Still no idea if any of the eggs have hatched and as the Mother doos are firmly perched over the top of whatever lies below it is hard to find out. By my reckoning all four eggs should have hatched by now.

Holly Died

2009-05-01T13:30:00.002+01:00

Sad news, wee Holly Doo just died. She looked very poorly this morning, all hunched up and looking really miserable and a little while ago when I went to check her she was laying on her side, dead.

Real shame.

High Doopendancy Unit back in action

2009-04-30T12:26:00.003+01:00

Since I last blogged we have had no more baby doos hatched but we have two more doos on eggs, probably two each but as I cannot see in no idea at what stage they are. I think the first new babies should hatch this weekend but it is hard to keep track of things.

The first three youngsters, Fugly, Didgeree and Pipsqeak are all flying with the older birds now and Moby and Cocka should leave the nest very soon and start feeding themselves. Holly Doo is back in the house again, she appears to have 'gone light' again and is now in resdence in the dining room being spoon fed bicarb of soda , the traditional dove keepers cure all.

Herb and I have a had a quick trip to France last weekend, the weather was pretty dismal, rain and cool but the surroundings as ever were beautiful and the change was relaxing and fun as usual with Jacki and Chris being great hosts.

No more sign of the hawk but of course this might be because she is now on her eggs and we should be fairly safe for some time from the marauding airborne predator.

The garden is going to be blooming soon and today I bought some yellow and red beetroot plugs to start things off. The perpetual spinach I sowed in the autumn to feed the chickens over the winter has at last come up so instead it will be feeding the chickens and us over the spring and summer.

The Swine Flu warning state is now at 5. The aporkalypse is on its way. The Israelis want to rename it Mexican Flu for religious reasons, the Mexicans want it to be called anything other than Mexican Flu and the Pig farmers just want it to be called H1N1 Flu because calling it pig flu might make us stop eating pork. The EU is calling it the Novel Flu Virus to avoid any upset to the farming industry. The man in Boots the Chemist today told me that the Israelis were slaughtering all their pork.....mmmm, I didn't think they had any pork. He was a little flustered so may ahve been confused as he had just run out of Hand Gel and everyone wanted some, I got the last big bottle and will be selling it on Ebay and cashing in...or not! I loved the headline in the Sun at the weekend, Pigs 'Ere!

Good luck and stay well.

PREDATORS!

2009-04-18T15:53:00.004+01:00

The bird of prey above was in a field only a few hundred yards away from us. Murray took the pictures. If you click on the picture you will see it has a ringed pigeon in it's talons. Not one of Mine! I think the predator is a buzzard from the size of it.

Yesterday while we were in the kitchen we saw a sparrowhawk swoop through the garden after one of my doos, the other were wheeling around in panic and after they had all settled down and I had done a head count we were minus one. Murray and I headed for the fields at look for the hawk and the doo but to no avail. However after an hour the eleventh doo appeared again! Whether it had simply hidden I do not know but we are a big flock again, eight big birds and three babies. Cocka now has a sister/brother called Moby and Lily is again on eggs.

Poppy Hen appears to have given up laying eggs, she laid an egg weighing 14 grams recently and since then nothing ( an egg usually averages 68 to 70 grams) She is an old bird ( three and a half) and has done us proud, she will now live out her retirement until she goes naturally, she is still the most affectionate of the girls and my favourite. If she had lived her life as a barn or battery hen she would have been culled at 16 months at the outside.

Time to get tough

2009-04-11T08:19:00.002+01:00

It has been suggested that locating a plastic eagle owl near the Bloody hawks nest may be illegal so of course I will not be doing that . However someone needs to do something. So many folk talk about the decline in the number of songbirds, who has seen a thrush lately?

The UK Raptor Working Group reported in 1999 that there were 34,700 breeding pairs of sparrowhawks and it was generally agreed that there were probably the same number of singles. Each sparrowhawk devours three songbirds a day.

The total number of songbirds killed each year is in excess of 113 million. If the RSPB is serious about trying to stop the songbird decline, instead of blaming farmers and cat owners, it should allow a controlled reduction in the number of sparrowhawks too.

The sparrowhawk eats its prey alive, sliver by sliver until a vital organ is devoured. It pins the prey bird down and strips the feathers and then the skin until it then tears into the flesh to reache the vital organs . It can take up to 20 minutes for a larger bird to die, one of my doves for instance. By encouraging the use of bird tables among its members, all the RSPB is doing is to produce a slaughtering slab for the sparrowhawk.

Good Friday....I hope!

2009-04-10T17:08:00.003+01:00

Well, the time came to make the decision about taking the net off and letting the doos fly free again. The new bunch had been homed for 16 weeks and as my pigeon pals have told me Mrs Sparrowhawk should be on her eggs I went for it. The weather conditions were good, no wind, no rain and not too cold or hot for that matter.

Carmen and Murray helped with the release and we watched in wonder as four of the doves headed skywards, did two or three circuits and settled onto the house roof. The new kids, Fugly and Didgeree remained in the cote but the picture above shows them after an hour or so being brave enough to venture to the wood at the top of the homing cage.

Carmen and I then watched in wonder as not FIVE minutes after the release the sparrowhawk flew past, over the cottages behind us and into the trees. We had always suspected that the nest was close but 500 yards away is taking the Mickey somewhat. However Carmen and I have identified the nest and it is a text book hawk built des res (McDoonalds in the vicinity) . It is in a fairly substantial climbable tree so I am going to get someone, ( not me) to climb the tree and affix my giant plastic eagle owl close to the nest in the hope that it will deter the hawk. Hopefully the hawks will leave Moonzie and relocate, relocate, relocate.PLEASE.

On the baby doo front we now have Fugly and Didgeree who are 6 weeks, Pipsqueak who is 2 weeks, Cocka ( Doodle Doo....named by Stuart) who is about a week and she/he may even have a sibling that we do not know about. There has been a lot of bonking before and since the release and two other doos are nest building in the cote so we could have even more eggs on the way.

Fingers crossed that all the doos have a very happy Easter and that none of them get eaten yet! It will be a shame if they do but I suppose going on last years events we had four eaten by the dog next door who is now more disciplined, and two by the hawk. So 50% of my second flock were eaten by a raptor and as I now have 9 birds even allowing for collateral damage we should get to the end of the year with some birds in hand and you know what they say about birds in the hand! If my girl doos have babies at this rate all summer and none get eaten I could, by my reckoning and poor maths, have in excess of twenty doos, I will have run out of smart names, the windows will be covered in doo poo and I may even be inviting the hawk to Come Dine with Me.

Happy Easter!

New pictures of Fugly..not so Ugly any more!

2009-03-31T11:19:00.005+01:00

Now come on turn around for the camera!! Now you know exactly where all the guano comes from!

Notice how the beak is still much too big for the body!

This is Fugly who is getting bolder by the day, in fact I thought he/she was going to come out and fly today.

I had a look in at the new baby today, named Pipsqueak, she is all yellow and fluffy and is laying next to another as yet unhatched egg. Mum is firmly plonked over the top of her.

And now we are Three!

2009-03-28T09:48:00.004Z

Fugly and Didgeree this morning, four weeks old today.

When I was out feeding the doves this morning I noticed a broken shell in Maisonette Number two and a little while ago saw the mother dove remove the shell from the nest box and dump it in the corner of the run so I think we can safely assume we now have at least one new baby.

Fugly and Didgeree are getting very bold and are coming further out of the nest hole every day, the feeding rate by Dad is also increasing but of course if he is the Dad of the new doos he will soon be leaving these two and feeding his new brood, poor old Mum will be off sitting on some more new babies and so the cycle continues.

More Pics to click on to get bigger

2009-03-26T11:56:00.006Z

The enclosed run, a bit messy, the small white box in the corner is in case Fugly or Didgeree Doo come down and cannot get up again.

Babies in poo!

The lower maisonette floor with two doves on eggs

Update on Fugly and her brother

2009-03-26T11:34:00.002Z

This is the latest ( albeit not very good) picture of the two doo babies. They have grown at a terrific rate and look like real doves now, the pile of guano they are sitting in makes for great insulation or so I am told! The babies are approximately three and a half weeks old now.

The weather has turned very cold again after our wonderful weather of last week when we hit 16.5 degrees one day, almost better than some of our summer days. I was even out in a t shirt showing off my post St Lucia suntan.

The babies are now being fed by the dad dove , Mum is now on a second clutch of eggs. They get fed at very regular intervals and you know it is happening as the father perches at the door and throws up into the babies mouths. He feeds them what is called Pigeon/Dove Milk which is part digested grains and seeds. This seems to happen every few hours so no wonder the babies have grown, they doubled their birth weight in the first 48 hours although continued to look like feathered scrotums for some time after that!

Two more doves are on eggs and we should have our next lot of babies any day now if all has gone well with the incubation. They have been laid in the lower house of the dove cote so it will be a lot easier to get to see these ones. There is still a lot of courting going on and even more mess than before. I am in a bit of a dilemma about when to release them as they have now been under the net being homed for 13 weeks, however the Bloody Sparrowhawk is still around but I am reliably informed by my pigeon Pals that she will be in the nest very soon and once that happens she will be out of action for a while. The male bird does the hunting and feeding at this point and as he is slower and lighter than her is unable to take larger birds so we should be safe for a while at least. I also have a worry that as Ben and Jerry and Holly and Ivy were older birds when they arrived that they might be 'homed' to Duncan in Glenrothes and head home once liberated. It seems that after they have reared babies this is far less likely to occur but I have heard that a dominant cock may well lead his whole flock home, including the new ones. Bully and Lily should remain here as they were very young unflown birds when I got them last year. In fact they arrived with me on the 5th May at 7 weeks old last year which means that this weekend is their first birthday!

I am trying new anti hawk methods of deterrent this year, I still have the big plastic Eagle Owl and have just ordered some Mylar Repelling tape which when hung artistically around the area will emit a reverberation that hawks dislike plus as it is holographic, the reflection upsets the birds. I have another few ideas up my sleeves too. I was delighted to see a dead hawk on the road recently too which means one less to eat my gourmet doves.

The chickens have settled down very well without the other four and we get three or four eggs most days which is plenty for our needs. The garden is fairly blooming with some wonderful spring flowers and apart from the fact that the weather is bitter all is well with the world.

BABIES!

2009-03-11T14:42:00.004Z

Look what arrived the other day!! I think he/she actually arrived along with his/her sibling about a week ago but as Mum Doo was firmly ensconced on top of them we have only just discovered them! These are two new doo babies, the first named Didgery Doo Too and the second Fugly!

They will eventually look like lovely elegant white fantails but at the moment they are the ugliest babies I have ever seen. We also have another dove sitting on two more eggs so my fears that we would be unable to rear any after all the disasters of before were totally unfounded.

Hopefully none of these will fall to the ground overnight although this one is very feisty, he took great exception to Murray's camera being poked into the nesting box. The book says that the parents will feed them for four weeks or so, I have no idea how old these are apart from older than a week and maybe younger than two!

Lots and lots of bonking going on in the dove cote enclosure so perhaps even more eggs on the way.

Other than that chickens, kids and me are all doing well after the excesses of Sam and Niccis engagement party last weekend. We had a great time, the venue was superb, the food wonderful and almost all the guests well behaved. Nicci and Sam looked like a real couple in amazing finery and Herb and I were very proud parents yet again.

Back from St Lucia

2009-02-25T14:20:00.004Z

Just in case any one is in any doubt, the above is Jan and Jeffs house in St Lucia where we have just spent a fabulous two weeks. It rained a lot but then that often happens in the rain forest, but warm rain and then magically as soon as it is gone the skies clear and the sun shines, it all dries up again and all is well! We had a magnificent time and did lots of new stuff, including celebrating Mums 80th birthday in style. Champagne and Lees Macaroon Bars for breakfast followed by a visit to a beauty salon, a trip on a lovely shiny boat to a fantastic bay with a great view of the Piton Mountains and then back for more champagne before a hair raising boat trip to Castries and dinner at the Coal Pot restaurant. We also went quad biking through a banana plantations, swam in a rain forest river. Showered under an icy waterfall in the jungle, had a sunset champagne sail, ate lunch at the Royal St Lucia Yacht Club, narrowly missed seeing Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta Jones, Amy Winehouse and some nameless but well know sit com star at Discovery. (So well know nobody could remember his name!) But the real stars were Jan and Jeff who are just about to come to the end of a month long invasion of friends and family and who are about to have six weeks guest free if they are lucky. Great hosts of course, as expected and good fun to boot!

Back here, things that were dormant when we left have burst into bloom, the snowdrops are all up, the crocus too and the doos and chickens are as productive as ever. We think we have two doves on eggs at the moment so will be waiting to see what hatches before we release the doves into the air in a few weeks time to take their chances with the ever present sparrow hawk.

Sad Sad News

2009-02-06T08:23:00.003Z

When I opened the curtains this morning and looked towards the dove cote I saw something white on the ground, fearing it was Holly I went over and to my horror saw that it was a small chick, probably about two or three weeks old, that had fallen from the dove cote and frozen to death on the ground. I had not even known that we had eggs as with the doves being confined within the homing net it is difficult to get a good look in.

It may be that we have another chick in a nest as I have noticed one bird in particular has been staying in a nest box a lot so fingers crossed that it survives. I think that with the extreme cold weather we have been having this little chap was lucky to get this far. But still sad and very disappointing, let us just hope that once spring arrives we get healthy, happy, living chicks to increase our flock.

The fostering and adoption of the hen girls went well. They were collected on Sunday and we have heard from Susie that one of the Veras has laid an egg and that Trinny and Susannah are now the Jacks! I don't know if the downsize has had any effect on the mud problem as the ground has been frozen solid or snow covered ever since they left.

Today it is cold and very sunny so that should gove some nice warmth to the doos and chickens, let us just hope that we are seeing the last of the icy weather and that spring will arrive very soon, the snowdrops are all up and have multiplied really well, there is going to be a veritable carpet of white in the garden soon.

Anticipation

2009-02-01T11:02:00.002Z

It is going to snow today! Well, that is what the Met Office Severe Weather Warning said but on least two occasions lately it has been nothing more than a few flurries and that was it. I love the snow and cannot wait for all the resultant Traffic Chaos, Temperatures colder than Siberia and all that jazz. So just picture me, the sledge is dusted off, I have hunted out my Moon Boots and Balaclava and I sit and wait.

I am also sitting and waiting for Susie to come and collect Trinny, Susannah and The Veras who are off to pastures new. Susie is adopting T&S and she is fostering The Veras until Easter when she will be taking them to meet a new man down in Milton Keynes. I had anticipated a few squawks getting the girls out of the hen house and into the travelling boxes and I was not disappointed. As ever Big Vera put up a fair fight and squawked for Great Britain. I am just glad nobody for the RSPCA was around. However they are all settled into individual boxes and asleep awaiting the drive over to the other side of Scotland.

The Little Red hens were not amused by all the fuss and I got a sharp peck on the leg from Roxy as I picked up a protesting Vera at one point! Once I am four hens down I am hoping that the run will be able to be seeded, at the moment it resembles the Bog of the Eternal Stench and I am truly fearful of slipping into it and never being seen again.

It will be strange not having so many girls but I am reassured that the homes that they are all going to are going to be lovely and all will be well.

Holly Doo is fully recovered now and happy to be back with the rest of the Moonzie Flock. Someone had laid an egg the other day, but on the floor of the homing run so I disposed of it, hopefully it will be the first of many and hopefully this time we will get some babies.

Right now I am off to plant some garlics having dug over the ground last week.

Watch this space for news of snow.

Farewell toTrinny and Susannah

2009-01-27T09:39:00.002Z

Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud! Although in the picture above Trinny is actually ice skating. The weather has been abysmal, the chicken run is either a quagmire or an ice rink and I have decided that as I can no longer free range the girls due to the dog problem am going to downsize the flock and hope that fewer hens in the run will make for the odd shoot of grass and maybe a bit less poo. It was not hard to decide who should go, last in first out just like in all the factories that are closing around us. Trinny and Susannah are off to live a life of luxury in a posh Omelet Cube ( state of the art hen hoose) in Renfrewshire, thanks to a very kind fellow Omleteer offering them a home. They will leave on Sunday. I am also hoping to rehome The Veras but if they do not go then of course will keep them until a home is offered. It may be with two less that the mud, squelch, poo problem is a bit better.

The Dove from Above has been returned to the flock and is doing fine. She had two weeks inside, during the worst of the weather and on Saturday I put her out into the homing run as a trial to see if she was flying again, she did and is now eating and drinking with the others so it is good to know that for doos anyway a pinch of bicarb is all that is needed for 'Going Light'

I actually waded through the mud and did some gardening yesterday, I dug over the failed spud patch, the spuds I had put in for Christmas got frosted, however I was delighted to see that some little tatties had grown and we ate them last night, delicious. I also harvested some more Jerusalem Artichokes, if you can grow nothing else you can grow these. I am going to make some soup with a recipe from my 1906 edition of Mrs Beeton. I am busy perusing the seed catalogues to choose what we will grow this year and have settled on Bolthardy Beetroots which last year were great, plus more Broccoli of the purple sprouting type and lots of tomatoes in the greenhouse. Also a few varieties of courgette and maybe some Spring onions and lots of lettuce and herbs.

Now off to make my soup, I understand that Artichokes have a reputation for being wind inducing, I will let you know, although in this house who would notice?

Holly still with us

2009-01-22T08:44:00.003Z

The little doo in the High Doopendancy Unit is still with us, she seems quite happy living indoors and after the dreadful weather of late who can blame her? She seems to be very perky and bright so after this latest spate of crummy weather has abated we will see if she is flying again, if not she will have to stay indoors a bit longer to get her strength back.

The egg thief is still at it and has even taken to digging tunnels to hide the contraband in, we are now armed with bigger better and snappier traps and hope to post better news soon!

The Dove from Above gets grounded

2009-01-11T09:58:00.004Z

I went out to feed the doves yesterday and this little girl dove , Holly, was on the ground and looked to have been there all night. She was unable to flutter up to the cote and looked miserable. I brought her in to the High Doopendancy Unit ( Paulas cat basket) and have given her fresh water with honey and cider vinegar, extra minerals, grit and feed, warmth and light and a good dose of bicarb too. The bicarb was on the advice of my friendly doo man, Harry. In case she has canker, the other treatment is to give her Flagyl tablets but as I don't have access to them cannot do that.This morning she is perky enough and eating, drinking and pooing well but I will keep her indoors for the next 24 hours anyway while we see how she fares. It may have been that she was tired after trying to fly in the very high winds we have been having and was simply unable to get to the perch. Harry says it sounds like she is 'going light'. As yet I am unsure as to what that actually means but apparently I am doing all that I should be.

Lets hope she is soon dooing what doos do best, I will keep the blog updated.

Foxy Loxy has been eyeing up Chicken Licken

2009-01-07T11:33:00.003Z

Warning Fox loose aboot the hoose, hen hoose that is. This was spotted yesterday morning having had a good look around the outside of the hen run and after eating a few fallen apples in the orchard he made off in the direction of the dell. Either he is a vegetarian fox or he is biding his time. I took the precaution of shutting the hens in last night as he was about but it was very very cold and they may have liked the luxury of an extra cosy night. It did mean I had to be up early to let them out but as it seems to get light at about 9am these days it was not too much of a hardship. Who or whatever has been egg eating has been at it again, another eaten yesterday in the run. Herb heard a lot of bokking this morning and went out after he caught a glimpse of something black in the run, he thought it had a white flash on the tail too but by the time he had got outside it had gone.

Still getting 4 or 5 eggs a day and Trinny and Susannah are still not laying, I have heard they are very good meat birds and we have had words on the subject! Because it has been so cold they have been getting extra treats this week, tuna and sweetcorn being a particular favourite but today's rice and cooked cabbage also went down well.

Yesterday Herb and I attended the funeral of an old nursing chum of mine and I was aware that the last time we were at a funeral we came back to discover that the doves had all been massacred, this time all was well and they have settled down nicely with no further dog incursions. They are making huge piles of guano under the dove cote but it will recover, the grass will probably be twice as lush.

It is still very cold here but nothing like in the South thank goodness.Time to go and make up a nice big fire, settle down with a mug of home made soup and last nights Eastenders! Bliss.

Bruces Tree and Christmas

2008-12-28T14:21:00.003Z

The picture is the tree we planted earlier this year in memory of our dearest old friend Bruce Watts who tragically died last year, too soon, too early and too young. While the boys were here for Christmas we managed to move an enormous great heavy whinstone boulder that had been taken from the heart of our house when it was being renovated and we felt it was just the right thing for the little plaque we had made to mark Bruce's tree. It was a laugh a minute moving the rock but like the Stonehenge Druids or the Egyptian Pyramid builders we managed to get it into position with levers, rollers and lots of cursing, we made a video of the proceedings which is both funny and entertaining but fails to qualify for You've Been Framed as amazingly, nobody ended up with a crushed foot or toe, of course had Bruce been here he would have had both!

Because Roly was away for Christmas we have been able to let the hen girls out to free range, they have loved it and even laid an egg in a bush by the backdoor for us yesterday.

The new doves have settled in well and do a lot of flapping and cooing and even a bit of kissing, we could yet get babies for the spring.

Sam never got back for Christmas, in fact on Christmas Day he was to be found testing metal panels in a narrow pipe ten feet into the water under an oil rig, he was both terrified and exhilarated and says it counts as his most unusual location for spending Christmas Day yet. As the rig was Danish they had Christmas dinner on Xmas Eve and he said the spread was wonderful, when he hit the sack later on the company had put a card and a box of chocolates on each of their pillows. He is now in Denmark onshore and flies back to Aberdeen tomorrow to have another Christmas with us.

The floor in the byre was laid in time for the party on the 23rd and looks fabulous, a few finishing touches to do but it passes muster and was tested when some blonde bird slopped Vintage Bolly on it and it never left a mark at all.

Happy New Year to you all from all at the Farm.

New Doos ....again

2008-12-20T11:49:00.004Z

This is one of my new doos. They arrived on Tuesday and have settled in well, meet Ben and Jerry and Holly and Ivy. They are about five months old so a lot older and wiser than the others when they arrived. On the first night they seemed a bit reluctant to go into the warm and cosy nesting holes but by last night all had found a place and this morning they are sunning themselves on the ground under the dove cote.

It is quite amazing that they are so settled, as less than 24 hours after arriving the bloody Hound of the MoonzieMills from next door bounded in and launched himself at the wire netting in an excited frenzy. One of the doos got a bit tangled in the wire and damaged a wing but apart from a bit of blood seems to have got over it. The dog was duly reprimanded and given a taste of his shock collar by the owner, whether it will work remains to be seen.

Since they have arrived we have had terrifically high winds but they are all safe and secure and will remain inside until April. So that I do not cause undue upset by going in to feed we have invented a feeding tube from a funnel and a pipe and I decant the feed into the feed bowl from outside the homing cage. It works very well and causes less stress than me going into the run twice daily. I can also fill the water containers with a watering can from the outside too.

On deciding on names for them I wanted something a bit seasonal and Holly and Ivy for the girls seemed ideal, however the boys names were harder, Noel might have been OK but I loathe Noel Edmonds and Wencleslas, Balthazar and Melchior were all a bit of a mouthful. Mind you Caspar would have been nice but as I was consuming a whole tub of Ben and Jerrys Chubby Hubby (Fudge-Covered Peanut Butter-Filled pretzels in vanilla Malt Ice Cream Rippled with Fudge & Peanut Butter) at the time it just struck me as to how right the choice would be. Anyway Rudolph hardly seemed to fit a little white doo. And as I only ever eat a whole tub of ice cream at a time at Christmas ( it is good for stress) I decided that the names were most appropriate.

I eventually got round to planting my daffodil bulbs, they had been bought in September and the net bag put into the shed by the back door. Every time I went to get a beer or some spuds I felt very guilty as they were actually sprouting quite nicely through the net and growing to a fair size. As I did not fancy having a nice spring display in the cupboard I relented and planted them today. Still have to get the garlics in too but as they were only due in last month feel less guilty about them, as it is such a brilliant day weather wise I will plant them after lunch.

We are all geared up to getting the floor laid in the byre, Herb has used the time the byre has been out of action to repaint Jousters boom in it and inflate and check his dinghy, however they are getting the boot today in preparation for the lovely oak floor due any day now, well Tuesday but we have hopes it could arrive as early as tomorrow. Pictures to follow.

Off to cook some more of Nigellas wonderful treats although in my case I will not be wearing a low slung cashmere jumper and oozing scrummy, yummy mummy over the top gush while I fondle my little pearly orbs ( silverskin onions to you and I)

Merry Christmas.

Freezing weather

2008-12-07T13:10:00.002Z

Things have been a bit quiet down at the farm for the last week or so, no more mink appearing and after I spent near enough £20 on a special trap, but we have caught 3 rats and 5 mice in more traditional traps.

The doves are nicely settled inside the homing cage and will stay put until the winter is over. I hope to get some new doves before Christmas so they can well and truly home before release day. It seems a shame to trap the doves inside and not allow them to fly at all but they do a fair bit of flapping and wing stretching and get up and down to the ground most days.

The chickens soldier on, still no eggs at all from Trinny and Susannah or The Miserable Veras but the other four are doing great, Poppy will be three in January soon so we will be planning a chicken birthday party for her in the New Year! Yes I am completely potty! I guess in human years she must be coming up for 30, a real old spinster.

Christmas is coming soon, from looking like we would have all three boys home it now looks like Murray will have to be the sole lad to be spoiled, pampered and generally fussed over. Sam goes offshore on the 20th and Stu has at last got his first Saturation Diving job starting next week in Denmark. He could just get home in time, hope that he is not still speaking like Donald Duck, a strange phenomenon from breathing helium. The first time he called me from the Sat Chamber when he was training I thought it was some pervert!

UPDATE on the flooded byre. Our new wooden floor is being laid on the 23rd of December! So all being well we will be back in the room on Christmas Eve, in case you have forgotten the flood was on August 13th and it has taken this long for the insurance company to sort it, still it should be lovely when it is done!

Snowing at last!

2008-11-23T10:32:00.004Z

It was lovely to wake to crisp white snow this morning. The chickens have viewed it with mixed feelings, some with suspicion as Trinny and Susannah refused to come out onto it while Ronnie, Roxy and Peggy all ran around thinking it was lots of lovely food! The Two Veras just looked on with their usual aloof look on their faces, they are a couple of miserable hens!

Yesterday I saw that Lily had something attached to her undercarriage, it was an egg shell and it I caught her , carefully removed it and discovered it was somewhat smelly, I think she had sat on an egg that had cracked after it had gone off. I threw the other three week old egg out but she is now sitting on at least one more egg. Once I get the china eggs we should sort the problem until spring time....I hope!

They seem to have settled down well in the enclosure and I am a lot happier knowing that they are not going to get eaten by the hawk. As the new enclosure had extra nest boxes I will restock as soon as I can.

Off out to build a snowman before curling up on the sofa in front of the fire with a good book and more hot chocolate.

Fort Knox Mk 2

2008-11-20T13:09:00.004Z

Herb got the new winter enclosure done, the theory being that if the hawk does not get her meal here she may move away, so far since the big plastic owl went up we have not seen her but I am assured by Malcolm up the track, that she is still around.

The doves moving into the new enclosure was planned with some precision, the outer frame went up one day and then we gave then 24 hours to get used to it like that before very quickly putting on the chicken wire. At dusk Lily settled in onto the eggs and Huffy went into the vacant next hole next door. Sam swiftly blocked both holes with bits of timber and we deftly tossed the net over the roof, stapled it down and Bob's your uncle, two doves trapped safely inside.timber removed and two curious doves poked their heads out to see what ahd been going on.

This morning there was no movement from either nest hole but around 11am Lily appeared, she seemed a bit flummoxed but came down to feed and have a drink. A little while later Herb heard a lot of scraping and Lily was 'rearranging nesting material in the spare box. She then sat on the landing shelf and promptly laid an egg! I was lucky enough to capture the whole event on my new video camera and with a bit of luck and a visit from my very own Cyber expert I will post it on here. I guess that I will have to remove the two unhatched eggs again in a few days. I am hoping my new found pigeon expert ,Harry, will advise me on my next course of action.

They should settle in fine in the new enclosure and at least will be safe from predators during the lean winter months.

The mink killed another rat and this time left it with its guts hanging out and hits head bitten off on the back door mat. Thank goodness I had my shoes on when I stepped outside. Last night I set three traps and the tally this morning was one rat and one wee mouse. Tonight I am laying poison and traps and intend to do my best to get rid of the varmints for good. I think the mink will be too wily to be caught in a trap but I have left the Nooski Trap in situ anyway. The first night it was out a wee mouse had carefully avoided the spring catch, crept in, eaten all the peanut butter covered bacon and left after pooping on the way out. So two fingers from a mouse to modern foolproof technology.

The chickens are all fine, only getting 4 or 5 eggs a day at the moment. The Two Veras may well have stopped for the winter but I was assured that Trinny and Susannah would lay all winter as they come from Chile .

All calm at the farm

2008-11-15T09:07:00.002Z

SPARROWHAWK (NOT MY WEE DOO)

This is what a sparrowhawk looks like once it has grabbed one of your pet doves. May be a lovely looking thing but it is a nasty vicious predator that needs to be sorted somehow.

So far my remaining two birds are OK, the new winter aviary is nearly ready and we will move them in a few days, they are still on the eggs but should lay lots more even if these do not hatch and I have now been advised that it is highly unlikely due to the temperatures. Although yesterday we had 15C up here, almost unheard of for November, some days in the summer we are lucky to get that.

The mink has also been conspicuous by its absence despite me shelling out for a special mink trap. After I had bought it and had it delivered, Stu found another internet site where the same trap was £10 cheaper! It pays to spend a long time surfing for the best buy, a good lesson, expensively learned.

The chickens seem to have reacted not too badly to the mink in the run, we had some 'softies' for a day or two but all has gone back to normal. ( 'Softies', soft shelled eggs, are laid when the chicken has a terrible fright or is out of sorts in some way) Trinny and Susannah are not laying and still moulting like crazy, they really do look like they have done ten rounds with a mink each morning as there are feathers everywhere, still not sure if it was an initial mink attack or if this is just how they will moult.

I have had some comments that mink are nice furry wee things. They are not. They are vermin, they kill our native wildlife, they do not belong here and need to be exterminated from our lovely countryside. Following the release by so called 'animal lovers' from fur farms they are now encroaching on towns and villages and kill pet rabbits and cats and there has been a recent documented account of an attack by four mink on an angler at night. Mink are only acceptable as coats and hats.

Enough of my soap box for now!

Found this on the web and I think it is lovely http://www.dashpoemmovie.com

Somebody recently said that I was getting seriously 'sad' writing a blog, well, if you don't like it, don't read it. Easy enough. I enjoy putting down in words what is going on around me and I know for sure that I have many friends who really do enjoy reading it.

Peace, love and hippy stuff.

Bloody Mink Now!

2008-11-09T09:19:00.002Z

I have solved the mystery of the rat with it's head bitten off, it was not a sparrowhawk but a mink. Yesterday Herb heard a commotion in the run and went out in time to see a sleek black mink helping itself to the chicken food and generally causing some consternation amongst the girls. He told me and I grabbed my new video camera and was able to get some shots of it as it made it's escape down the burn. The mink might also explain the huge pile of feathers I found in the chicken run last week when I thought that Trinny was moulting, I think now that she had a close encounter with a mink. So not only do I have to relocate the hawk, I also have to do the same to the mink who given a chance will take the heads off the chickens and not even bother to eat them. One lady in Dunblane recently lost of 8 of her 15 chickens to a mink .

Mink while looking interesting are in fact a bloody nuisance, they are not native to UK and are responsible for the devastation of the water vole population in UK and cause havoc to nesting ducks and birds as well as the inevitable losses to us backyard hen people. The mink we have are either descendants of escapees from mink farm or are some of the ones liberated by those so called animal rights idiots. What about the rights of the native Vole! Trapping may be easy enough but it is illegal in Scotland to relocate then live after capture anywhere and it is also illegal to drown them in the trap, shooting is the only answer. 'Now just stand still Mr Mink while I aim a shot at your skull, oops, sorry, I don't have a gun!' I am hoping that the local Countryside Ranger may help out, I already have the promise of a mink trap I just need the means to get rid of the mink once it is is it.

I got a great video of the little darling and once I work out how to add it will add it to my blog. So now I am spending my time checking on the bloody 'Spar' at the front of the house, the mink at the rear and hoping that Herb soon gets the winter aviary finished while I still have doos to put in it. The big plastic eagle looks very grand in the garden and a neighbour gave me a smaller long eared owl too, the trees look decorated for Christmas with strings of twirling cd's and the doos are watching it all with great interest.

HAWK ATTACK!

2008-11-06T08:49:00.002Z

Yesterday was not a good day if you were a wee Moonzie Doo. Luckily I was in the sitting room and saw a glimpse of white and a flurry outside and was horrified to see Lily in the grips of a female sparrowhawk, tumbling to the ground, feathers were flying everywhere. I moved quicker than I have for a long time and got to the door in time to see Lily and the hawk on the ground, I yelled some obscenity and the hawk departed one way and after a few seconds Lily the other. She flew around for a while and eventually settled on the chimney pot.

So now I have proof of who has taken Bully and Hindoo and I am going to do my damnedest to prevent it happening again. After looking at lots of advice sites and getting onto a pigeon forum I have decided the best thing to do is to make a winter aviary/loft for them and hope that while they are there the raptor can be 'relocated 'by some means. By removing the Moonzie MacDoonalds it may persuade the hawk to look for another easier dining room. Sparrowhawks are of course protected as at one time they were an endangered species, however the pendulum has swung the other way now and while the Hawk is on the RSPB 'green list' ( doing well and lots about) the Stock dove is on the 'amber list' ( endangered as stocks are low). Crazy that the prey is in danger and the predator doing just fine and dandy( eating all the endangered species) and it is still illegal to kill them while you can shoot as many wood pigeons and doves as you like, amber list or not. No wonder the Gamekeepers take the law into their own hands sometimes, now I understand.

Herb has taken on board my worries and anxieties and has decided to make a winter loft for me as a temporary measure. Even now he is B&Q buying up lengths of 'fourbetwo' and other joinery type things. It will be easy enough to transfer the doos as both now sleep in the doocote at night, Lily on the eggs and Huffy in the spare nest hole, apparently they will not fly at night and can easily be lifted out and placed in safer quarters. I don't know how Lily will take to the eggs being moved but as they probably were not going to hatch it probably does not matter.

Other options to scare away Madam S. Hawk or 'spars' as the pigeon people call them is to place large plastic long eared owls around the garden, string garlands of shiny Cd's from strings, tether 30 foot reflective balloons above the cote and place mirrors on roofs. You can also play the sound of an eagle owl into the garden or find some other way of relocating the bloody hawk. So if anyone has a Cd of Owl Sounds or any spare balloons suitable for floating at 30 feet please pass them this way.

My day is destined to be 'gofer' for Herb the joiner when he gets back with the wood and after that I will be sitting near the window prepared to run and beat the bloody 'spar' around the head should it come near me and my doos again. This is war.

On a plus side if I have a secure aviary I will be able to get my new doos earlier than planned, 'home'them over the winter and then let them fly free in the spring ready to look gorgeous again. Hopefully the 'spar' will be long gone.

I don't think I can take much more!

2008-10-30T14:27:00.002Z

Lily is sitting on another egg! Luckily I had ordered some nest felts from eBay so I have popped one in under the lovely warm egg and hope that she does not mind too much my rearranging her living accommodation. I am still not convinced that this egg will hatch, it is November in a few days but the breeder seems to think it is still fine and he is the expert and me the mere novice. I have just watched Huffy eyeing the new nesting arrangements with great suspicion, it took him half a dozen goes before he would enter the cote but hopefully he will appreciate the new upgraded bedding. So now I have another 20 days of waiting and watching to see if we are to have babies this year or not. A second egg should be laid within a day or two and the countdown begins at that point.

Luckily the weather although cold is very dry and not overly windy so that should be a plus. On a negative note is the fact that a Peregrine Falcon has been lurking in the area and was seen yesterday swooping through the garden and right past the doo cote. Also a Buzzard had the audacity to perch on our fence post ignoring all of our neighbours suggestions that it leave!

We could yet have baby doos in residence for Christmas!

GURKHA JUSTICE CAMPAIGN

2008-10-25T13:13:00.001+01:00

If you have not already done so can I ask all my friends to take a look at the Gurkha website and sign the petition PLEASE www.gurkhajustice.org.uk

Many thanks Jill xx

No baby doos.

2008-10-24T13:20:00.003+01:00

A few days ago the doves stopped sitting on the eggs and today Sam has removed the eggs and done a 'post mortem'. Both eggs had perfectly formed but very dead chicks in them so am not sure what went wrong or when. It is nice to see two doves out and about together again as after Hindoo left whoever was not babysitting was quite lonely. No more sightings of the bloody hawk so maybe, just maybe, Lily and Huffy will make it through the winter and have another go at making babies in the spring now we know they are fertile and seem to know what to do. We have had some wild weather and really cold nights so perhaps the doos knew that it was far too late in the season to be bringing up youngsters.

Everything else in the garden is rosy and the new girls continue to entertain at every opportunity. They are all laying every day, not very big eggs yet but lovely dark shelled orange yolked beauties. They seem convinced that Sam and I are roosters as every time we go into the run they crouch awaiting our attentions!

More gales expected tonight so I really have to get out and harvest the apples before they all fall off and get wasted. Just seen the weather for tomorrow and it appears it will be marginally worse than today, Oh Joy! The clocks change on Saturday night/Sunday morning, I wonder if anyone will tell the chickens

Doom and gloom and Bloody awful weather

2008-10-20T14:20:00.002+01:00

Well, the eggs have not hatched although Lily and Huffy are still taking turns at sitting on them. I will give it till the end of the week and then remove the eggs before they rot. On a sadder note, it looks like Hindoo may also have gone the way of Bully, the hawk has been in the area for the past few days and now Hindoo is not around. Perhaps she has just gone away and got a bit disorientated in the very high winds and squally showers we are having but I think not. I suppose it was always a risk getting white doves while living in the countryside as we do. So no baby doos and no Hindoo.

The hens are coming along great though which is good news. Only got four of the eight laying regularly but pretty soon will be getting enough eggs to start selling, I am never going to make a profit but it is nice to get a few quid to go towards the feed.

If anyone wants to get me a really useful Christmas present I will be accepting 'Doo Vouchers' very gratefully, they are Blue/Purple in colour and are worth about £20! I will wait until the spring and after I persuade Herb to either build me a mini loft in a shed or a Fort Knox Mark 2 to home them in I will restock my flock.

I have actually started my Christmas shopping, trouble is the last time I did it so early I had either eaten, worn or played with all the presents and had to repeat the whole thing over at great cost!

No news

2008-10-15T10:04:00.003+01:00

I was hoping to be adding pictures of newly hatched baby doves but so far nothing at all. Lily is still on the nest and Huffy is taking his turn but it looks like they may be on infertile eggs, I have been trying to get a good look in but Lily remains firmly stuck over the top of the eggs.

I had the great fortune to win on the Lottery last week, not the main draw but on an online game and for a few days had £500 burning a hole in my pocket, I have bought a small HD camcorder with some of the cash and if and when we get baby doos I will attempt to add in a video of them.

I have yet to start picking the apples , they look great though and I think the Bramleys in particular are going to store very well. Not been foraging much of late either so no more blackberries or elderberries picked as yet. The weather has turned very autumnal with chilly mornings but nice bright skies, lots of berries on all the shrubs for the birds and if a harsh winter is hailed because of holly berries then batten down the hatches for the harshest of the harsh as the tree is laden.

Apples, chickens and Sparrows

2008-10-06T10:13:00.002+01:00

No change here, the doves are still doing a text book incubation and changing over at 10 and 4.30. I think Lily gets to do the long night shift. Hindoo is still grey but getting gradually lighter as the days go by. No sign of Bully despite me walking the fields and putting up notices for the neighbours to keep an eye open for feathers. I spoke to the dove breeder who thinks that the doos should hatch no bother at all and he does not anticipate any problems at all. Any time after the 12th is our best estimate for hatching so fingers crossed.

We had our first ground frost of the year two days ago, I need to find some cloche covers to put over the Charlotte Potatoes I put in so that we can have new spuds at Christmas. I have also sown perpetual spinach and and about to plant some garlics that should be ready around June next year. Time to harvest the apples, the Bramleys are brilliant this year, about double the quantity we had last year and all good sizes and nearly blemish free. I cooked up an Apple Crumble to see if they were good and they were great!

The new hen integration has been a total success with no blood drawn and everyone very contented. Getting only two eggs a day at the moment so they are all being wormed for a week to try and up the production rate. Big Vera is moulting quite dramatically though which may account for her lack of eggs. The new girls are not yet laying, I think they may have bee younger than the farmer said they were. they are comical and fearless though and act like teenagers! Climbing on to the hen house roof, flying off and chasing butterflies and sparrows. The other day the three of them saw a sparrow swoop into the run so they ran after it heads looking upwards and all three ran right into the wire fence and ended up in a heap, it would have made a brilliant You've Been Framed Video and well worth £250.

No news but some hope

2008-09-30T14:51:00.003+01:00

Just been reading a web site where a garden dove got scared by a hawk and came home SIX months later. The hawk is still around and last night just as dusk was falling I saw him going for Huffy, a rapid flight chase ensued and somehow Huffy escaped. Herb also saw the hawk in the bushes some time later but he flew off again. As hawks are protected there is nothing we can do to get rid of it but we can just hope that he moves on soon. I was contemplating getting some balloons that scare hawks but strangely not doves? The web site also said that we need to search for a mile out from the doo cote in every direction, maybe a walk too far for one person I think.
Lily is still sitting on the nest and seems to be sharing the chore with Huffy so maybe he is the Daddy and maybe Bully left in a huff!

Lily is on two eggs!!

Intruder alert

2008-09-29T17:00:00.002+01:00

This morning at 8am I spied a sparrowhawk in the rowan tree about 6 feet from the doo cote. No doubt eyeing up lunch. I ran out like a whirling dervish and shouted suitable obscenities at it and he left, but no doubt the new McDoonalds has its appeal to one hungry hawk. Lily is still on the nest.
Took a walk this afternoon to see if I could spot any trace of Bully , found a few wood pigeon remains but nothing of Bully so the mystery remains just that.
The new hens seem to have settled in well and apart from Trinny taking on the attributes of a velociraptor from time to time it is all quite peaceful out there.

Bully has gone

2008-09-28T08:30:00.002+01:00

Our lovely big, bold Bully Doo has not come home. Lily is sitting on her nest alone, she comes out to feed now and again but I am not sure that incubation is going to be very successful with half the team missing. I don't think that Bully went down the chimney , there were no feathers in the chimney like last time and no noises either. I have shone a light up as far as I can and have heard or seen nothing to evidence the fact that he too might have fallen into the dark abyss. It may be that a cat or hawk has had him but as he never goes far from the house and is only ever on the ground in the front garden that too seems a bit strange. I will take a walk around the fields today and see if I can see any tell tale white feathers, easy enough to spot on the newly ploughed ground.

While I was out scanning the fields earlier today I did spot a roe deer with her much smaller fawn, it was a lovely sight. There are less deer too now that the landowner and his shooters have been out culling them but it looks like at least two have been missed, I just hope we have enough left to allow breeding to take place again.

Young Potter, the young hare is often in the garden and has discovered the delights of feeding below the doo cote. Strangely we have not seen either of his parents since the bonkathon in May.

I think I will let the new girls out into the big chicken run today, if all goes like our last few introductions there will be a lot of posturing and squawking but very little actual damage, it has to be done sooner or later to get the pecking order re-established. Trinny and Susannah will be quite happy if they come out of it not so low in the ratings. Egg production is low at the moment with Trinny, Susannah and Little Poppy doing all the work and the Veras doing nothing, I have added in limestone flour to their feed and also upped the rate of Chicken Spice they get as a supplement.One of the Veras is moulting so that might be the answer, also being a pure breed they tend not to lay as well in winter but the end of September is hardly winter. Poppy soldiers on, a common or garden £4.75 hybrid hen that has hardly missed a day in nearly three years!

FIRST EGG!

2008-09-27T09:54:00.004+01:00

Lily is sitting on an egg on a very crudely constructed nest. Nest in fact is a bit of an over statement as the nest hole in the doo cote just has a few well placed twigs and bits of tobacco stalk strewn around. I bought the tobacco stalks as they are said to release oils that repel lice and mites. It is very exciting but what is a worry is that dad has disappeared, I have been shouting up the chimney but there is no sign or sound that he is in the flue this time. Lily will sit on the egg for about 17 t0 18 days, in fact she will do the long night shift and Bully the day shift from 10 until 4, according to the book, although I am not sure the Moonzie Doos know anything of proper doo procedures! She should lay a second egg after 24 hours so I will keep an eye on things and see if we get the full clutch. I am hoping that Hindoo will also produce an egg, she and her mate have not started nesting but have become very cosy over the last few days. I am not sure if the eggs will even hatch, the weather is not that warm any more and apparently hours of sunlight and warmth have a lot to do with viability of the eggs and chicks, known as squabs and squeakers. So if all goes to plan Baby Doo Day is on or around 12th or 13th October.

Nesting

2008-09-24T11:11:00.003+01:00

Hindoo is still grey but has been accepted back into the flock, Bully bonked her as a welcome home present! Lily and Huffy are madly building what they think might pass for a nest in the upper floor of the doo cote. It consists of a few miserable twigs and the odd leaf. I don't know when or if they will lay an egg but there is enough rumpy pumpy going on so I hope we will get at least one egg. I have ordered some tobacco stalks which is , I believe, the order of the day for pigeon nests, it keep the lice and mites at bay apparently. The courtship rtuals are very interesting, the males puff up their chests and strut around looking very important and the girl doos just ignore them, then is a bit of kissing goes on and the odd peck and then the female squats down, raises her rear and it is all over in about twenty seconds, after that they both fly off and wobble a bit on the power cables. Quite funny to see expecially as the favoured bonking place is on top of the finial post on top of the doo cote!

The new hens seem happy enough, very calm and handleable, the others are ignoring them totally. They are still apart and will remain so for a couple of weeks but right now I anticipate no problems at all with the integration.

New Girls

2008-09-21T12:54:00.004+01:00

Got three new hens yesterday, Bovans Goldlines, a Dutch Hybrid that lays lots and lots of big brown eggs. The old flock are slacking a bit, Poppy is in mourning for Daisy, Big Vera is moulting and Little Vera chooses to lay an egg only if she feels like it. Trinny and Susannah are still very productive and should be the best layers over the winter seeing as they come from Chile and they like the cold, apparently. The new girls are Peggy, Ronnie and Roxie as the are 'faaarmily'!
They are in the Little Hilton Chicken House and will stay apart for a good few weeks, they are only 19 weeks and a bit young to be out playing with the old girls as yet. They might get bullied but if they stay apart awhile things should go OK. As we have the new plush updated accommodation it is a lot better than the old packing case that was the intro home for Trinny and Susannah.

Hindoo is gradually losing some of the soot from her feathers but after 48 hours in the chimney it is going to take a while. I put a shallow tray of water with a few drops of Dove Shower gel in it, not shower gel for doves of course but the stuff that makes us all look lovely whatever colour and however old we are. Hindoo had a good splash in it and hopefully it will help to get some of the soot off in time.

There is still a bit of bullying going on, whether Hindoo smells or looks wrong I don't know but she is certainly getting the cold shoulder from the other three. I am sure time will be a great healer.

Herb has put up a covered area for the hens as they have had a lot of soakings this year already and I am not convinced it is going to get any better.

On the garden front, it is time again to harvest the apples and go looking for hedgerow things to make interesting jellies and jams. The bramble and elderberry jelly from last year was brilliant so that is first on the list, after that thyme, mint and sage jellies and who knows what else.

UPDATE FRIDAY 10.30am

2008-09-19T10:37:00.003+01:00

The chimney sweep arrived two hours early, used his soft brush and brought down a very grubby, grey Hindoo. He says he thinks she would just have sat on the ledge until she died of dehydration so thank goodness she is down and safe. I washed her eyes and beak and after half an hour put her into the doo cote, she is now perched on the TV aerial looking very bedraggled, I wonder if Huffy will still love her!

More drama than the Bristol Old Vic!

2008-09-18T15:55:00.003+01:00

Yesterday after breakfast I only spotted 3 doves in the garden and as the day wore on began to worry that someone had gone.Anyway I eventually convinced myself that as it was Hindoo, she had gone to build a nest after her marathon bonking session. She never came down for tea and I did begin to worry , this morning as I was getting ready to leave for court I heard a strange noise coming from the sitting room fireplace. A few white feathers fluttered down and I realized now that Hindoo had not gone but in fact was nearer than ever, up the chimney!

I could hear fluttering and in fact it made me think that yesterday I had heard a similar noise but thought it was a wood pigeon that was flapping at the dining room window in a demented fashion.

I called the SSPCA after looking at various " How to get doves out of a fireplace" websites and was very impressed when a lovely man appeared on my doorstep within 30 minutes. He advised me that doves will only fly down again and not up and as the flue consists of a series of ledges and steps we will have to play the waiting game. I have shone a light up the chimney in the hope of luring her down and have netted the front of the fireplace just in case she gets down and decides to spread soot liberally over the carpet, who decided on a cream carpet I have no idea. He said it can take two to three days or as long as two weeks for them to reappear.

I am doubtful about how alive she would be after two weeks as all the dove books say that doves must have fresh water every day or dire things happen. Meanwhile it is a case of watch and wait. It is a horrible feeling knowing that your lovely pristine white dove is now a grotty shade of grey and is most likely terrified and pretty pissed off to boot. Fingers crossed for a quick and happy resolution.

Baby Doos???

2008-09-12T14:34:00.003+01:00

Well, for once the Doo Blog starts with news of doos. The picture shows them being very bold and foraging around on the grass a fair way from the cote but even more exciting have been the goings on in the cote. When I got back from France I saw for the first time that the doves had started using the top floor of the cote, they were in and out and checking the available nest holes and a few days later I discovered why. I was out filling the feed container when Huffy and Hindoo, bold as brass started bonking on top of the doo cote! There had been a lot of amorous goings on for a while but now they are at it like rabbits. I think it may be too soon for them to lay eggs and also too cold but as there are not too many books on the subject we are waiting to see what transpires. This morning I was quite worried as when I went to feed them, only Bully and Lily came to feed and it was not until nearly lunchtime that the other two appeared. They all seem to have settled down now but I don't know where the other two have been, maybe just off for a bit of peace and quiet and privacy!

Herb has got on really well with the log store and it is almost finished, he got the last line of pantiles on this morning and it looks really good, you will see from one of the attached pictures why Sam thinks it should be an outdoor bar. It is the Leuchars Air Show this weekend so the Moonzie Millers are having a combined Beer Tasting Festival and Air Show Bash up by the big trees, we get a great view of the aerobatics and all from the comfort of a cosy marquee with lots of food and drink to keep us happy.

The hens have settled down after the demise of Daisy, Poppy still seems a bit anxious but we will be getting her some youngsters to boss around as soon as I can source them and she can again be Top of the Red Hen Gang!

Back from France

2008-09-03T10:30:00.003+01:00

I got the news that Daisy had died the after I landed in France, however the sun and pool and copious quantities of great food and lovely wine helped me with the bereavement and pretty soon I was relaxed to the point of stupor! Jacki and Chris are great hosts and I had a splendid holiday. I was met by Chris at Nice and arriving with the temperature still in the high twenties, was handed a flask of ice cold Singapore Sling to drink on the drive back to Valescure. My holiday was marred only by the fact that one morning in St Tropez after breakfasting at La Senequier, I almost entered one of the million pound yachts uninvited and head first after failing to negotiate a small green bollard on the quay side. My bruised ankle though is worthy of mention and has a designer green and purple hue about it. We had cruised to St Tropez in glorious sunshine that morning and had hoped to snap a few 'names', although we never spotted any celebs we could actually name, some of the outlandish outfits could only have been donned by the likes of Paris Hilton or VB ( as we call her). It was good to get away from the noise and doom and gloom at Moonzie but while I was away things have improved and we no longer have the QE2 engine room going in the background. We have dried out well and are just awaiting the carpet cleaners to arrive and then will be getting quotes for a new floor, the byre should be back in a usable state again by the end of next month, Inshallah.

Herb has been very busy with the new woodshed and pretty soon we will be having opening drinks in it, well, we open everything else here with a drink so why not a woodshed when it is going to be so magnificent. Sam is so taken with it he thinks it should be a bar anyway with inside seating for two and a smoking area to the outside!

I have only been away a week but with our monsoon rains the weeds have made an overwhelming attack on my raised beds, the mice have continued to chew my newly planted brassicas and the whole place needs a good sort out. The tomatoes despite having virtually no sun this summer continue to produce masses of trusses of tomatoes of every colour.

The doos seem fine, in fact too well, there is certainly romance in the air and Huffy is courting Hindoo like mad even on the finial of the doo cote, no mean feat. The hens are fine, Poppy seems to be missing Daisy, Herb said she is clucking round his legs when he has been going in egg collecting and is desperate to follow him out. When I went in today to say hello she was right up to me and crouched down so she got a cuddle! I will get a couple of new hens when some are available, probably two little red hens but who knows, the hybrids though are the best layers, less nervy and great pets.

Back to auld claes and mince as they say up here, after the excesses of the South of France. I did manage at last to spot a celeb on my way out of France, Cheryl Cole was flying out to Heathrow and I saw her as she queued to board. Got a wedding to go to tomorrow but after that have no plans for a few weeks at least. This summer has been pretty hectic and it is time to relax before the apple harvest and the manic Bramble Jeely Boil Up!

Lest I get more rude comments from Stupot, I should mention him, he is still at sea fighting with Giant Squid , tussling with mermaids and earning an honest bob. No doubt after ten weeks away is by now sporting a huge unruly red beard looking more like a character from Blackadder than any son of mine.

The new woodshed and other stuff

2008-08-26T07:23:00.004+01:00

It has been a couple of weeks since I last blogged but we have been very busy with the drying out and also took the chance to go to the West Coast to see how Jouster had fared after all the rain we had . On the Friday when we arrived the weather was lovely and we took a leisurely sail down the Loch to a spot just short of Crinan where we had a picnic at anchor while gazing at the Paps of Jura in the bright sunshine. On our way back to the marina we were passed by a lovely old Clyde Puffer belching black smoke everywhere. Jouster was fine but the weather was not kind after that and we spent only two days at Ardfern, the heavens opened once again on Saturday, combined with Force Eight winds and we ran away bravely back to Fife on Sunday morning in time to see the Grand Prix on TV.

The byre sitting room is drying out gradually but it is still like living with the worlds largest and noisiest air conditioner in your sitting room. The only plus side I can see from being flooded is that our lovely neighbours have brought chocolates, flowers and wine to dull the impact of the chaos!

Herb has made a start to the wood shed in the cattle court, it is going to be a truly magnificent structure complete with a reclaimed pantiled roof.

The doves have started being much more adventurous and a great deal more amorous too. They are spending longer and longer on the doocote which is nice and also a fair bit of time on the ground, bathing in the shallow pan of water I placed for them. Young Potter the baby hare joins them most days foraging under the cote. The doves are flying in ever widening circles and the other day performed some great aerobatics for Diane and Paula up the track.

The chickens now have another new house, named the Little Hilton. It has an integral covered run so will be brilliant for the worst of the winter weather and will keep the girls dry if I shut them in. Sadly today it is being used as the Hospice Hut for Daisy. When we got back on Sunday we noticed Daisy was looking very poorly indeed, she was very hunched, her legs were splayed well apart and she just sat with her head hanging low. Her behind looked all dirty too so yesterday I bathed her rear end in Tea Tree shampoo and saw that she has a huge saggy and very swollen underbelly. Through the skin it is a very strange colour and looks like she has a lump the size of a melon in there. After looking at the Omelet Forum I think she has Peritonitis. She has not laid an egg for months as far as I am aware and I think that the Peritonitis may have been around for a while. When she had the dreadful louse infestation it was suggested that to get so bad she maybe had an underlying problem as well. Peritonitis occurs where the yolk fluid remains in the abdomen and slowly starts accumulating. Peritonitis can be caused by a number of things, most often by yolks missing the "funnel" and falling directly from her ovary into her abdomen. Other types of infections and sometimes cancer can also cause peritonitis. Whatever is the cause she is an extremely poorly hen . Last night I put her into the nest box in the Little Hilton and this morning she has not moved at all, her wattles have turned a horrible shade of bluey gray and I think the kindest thing we can do is let her go gently. When I stroked her head this morning her eyes closed and she never moved. She was a great chicken, we have had her nearly three years now and she was a lovely character, always in the thick of things and being the boss.

Sad times then for the chicken family.

Update on the flood damage

2008-08-14T11:51:00.002+01:00

Just a quick note, the damage in the byre was far greater than we first thought. The drying out team sent by the insurers were brilliant and ripped out all of Herbs perfectly laid floor in three hours. The water was under the full length of the floor, the soaked carpet is currently being blown dry by a huge noisy machine that will be in situ for the next two to four weeks along with a big industrial dehumidifier. The carpets should dry out and not be too damaged. We are awaiting the arrival of the insurance assessor to see how much they will be giving us to redo the floor. Luckily it was not sewage or really dirty water, they called it black water.

On a brighter note, the council have given us some pick up your own sandbags so we have blocked the barn door and helped the neighbours to make their house a bit more watertight, they too had water in on Wednesday night. We are forecast for more of the same this weekend

The bridge is fine and withstood a second submerge in three days! Yesterday evening some lovely neighbours came down with a bottle or two to help us drown our sorrows.

It's only water, it is going to dry, but meanwhile the byre stinks, the machines are noisy and the house looks a tip with furniture and stuff everywhere.

Rain, rain and more rain

2008-08-13T14:01:00.003+01:00

After all the fun of the birthday celebrations we have come down to earth with a bump, overnight on Saturday we had in excess of 35 mm of rain and last night even more. We awoke to find the burn had overflowed yet again, this time taking in the fire pit, tables and chairs and making a move on the hen run and raised beds. Upon checking round the house we also found that water had come up through the floor and into the byre at the fireplace end of the room. The large and expensive Persian carpet is soaked and the laminate wood flooring has become somewhat spongy. At present I am awaiting the arrival of the Drying Out firm appointed by the insurers plus an assessor to gauge what damage has been done to the floor itself.

The bridge has withstood the floods even though after the first night of the Great Floods of 2008 a large tree trunk had been deposited on it making a wonderful white water rapid effect over it. Today we have yet to see if the bridge is still there but are hopeful it will remain when the water recedes.

The chickens don't seem to mind a bit of rain though and are happy enough fishing for worms. The doves are totally unperturbed by it all and remain tucked up by the electricity supply quite happily waiting for it all to subside.

Yesterday before the rain I was able to plant some Charlotte Potatoes for Christmas eating and also four varieties of broccoli and kale for the winter. This morning some bugger had eaten half of the broccoli. It is all now covered on fleece and I will hunt out the cloches to protect it further when the rain stops.

The Wattson is having the desired effect and we now turn everything off religiously, at this rate it will have paid for itself in a couple of weeks. Herb loves it, I hate it, especially when I am told every ten minutes how much it costs to watch a soap!

The Harvesting Begins

2008-08-03T13:29:00.002+01:00

As you can see from the picture I tipped the first of the tub grown spuds today. They were the variety 'Orla' planted back on the 6th of April. From 3 seed potatoes I got just over 3.5 kilos of wonderful looking spuds. We will be eating some tonight to see how they taste, but they are blemish free and look brilliant. I have also started tearing out the strawberries, the ones we had were really tasty but not really a big enough crop to warrant the space they have taken up in the raised bed. I harvested the shallots today too, they look really good and are laid out to dry in the barn prior to storing. They went in at the end of March and have done really well as have the Red Baron Onions. I have taken some out of the ground as they seemed to want to come out themselves but have put them in to the barn to dry off for storage, I think they would just rot if I left them on the top of the soil as advised. Still picking masses of courgettes in three colours, and have today made courgette pickle as sold in a famous San Fransisco Burger Bar!

I checked the hens yesterday and all the lice have gone, they all got another session with the louse powder and the house got another deep clean. After a week on extra protein feeds and liquid poultry tonic drink they all look better and Daisy is back to her previous form. She is single handedly ensuring that Trinny and Susannah never get any good treats, except when I sneak some in for them. This will all calm down soon, it is just good to see Daisy back to her usual bossy self.

The doves are spending longer and longer in and around the cote, it is lovely to see them looking so relaxed. Lily is still a home bird and after she has fed gets into the comfortable surroundings of the cote and sleeps! I had been wondering where they spent the night and discovered that they roost at the gable end of the house away from the weather just under the eaves on the electricity apparatus and wires.

Other than that all quiet here, Sam gets back from the Dunlin Field Oil Rig on Monday, the rig is some 150 miles North of Orkney. He rang the other day to say that as he was swinging on a rope high above the sea, two enormous whales swam by. Next weekend is someones 60th birthday so as we have friends coming from Germany I may not be blogging. What to get a 60 year old who claims he has everything? Well don't tell him but I have got him a Wattson!

A Wattson is a wonderful device, as stylish as an iPod and as useful as a, well as a jolly useful thing. It recently won an award in Stuff Magazine Top Ten Cool Stuff of the Year. It is a state of the art device for telling you how much power you are using and how much it is costing, it even lights up red if you are using too much but stays a nice gentle blue if things are OK. It claims to be able to reduce bills by 25% as you begin to get obsessive about switching things off, my Ganga would have loved one. I have an awful feeling that I am going to be sitting watching TV when the Wattson appears to tell me just how much it is costing to watch rubbish. Perhaps a bad move on my part but socks did not seem to cut the mustard for this particular birthday!

No rain today and after the deluge yesterday when we had 10mm in 15 minutes that is a blessing, off to do more digging!

Lousy news

2008-07-27T17:30:00.003+01:00

The summer house new bed is looking a treat now, all the sweet peas have climbed almost to the top of the obelisk and the lavenders are in full bloom. I am regretting putting in the large leaved Inula now but will haul them out at the end of the season and replace with something more fitting in blue or pink, must have been having a blonde day when I thought Inula Giganticas in orange would fit in well with lavenders and pinks.

Daisy has been off colour for a while now and has stopped laying eggs and so I decided to take a close look at her with my glasses on. She may have stopped laying eggs but some buggers had not and she was infested with Poultry Biting Lice and their eggs. It was positively foul ( excuse the pun ) seeing her crawling with parasites. It is all a bit like when the kids used to come home with 'little visitors', nothing to be ashamed about and I have heard that Poultry Lice only like clean feathers. Ha Ha! Anyway I right away inspected the rest, that was no easy matter. Poppy was fine and Trinny and Susannah calm down nicely when caught but the Veras revert to Hezbollah and Hammas mode when cornered. In the end Trinny had a few, none on Susannah and a few on Poppy and none on the Veras, would they dare! Well, like when one of the boys got nits in the long distant past, one gets treated so do the rest. This has consisted of all of them being liberally doused in louse powder, the house being deep cleaned and then all the hens being sprayed with mite and louse spray. I was told that the easiest way to delouse a chicken was to fill an old pillowcase with said powder, put the hen in up to its neck and then hold it tight around its neck while massaging all its bits with powder. Easier said than done again! I chose to do Daisy first as she was definitely the worst affected but by the end I was covered in louse powder as the weave on the pillow case allowed a lot of leakage and worse I had crawlers on me to and in my hair, having just shelled out £89 to have my highlights and a cut I was none too happy at having to wash all the hours of professional blow drying out but like a trooper I did. It was a little later that I read on the Omlet Forum that these lice are host specific and would have got bored with me after a while and dropped off. Better safe than sorry I say. I decided to take another tack with the rest of the flock and I caught them one at a time and deposited them into a sand pit which contained about 50/50 sand and louse powder, it was much easier to massage it into the right bits and some of them seemed to enjoy it. Not either of the Veras though who protested long and hard, I am surprised none of the neighbours called the SSPCA. After the girls were done it was time to deep clean the house, this was scrubbed, pressure washed and liberally doused with something called Poultry Shield which kills all known bugs, creepy crawlies and other nasties. Then I sprayed the house with another type of louse killer for good measure.

This morning as the girls got up and left the house I could be seen at the door of the hen house spray in hand, giving each of them ,as the exited another spray for good measure. I will repeat all the aforementioned next weekend again and hopefully we will have rid ourselves of them for the time being.

The doves are being very well behaved and I have no idea if they have lice or not , I can get to the doocote when they are on it to replenish their feed and water but handling them is some way off yet. For good measure the cote got a spray of poultry shield and light dusting of mite powder, can't be too careful.

Now Herb has built a bridge he is starting on a wonderful lean to shed of mammoth proportions in the cattle court. It will be for storing logs and straw and may even contain a manger or two. It is going to be magnificent.

Everything else in the garden is rosy. We sat on our new bridge one sunny evening and christened it the Five O'clock Bridge with a glass of bubbly or two, or three but certainly no binge drinking.

IT ALL WENT WELL!

2008-07-22T10:07:00.002+01:00

After a week we decided that the new girls should get acquainted more intimately with their new hen coop mates so we took the dividing wire down and let them in and at each other. Anyone expecting a fight would have been very disappointed, there were a few minor skirmishes but nothing out of the ordinary and certainly nothing like when the Veras met Poppy and Daisy for the first time. The first night we put the Auracanas into the temporary house but the next night they all went in together in the new house and last night when it came time to shoo them into bed they were all already in. In fact five of the six were squashed into the nesting box for two!

There are still a few well aimed pecks but Trinny and Susannah are adept at swerving to avoid the worst of them , all in all it has been very successful. They still seem to troop around in matching pairs but they do all look good together, like a palette of hens.

The doves have been spending more and more time on the coop and are now venturing father away on their all too infrequent flying trips. Hindoo and Bully are doing a lot of kissing and cooing and bowing down at each other. Could romance be in the air?

Hairy Potter and Hairy Mary obviously had romance on their minds a couple of months ago as we now have one of his offspring in the garden eating all the heads off the daisies and clearing up any grain spilled from the bird feeders. He is a tiny wee fellow but not being a hare expert have no idea when they leave their mums for the first time.

Herb has almost finished the new bridge over the stream, this one should withstand all the floods and other environmental catastrophes ( Dicky) that are bound to come our way! It is going to be a great place to sit and dangle your legs as the sun goes down, watch this space for the Pooh Sticks Competition results.

All I need to know

2008-07-17T10:46:00.002+01:00

All I Need To Know In Life I Learned From My Chickens
by Michaele Oleson

Wake up early, stay busy

Rest when you need to, but always stay alert

Visit your favourite places every day

Scratch out a living

Routine is good Plump is good

Don't ponder your purpose in life - your brain is too small

Accept the pecking order and know your enemies

Weed your garden

Look after your children

- Sit on them if necessary-

Take them for walks, show them the little things and talk constantly

Make a nice nest - share it with friends

Brag on your accomplishments

Protect your nest egg

Test your wings once in a while

Squawk when necessary

As you age, demand respect

Leave a little something for those who care about you

Chase butterflies

The new girls are here!

2008-07-16T15:17:00.003+01:00

After deciding to get two more hens now we have new and upgraded housing I was pleased to see an ad in the local paper for hens of the very breed I was after. We collected the two Lavender Auracanas from a local breeder and brought them home to a hastily erected temporary home. The reason I wanted this particular type is that they lay wonderful blue eggs, they taste the same as any egg but look beautiful, if looking at eggs is what you like to do!

We put them into the little run on getting back and all too soon World War Three broke out with the Veras launching themselves at the wire and Poppy and Daisy clucking and bokking in a threatening manner. There was a lot of heads down eye contact being made and thank goodness the wire was in the way otherwise I am sure we would have had bloodshed if not a fatality or two. After a while things settled down with the two new girls retiring to bed early and the other strutting around looking bewildered! We decided to call the newest additions Trinny and Susannah as they are quite stylish in a strange sort of way. They did their duty overnight and next day we had our first blue egg. I am not sure how old they are but as they have just come into lay I can guess they are between 18 and 24 weeks.

The doves have at last and quite suddenly, realized that the doocote is where they are supposed to be, not the roof of the house. They have been spending more and more time in, on and around the cote and today have spent the whole day on it, we even have Lily back in the nest box which is where she spent her first 7 weeks at Moonzie. It is great to see them adorning the cote which is what I had envisaged when they first were released. They are getting very brave and no longer fly off when I venture out to replenish the feed hoppers.

The garden is producing some wonderful vegetables and tonight we are eating some more Cauliflower, some roast Courgettes and Patty Pan Squashes, fresh green peas and for pudding, our very own strawberries and ice cream. Yesterday we had the first of the tomatoes and a cucumber.

We plan to let the hens in and at each other at the weekend, I know it is going to be messy and noisy but hopefully they will soon all settle in and be one happy flock. No guessing who is going to be top of the pecking order. Miss Daisy can puff herself up bigger and broader than any of them so I think she will win. Watch this space for further developments and see which of the hen family is the first to get an ASBO.

Rain Rain and more rain

2008-07-12T09:33:00.004+01:00

I would have added some pictures to my blog this week but every time I went outside to do so it rained! The garden is really benefitting from it but other than that it is awful, the track has turned into a small river yet again and the chickens are wading knee deep in mud. They don't seem to mind at all.

The doves have remained settled all week, they are so settled sometimes I think they are unconscious. They spend about 23 hours a day sitting on the roof of the house, about ten minutes flying and the rest of the time eating. They are having to contend with many other birds coming to the feeding table below the cote now, it is getting ridiculous. This week we had 7 chaffinch at one time plus numerous collared doves and wood pigeons as well as a seagull. A blackbird even had the cheek to sit in the cote sheltering from the torrential rain while the doves sat around the chimney getting soaked.

Having sold the Eglu and moved the hens into the larger old fashioned wooden house I have ordered my two new girls to be picked up on Sunday. They are Lavender Auracanas, a hen from Chile that lays blue/green eggs. I was possibly a bit quick in selling the Eglu as I now have had to make a temporary pen and coop for the new girls so that the others don't bully them until they have settled in. Some degree of pecking and chasing is inevitable until the pecking order is established and it is kinder to keep them apart for a week or so to let the dust, or in this case mud, settle. The temporary coop is a bit of a Heath Robinson affair but it should work well enough for the time it is needed .

The man that made my dove cote has added me as a link on his website so if you want to take a look at his marvellous dove cotes his web site address is http://www.marksdovecotes.co.uk/
His dovecotes are of exceptional quality and very good value. The aftercare is also worth mentioning and without Marks help and advice I would have been lost.

Sam is away to T in the Park this weekend, luckily with his new found wealth he has gone well equipped with wellies, waterproofs and a very good tent. Herb has had a weeks sailing around Mull in the sunshine, who says we never have good weather in Scotland?

Home Sweet Home

2008-07-05T07:52:00.001+01:00

The doves have settled well into freedom and although still not doing very much it is great to see them on their occasional training flights in formation over the house. 4pm seems to be a good time to fly and they usually do a couple of circuits, and the odd touch and go before landing back on the roof.

Herb took the rest of the homing cage frame down and mowed under and around the cote, I am sure the grass will eventually recover from the piles of guano under the cote! He put up new perches and we started using the new feeders. After the frame was away the doves seems a little unsettled and seemed not to recognize the doo cote, they stayed away for 24 hours so that time I removed the new fouling proof feeder and replaced it with the bowl that I had originally used. This seemed to do the trick and they are now back feeding as before. They are also using the trees a lot more for perching although all seem to like to be together on the same branch often with comical consequences when the branch bends too far and they all topple off, much flapping and some feather loss before they all go and settle on another branch together or perform balancing acts on the telephone wires. There are two large wood pigeons who have also joined in lunching with us and despite my best efforts with a large stick and some choice words they seem undeterred. Maybe an air gun shot might deter them.

We had a sad day here this week, White Eye our three year old friendly blackbird with the white spot around his eye funnily enough, got into the house and flew into a plate glass window. Herb was in the house at the time and took White Eye outside but he had been fatally injured and died on the grass a few minutes later with a shudder. White Eye had appeared three summers ago with another female back bird that we called Chuffer, she had us well trained and for two years was able to attract our attention by jumping on the door handle or outside windowsill and making chuffing noises until we fed her. She also used to step into the kitchen and wait on the kitchen table for crumbs, last year she failed to appear one day and we surmised that she must have died, but this week, a few days before White Eye was killed she reappeared. It could be no other bird than Chuffer as she immediately started with the same attention getting antics, onto the milk churn by the back door then a quick hop to the door handle and once the door was open, onto the kitchen table.

We have also had another visitor the garden, we had seen evidence of him or her but had not actually seen him until a few days ago when we spotted a very large fat hedgehog ambling through the garden. He thoughtfully posed for a few snaps before heading away again. The hare is still a nightly visitor and enjoys a good wash and brush up under the willow tree before sitting and watching the world go by for an hour or so each evening.

The chickens had a welcome taste of freedom yesterday, the neighbours dog was away so we took the chance to allow them a days free ranging. It was great to see them out and so obviously enjoying being liberated. The dog is away in kennels for 3 weeks next week so I will be letting the girls out every day, much better for them and an even better egg yolk colour with all the natural weeds and stuff they can eat. The new house is very popular and at hen bedtime I no longer have to walk around the run wielding a large stick persuading them to go to bed. With all the extra space the new house has they just enjoy going in, I also shut them in at night and wake at 6.30 to let them out, that way we all get a good nights rest. Hen squabbling at first light when first light was 3am was no fun for a light sleeper like me.

At the risk of being boring I will just say that I think my vegetables could win prizes.

Home and Dry!

2008-06-28T12:43:00.000+01:00

I am thrilled to say that the homing process has worked. From day one the Doos were returning home at dusk and settling back onto the cote. Lily still goes straight into the nest hole and remains there while the other three prefer to sit on the wooden homing run surround. This is going to be removed today but Herb is going to put up another perching area for them as they seem to like to perch.

During the day they spend most of the time just sitting about on the roof of the house, they should really be called Doo Nothings not Doos! More accurately I should say they spend their time in the roof guttering as can be seen in the picture. They venture to the ground now and again and enjoy foraging with the wood pigeons and collared doves who have discovered rich pickings around the base of the dove cote.

It really is lovely to watch them, I had real worries that this was not all going to work but at last I have my white doves dotted around the place, they are relaxing and beautiful to look at and all the worry has been worth it.

A couple of days ago Sam and I were amazed to see Huffy and Hindoo, strutting around, bowing and necking like the amorous wood pigeons, hopefully this is a good sign that we have at least one pair for breeding though knowing my luck they could be gay! They should not mature until around 6 to 10 months so watch this space.

This week we have had guests from Germany, America, Canada and New Zealand via Turkey. They all loved the livestock and I have even been almost persuaded that I should have some ducks around the place. We had ducks here 20 years ago and they were no bother so may well consider that, If we get some they are already named as Heinz and Barb in honour of our recent visitors!

Last week my new wooden hen house arrived, Sam built it and the girls love it, so much more space for them. I am hoping to sell the Eglu to retrospectively finance the new upgraded living quarters. There is enough room in the new house for four more birds and I am toying with getting a few more pretty hens to add to the family. I quite fancy the sort that lay the blue eggs so will be looking out for some Auraucanas for sale. Either that or a couple of Black Rock hens that are reputed to 'dreep eggs' according to Wully Duncan.

The veg plot continues to grow and still not a blemish or a slug on the brassicas, we have harvested the first of the calabrese and it was delicious, the courgettes are also ready and the Italian Mixed Lettuce leaves are delicious.

Today is a lovely sunny day and after the hectic time we have had all week with visitors plan to sit in the summer house and do little or nothing at all, just like the doos do.

The Eagles Have Landed

2008-06-23T15:55:00.000+01:00

Just a quick update. The doves spent a lot of yesterday sitting in trees or on the roof but eventually after a few practise flights they seemed to get the hang of this flying lark and were even able to land quite well. By yesterday evening all had returned to the dove cote where they stayed until after breakfast this morning and today has been a mixture of formation flying or sitting around the chimney stack looking bored. I have to admit I have breathed a huge sigh of relief, after the earlier disaster I had visions of letting them out and then never seeing them again, but not so.

FREEDOM!!

2008-06-22T08:00:00.000+01:00

Hopefully not too much freedom. At last release day arrived, we had delayed it by a day due to the impending noise from two simultaneous Moonzie Do's, however the Midsummer Monsoon put paid to one and drenched the other into a tactical withdrawal into the byre. After having six dry weeks it was sods law that the heavens should open on the night of the longest day and the day we had decided to celebrate the Summer Solstice.

We have just been away on holiday for a week on the West Coast where the weather was also in the main dry and sunny and it gave Herb a good chance to get out on the boat with old mates and me to get a paintbrush into my hand and do some serious ( ly bad ) painting. We got back to a garden in which everything had grown huge. It looks like I am going to have at least a thousand tomatoes and a similar number of courgettes! The brassicas are looking even more amazing an still not a slug, cabbage white or thrip in sight.

Anyway back to Doo Release Day. In an operation planned with some precision, we carefully loosened the netting and once the doves were settled again slowly lifted it off the cote. We had been advised to release one dove at a time but this was impossible due to our set up but in the end they did that themselves as some were a little reluctant to leave the safety of what had been home for 7 weeks.

The first to leave was Bully , followed by Hindoo. They both made ever widening circles over the house and garden and Bully is now sitting in a large tree about 200 yards from home. Hindoo flew to the power lines and stayed another for half an hour but has now flown off someplace else. Huffy flew out and off and has not been seen since! Lily took a long time to pluck up the courage to leave and was alone in the cote for about half an hour, she eventually ventured to the finial on top of the cote and sat and posed while Sam took some nice pictures. She then flew to the roof and after a couple of aborted landing approaches is still there now.

I have every confidence that they will all be back for tea. I have counted them out and fully intend to count them back in again. Did I mention my middle name is Optimist?

My Magnificent Brassicas

2008-06-09T08:07:00.000+01:00

We are at last over the hump and on the run down to Doo Release day, there has been an awful lot of flapping, hovering and wing stretching and I think the Clan are now ready to fly for real. There is going to be a slight delay on release day as the planned day coincides with a party next door for a whole years worth of excitable St Leonards girls ( think Scottish St Trinians!) plus a band for the night. We have also decided to hold our Summer Solstice Barbecue on the same night to benefit from the music gently wafting in our direction, hopefully we will be able to call it that!

We could have hosted Springwatch here this year. Each evening we have been privy to watching the ablutions and evening antics of Harey Potter plus his mate Harey Mary. They arrive around 8pm and usually stay for at least an hour. Young Potter is quite large and is completely at ease with the situation. He cleans himself assiduously, not missing one area including licking between his toes!

The Blue Tits in the box have fledged, I went to Dundee on Friday when I returned , found they had left, at least the seeds in the seed container don't go in a day anymore. It was comical to see them flying directly from the nest box to the seeds and back again. There would be frantic activity for a couple of hours and then a lull before it all took off again. We had a curious starling trying to get into the box one day but the intervention of a fist on the window shooed it away. Not very Springwatch I know,but having lost one batch of babies I was not prepared to sit and see another brood go the same way.

One of the Robins nesting in the barn died, we found it on the barn floor , no apparent injuries. Luckily for us Robins are fed by both parents and it was reassuring to see the other Robin in the barn feeding the babies, who are in an inaccessible hole in the barn wall.

The Swallows are still on the eggs in the barn, getting quite vocal when we go in and out. Last year they raised two clutches so we are hoping for the same again this year. We do seem to have far fewer swallows, as in previous years we would have at least 3 pairs in the barn.

The doves have started to coo, it sounds more like a burble through a glass of water at present but I think it shows how settled they are. I am still talking to them as often as I can and was lucky recently when Mum , Eric and Mary were here as they do did their bit at the socialising of the Clan.

The new veg garden is coming on a treat and we recently feasted on magnificent Ice Candle White Radishes and a mixed leaf salad, Rocket, Radicchio and Misticanza Leaves with egg mayonnaise all from my own plot. I was recently compliments on the quality of my Brassicas, hence the snap at the top of the blog. Not a Cabbage White in sight. This eating free from the land is great fun and I am looking to expand my menagerie. I am fairly keen to get a pig now but some people in the household are not so sure. The chickens are all laying although we still have one hen not pulling her weight, yesterday an egg was laid without a yoke. I have had to resort to shutting the hens in at night as with it getting light by 4am they seem to think that this is an acceptable time to get up and cluck, very loudly, for breakfast. It has not gone down too well and as an emergency measure Poppy and Daisy go into the temporary house alone otherwise there are some almighty squabbles in the night.

So now we are the countdown to the day the White Doves fly free, my friend Rosemary has a son Guy, getting married that day so we are going to make it a symbolic release for the wedding, the fact that the wedding is in the Deep South and we are in the Far North matters not a jot. It's the thought that counts and I will send her the video!

I have been looking at the history of Homing pigeons and came across this little article:

Homing Pigeons

Homing pigeons owe their name to the ability to return home from distant, unfamiliar release points in some cases, even if they've been transported, anaesthetised and deprived of all information about the journey. They were used to carry messages in both ancient Greece and China, and by the 16th century were being used in formal postal services. In 1860, Paul Reuter employed a fleet of 45 to deliver news and stock prices between Brussels and Aachen. Only in 2002 did India's police force retire its pigeon messenger service, when it was made redundant by e-mail. Homing pigeons have proved especially useful during times of war. One bird, "Cher Ami", was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for his heroic service during the First World War in delivering 12 important messages, despite sustaining a bullet wound. Equally amazing, but for different reasons, is the unfortunate bird that set off from Pembrokeshire in June 1953. It returned, dead, in a box postmarked "Brazil", 11 years later.

Three Weeks Four Days

2008-05-30T17:33:00.000+01:00

The Doos have now been in residence for almost four weeks, they have been madly flapping their wings and having a go at impersonating Harrier Jump Jets. Apparently all this is in preparation for the time that they will be flying, nearly there, release date is set to be June 20th so fingers crossed that they fly free but come home for tea. I am hoping to make a video of the liberation. As you can see from the picture the weather has been really great and Grandma and I have been making the most of it. Hardly any rain so the raised beds have been getting hosed but everything is growing really well.

Have had a lot of visitors this week so the doos have been getting used to lots of new faces and voices, we talk to them every time we pass the fortress to get them used to us so that they will in time become hand tame. Mary and Eric were particularly fine at cooing or maybe it was just Mary trying to talk after sampling yet another bottle of Rose/Red/White wine.

There has been some funny business in the cote this week. A fair bit of pecking and bullying with at least some blood being drawn. This sorting out of the pecking order is not a pretty sight but we weathered it with the chickens so am sure we will again with the doos. We have also had some very amorous going on and for ten week old babies it seems a little precocious! However I guess in human years they must equate to being about ten so perhaps they are dooing OK. Not that I would throw my ten year old out of a window in a few weeks time and expect it to come back again.

Thought that we had lost Poppy Hen again the other day as she started making some very odd noises and the bare bit on her neck looked sore and inflamed. Herb was poised to do the deed and send her to the great hen coop in the sky but she must have heard us and decided to get better. However it has settled down again and she seems happy, amazing what Savlon and Tea Tree Oil can do for a Sick Chick.

No more news for now, off to look at the latest blood bath in the OK Corrall.

Two weeks down, four to go!

2008-05-21T16:30:00.001+01:00

The new birds have been with us now for over two weeks, they are getting used to life in the cage, it is not ideal but then it is not for ever. This week I provided them with a splash pool by managing to get a shallow bath of water into the run, they love it when it is warm and splash around and then lay about on the grass dripping dry. I have tried to photograph them in the pool but they are having none of it, preferring to bathe in private. It is also quite difficult getting shots of them, not at them but Hindoo posed nicely this afternoon and here it is.

All the birds are enjoying the fine dry weather, the chickens have been making good use of the Chicken Spa and its use seems to be dominated by the Two Veras. Now I have opened up the newly seeded area of the run the chickens are having a great time and laying some enormous eggs. The Veras and Daisy have taken to roosting on top of the Eglu run at night and at dusk I had been shooing them back in to the Eglu but as soon as I was in the house they were on the roof again so I have decided to leave them to it.

My newly built raised beds are fairly blossoming, everything is coming along well, I think all the purloined chicken manure that we spread into the bases have done them a world of good. I just hope someone likes Jerusalem Artichokes after all this for they are growing bigger and faster than anything else.

Herb is busy building us ( me) a fire pit down by the stream, it is a bit like a mini Stonehenge . It is going to be multi purpose it that we can cook on it Jamie Oliver style and then have a roaring fire in it afterwards. It is going to be great. Nice to see him getting good use of his shiny yellow cement mixer.

Next job for me is to think of a next job for Herb!

Moonzie renamed the Killing Fields

2008-05-14T10:57:00.000+01:00

The Doos are fine, However the baby Blue Tits appear to have been eaten by an unknown assailant. Got back from shopping to find the above remains on the path outside the lounge window. I have no idea what has had them, they were in the nest and being fed by the parents yesterday. Whatever it was it did not like feet or wings.

On a brighter note I was sitting by the stream in the sunshine yesterday and I caught a glimpse of a Kingfisher as it whizzed by, bright turquoise and orange, it is a lovely sight, but all too rare.

The new Doo Clan have settled in very well and fly to the ground on occasion to sun themselves and to peck at the grit and seeds that have fallen to the ground. They have lasted a week and a day and still no sign of the dog in the garden again. Only five more weeks in captivity.

Saw a strange sight two days ago, I heard the normal Buzzard noise and looked out to see at least a dozen circling high over head, we have often seen four or five but this was amazing.

Yesterday we had the Robin in the kitchen feeding from crumbs on the table and later in the day discovered it must have had a quick look around the house too as was evident by stragically placed droppings on the bannisters.

We found the dead swallow in amongst the logs on the wood pile. So sad after it getting back all the way from Africa to come and die at Moonzie.

More worrying feathered goings on

2008-05-10T08:42:00.000+01:00

The new Dove Clan have settled in well and are venturing further than the feeding station performing some interesting acrobatic feats by hanging from the netting. They are exceptionally messy, of course I used to feed the original four on the ground and now I am using the feeding platform it gets very grubby. Dove poo and feed combined means I have to sweep it each day, no mean feat through a hatch 12 inches by 8.

Moonzie continues to be a haven for wildlife and two weeks ago saw the return of our beloved swallows. First we saw only one but by the start of the week we were up to at least six and as ever they were in the barn swoopoing low over Herbs head while selecting the prime nesting site. We have always had swallows in the barn and it is great to see them returning each year although in lesser numbers each season. We also have a robin nesting in the barn and already have had several altercations between the robin and the swallows.

A couple of days ago though we saw an unusual sight. It was a swallow on the ground looking for all the world like it was just resting, we assumed it to be a new arrival from Africa and left it to rest in the warm sunshine. However yesterday it was still on the ground although it had moved to another part of the lawn. We took photographs and I gave it a drink. A little later I was astonished to see two other swallows swooping down and to begin with I thought it nice, they were showing concern, however it soon became clear that in fact the downed swallow was being dive bombed and pecked and dunted on the back of it's head. This continued on and off for a long time. After a concerted effort by the swallows the injured one flapped away under a bush and the aerial bombardement stopped. We have been unable to find the downed swallow and assume it may have crawled away and died. It was horrible to watch and seemed like very unusual behaviour.

Doo Day Arrives

2008-05-06T07:57:00.000+01:00

Bank Holiday Monday was the warmest of the year up here in Fife and we set off in the sunshine to Glenrothes to collect our new babies with a borrowed wicker basket and clutching another £80. Duncan, the breeder, had selected six to choose from and after a good look at all we chose four, a pure White Garden Dove, a cross Garden Fantail/Indian with feathered legs, a Garden Fantail with a pied black and white tail and a White Fantail with a tiny blob of Ginger on it.

When we got home they were carefully transferred into Fortress Moonzie and all sat on the perch looking bemused at their new home. They all had a drink as they arrived ( in the best tradition of Moonzie) and soon settled well. I spent most of the afternoon watching them while pretending to weed the garden. I think the blanket spread on the ground was a bit of a giveaway when Herb came to see how much I had done.

After watching them for a while new names seemed to evolve for the clan so after much discussion we now have Hindoo, she/he is the cross Fantail/Indian, we also have Lily Doo who is the smallest, most elegant and shy pure white fantail. Then we have Bully Doo who has the black and white tail and who is most definitely in charge and lastly we have Huffy Doo with the ginger marking, who sat for most of the day all hunched up, sleeping and looking vaguely like one of our boys when he used to famously sit hunched up in the stair well when not amused. I decided not to call them the names of the first batch after all.

Last night was misty and damp and when I ventured out at 10pm, three were still outside on the balcony of the doocote and one had sensibly gone inside for the night. This morning they all look perky and fit and well, Bully continues to nag at the others , pecking them on the head from time to time, while jostling them for a better position. Lily is still quiet and accomodating, moving away from Bully and Huffy seems somewhat cheerier today. Hindoo is just doing what doos do and eating and watching the world go by.

As it is yet another sunny day I am off to do some more weeding, somewhere with a good view of my new Doves. Herb is now groaning as I have just suggested we should get a new bench so that I can actually sit and doo watch.

Fortress Moonzie

2008-05-04T09:16:00.000+01:00

We were to be away for the weekend but the weather on the West Coast was set to be dire so instead we stayed at home and got all the little jobs done that we had been putting off for ages. Oh Joy ,Herb was heard to say at that little nugget of planning from me.

The weather here in Fife was wonderful and as it was so warm outside we decided also to get the new improved Doo defences up and Herb set to designing and building a Five Star homing cage . Halfway through the building programme I decided on some modifications and he duly added them. I think adding in a perch may have been easier before the wire netting was attached but it did look so much better with a perch. It took all day and is most certainly dog proof, the final addition was a warning sign that I obtained while touring in the Falklands, quite legally, I have my Mine Sign release certificate, and I am not joking. Later yesterday evening the neighbours came to inspect the doo cote again and Dan was most disappointed that we had not actually mined the area for real. We celebrated the new grand design in the summer house till quite late. Overnight I have decided on one more modification which involves a further layer of netting over the roof, just in case a determined sea eagle flies over head and fancies a Doo sandwich for lunch. Not my words of course.

Tomorrow we are off to get some more baby white Doos. To be named as before but Mk 2.