Rain Rain and more rain

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?