Wild Hope Homestead

My, how the feather babies have grown. I have had them for 2 months now, although it feels like they’ve been around for so much longer. They are somewhere around 19-21 weeks old. Any day now, surely, an egg will appear. Bring forth the eggs, chickens! Although it is winter, so I don’t blame them if they hold off for a while. But just one egg would be nice. Any takers? Frodo has always been the smallest and probably youngest so my bet’s on either Strider or Sam, with all her Orpington rotundness.

Last weekend The Husband and I went to the Fieldays. I found it quite interesting, with lots of farmy stuff to look at, although there weren’t nearly enough animals around for my liking. After a few hours of walking around I was reduced to the state of a snail and could barely move another inch. The great success of the day, other than me getting some extensive exercise, was the purchase of a chicken feeder and a chicken water bell.

Previously I had the chickens’ food and water in plastic bowls weighted down with bricks and raised on some bits of wood, but they would still get messy and slugs has started getting attracted to and drowned in the apple cider vinegar that I add to the chickens’ water for good health. Not that the slugs drowning was a bad thing, but it doesn’t make for clean water… The Husband attached the food and water bells with some hooks and rope. At first the chickens were a bit wary of the weird swinging things, but they soon realised that they were the bearers of good things.