Sunshine And Snow

Saturday Sunshine
The weather having been pretty bad lately means we've not been spending so much time at lotty as we probably would have liked. But Saturday morning was absolutely lovely. We were only really there to let the chickens out but we stayed slightldayy longer to enjoy the warm sun. The girls seemed equally happy, and whilst the other three were busy eating Marge and Betty were worming their way under the Charlton Heston shed to get the dry soil for a dust bath. We have now had to ban the girls from the greenhouse as they have pulled the bale of straw apart and strewn it across the entire floor.

As I mentioned before the seeds in greenhouse two were eaten by a mouse. We had put the strawberry seeds under glass so they havnt been touched, but as yet there are still no shoots and its been alot longer than 10 days. There is no progress from the potatoes as yet but the onions have really started to shoot up lately, so im hoping they'll survive through the bad weather.

The fox we saw a few weeks ago showed his head a few more times. The following day when I was letting the girls out he was outside of our gate, but he ran away when I got too close, though I did notice he was limping. I told Geoff and he said that an injured fox would be desperate for food, so I had a couple of days worrying he might try and grab one of the chickens. Iv not seen him for two weeks now but its made me slightly more aware that the dangers not just there at night.

Sunday Snow
Now Sunday was a complete contrast to Saturday. Lotty in the morning was freezing and we hastily made our way home for a cuppa after letting the chickens out. By the time it got round to putting them away it had started snowing and John suggested we take the car (rather than me and the Blur walking round like we normally do on a Sunday). Wanting to not get too cold we took the car right up to our gate where John noticed we had a flat tyre. So I put the girls away while John changed the tyre. I dont really like putting the girls away on my own because they tend to play up. But iv found I can make a fence around the coop door so there is only one way for them to go. Unfortunately theres no running water at lotty until spring so John had to rinse his hands of in one of the water butts which now contain freezing water.

Winter Wonderland (Just Not For The Chickens)
By Monday morning the snow was well and truly settled and there were a good few inches of it too. Rita jumped straight out into the snow and then hastily ran under the coop where there was no snow, but she didnt stay there too long and made her way up to the hut. The other girls all took one look out and decided they wanted to stay in bed a bit longer. I thought id stick to the same routine and let Rita have the Sunday dinner to herself. It took twenty minutes before the rest of the girls ventured out but they still didnt look to happy about it. For once I left the greenhouse open as its the only inside place they'll go during the day.

By bedtime they were all quite eager to get into the coop, even Ali surprised me by not being the last one in like usual.

The Blur and I did have a little play in the snow. In the newly flattened retainer plot we built a snowman and the Blur let me swish all the snow from on top of the greenhouse onto her. She also made a little snowman on the bench which unfortunately was gone by this morning.

There may not be as much snow today but it was still enough to give the chickens problems. Once again Rita was the only one who wanted to come out but she had some difficulty walking. With every step she took the snow gave way under her and she had to flap about to keep balance. The others did eventually join the outside world and found that flying was a better way to get around than walking, I tried throwing bread for them but they didnt seem very interested for once.

What was nice this morning was seeing all the different animal footprints in the snow. Most were from cats and foxes and there were little lines where I assume mice or rats had run along, but there were a few bigger footprints too which I would like to think came from a badger as they seem too big to be anything else.