Eggs

A Lovely Surprise

Having had the hens for a few days now there has been lots of sitting and watching them. On Sunday we took a blanket into the run and had an hour just watching the girls. They already have personalities showing through. Rita is the mother hen and doesnt concern herself too much with the others, unless they're pecking the bit of grass she wants and then she'll give them a good peck on the neck to get them to move. This usually happens when Cairo has her head in the feeder. Alison, still the most elegant seems to be lost in her own little world sometimes. She does like to peck alongside Cairo sometimes though. Cairo is the greediest, although I think she may just grab as much food as she can whilst the other two aren't looking, she also likes to stick her big feet in everywhere which leads to water and grit being spilt.

After John let the girls out on his way to work yesterday, I wasnt too far behind and was happy to see the girls outside going about their business. Even happier I was when I took a look inside and found our very first egg. It was very small, and I carried it carefully in my pocket all the way home. Popping in again later that day to my surprise there was another egg, in exactly the same place as the first. Im not sure which hen they came from but I think it could be Rita as she seems to be the most fully grown. Im looking forward to more eggs soon, and once Cairo is a bit more developed im hoping we'll gather at least three or four eggs a day.

More Jam Than You Can Shake A Stick At

Whilst the Blur and I were watching the hens, John went off and started gathering plums from our trees. With a good thirty in the tray John left them in the shed at home ready for me to make more jam. This time the recipe was slightly less complicated and within twenty minutes we had two and a half jars of plum jam. From the look on Johns face and the noises he was making I think it went down pretty well.

Im just wondering now how many more types of jam i'll make before the summers over.

Another little surprise for me is how well one of the melons outside has done. She has the biggest melon on her already despite the bad weather we've had the last few days. The rains not all bad. With relatively sunny day times and the downpours mainly restricted to the evening, all the plants are getting a bit of what they need, and they are flourishing for it.