ITS SUNNY!!!!

Feels like ages since I last said that. Anyway - sorry its been a looooonnng time without an update. As well as the constant rather horrible unseasonal weather, ive been ill and so things have fallen quite behind. I shall try to remember everything that has happened.

Hmm where to start. The chooks. It always seems I have something new to deal with and this time is no exception. Everything was going wonderful - we finally got a dry sunny weekend and i was able to shovel out the run (after the constant rain had created a 6 inch deep layer of slop), and eggs were almost magically appearing from all the chooks everyday. Then came the day of my birthday, about 4:30 in the morning to be precise. Me and the OH were rudely woken up by the sound of crowin and squarking from the hen house (which sits outside our bedroom windows). I quickly got dressed and prepared to go outside - my first thought was that one of the hens was in distress or, worse, had taken the role of a cock bird in our little flock - its rare but not unheard of that a hen will learn to crow in the absense of a cock. So, I open the back door, step outside, turn toward the hen house and stopped...gob smacked. I must have said something I wont repeat here, because from the open bedroom window I heard the OH ask what was wrong. Before answering her I looked again, just to check my rather sleepy eyes were not deceiving me. Next to the hen house was my wheelbarrow. Sat on my wheelbarrow was a small white cockeral, happilly crowing his dawn chorus across the estate at a million decibels. All down the street I could here muffled complaints and angry tired people slamming shut thier bedroom windows. A few minutes later and I was joined by the OH and the Lodger (who has also been woken up). The 3 of stood staring in disbelief and after a while i couldnt help but to begin laughing - ive always had a fear that someone might steal our chooks during the night, but ive never considered waking up to find that we own another one!!

Now we didnt have a cockeral for a very good reason - we live on a housing estate, surrounded by other houses, and knew a cockeral would be far too noisy, and would annoy all our neighbours. Guess what - everyone for a hundred yards has just been woken up, and is now rather annoyed with us. Q a few days where my most repeated saying was : "im very sorry, but we had never seen it before - here, have some free eggs".
So. I rang all my friends to see if this was a birthday present or joke from any of them - they all laugh. lots.
So, I rang the police to see if anyone had reported a missing chicken - I explain whats happened - I wait while the policeman stops laughing. They will file it but have not had any reports.
So. I rang the RSPCA to see what I should do - I explain whats happened - I wait while they stop laughing. They suggest I keep it a few days in case an owner comes forward, then if im able to provide a humane death, they suggest I should introduce him to the wonders of sage and onion stuffing. Hens are the useful birds and they can regularly re-home them, but not many people want a noisy cockeral.
So. I rang the council to see if there was any advice they could give. They cant help, but do find it a funny story - I wait while they stop laughing - Im then put through to enviromental health so I can explain the situation due to the number of noise complaints they are about to receive - I explain whats happened - I wait until the laughing stops and they tell me not to worry and make a note that it is due to things beyond my normal control. 
I have a theory that someone raised him as a pet, not really knowing what they were getting into. When he reached maturity and he started crowing, I think they thought it best to re-home him. As I already have chickens, I think he was 'kindly' donated over fence during the night. He smelled hens - and his natural instincts took over.
I left him wondering the garden for the rest of the day, admiring the hens through the wire of the run, while strutting up and down to show he was in charge and was protecting them. We put him in with the hens that night. The good news was that he didnt crow the next morning. When I opened the hen house, he was standing there looking a bit confused and alarmed. He was also no longer looking quite so regal either. He is still quite a young bird (or maybe even a bantam - i dont know), and it would seem my hens didnt favour his advances. He emerged from the house and ran through the door of the run before I could stop him - they had beaten him up and removed most of his long tail feathers - all he wanted was to get away from them. Luckily natures urges soon took control again, and has back to 'patroling' his way around the outside of the run, where he could see his hens but they could get to him.
That was several weeks ago. He has not crowed since that first morning so we have decided to give him a respite to enjoy life a little - it also means he is starting to bulk out a little. Each time we have tried putting him with the hens, the result has been the same, and he now seems content to roost outside, and look after them from his side of the chicken wire.
This has created 2 new problems however.
Problem 1) The mere presense of the cock-bird has sent 2 of my 5 hens broody. Ive managed to stop 1 from sitting but she has not started laying eggs again yet. The other is being much more stubborn. Everytime another hen lays an egg she rushes to sit on it. I spend a good chunk of each morning, lifting her off her nest and taking the eggs away, but all she does is wait till im gone and sits on the empty nest until another egg becomes available. Ive even tried shuting her out of the house for day, but nothing has worked. If the cock-bird manages to bulk up so he can defend himself, i may let him back in with the hens and then use the broody to hatch a few eggs - if i dont do that though, i may have a few problems.
Problem 2) If the cock-bird doesnt feel like he is getting enough attention from the hens he occosionally goes for a wander and this has led to him taking a few forays through the open kitchen door. Most of the time he would go un-noticed, were it not for the little 'presents' he leaves all over the floor. Yesterday he came all the way through the house, finally finding his way into the living room - once he spotted me, he prompty crapped on the carpet before running for the door.

So, thats the story of our cockeral. Now what else can I talk about. Hmm yes...guess what - more chock related stuff.

As well as being visted by the magically appearing noisy cockeral, we have also been visited by that the great chicken menace of 'RED MITE'! 
During the few hours it didnt rain one Saturday morning, I had to completelly strip down and scrub the house, before dusting with powder. To keep the chooks happy while I did this I let them have the run of the garden - was great to watch them running around after all the fresh grass. Then they found my cabbages. Then i quickly built a chicken proof fence. Then they found another way to get to the cabbages. Then I built a second fence. then the chooks took to tearing through my hops in search of snails and slugs, and that kept them happy for hours. Well at least until I had to catch them and put the red mite powder on them.
Long, long, morning. Thankfully the red mite incursion seems to be over though.  

And to think that one day I want to progress into other live stock. I must be mad.

I cant wait.

Right what else have we been up too.

One of this years big failures has been our fruit crop. The combination of the incredibly bad weather, together with me being ill meant that a large amount of our logonberrys and raspberrys, turned nasty before before we had a chance to pick them. DOH - 2 of my favorite fruit ruined - I also heard that a lot of the local pick-your-farms suffered the same fate. Double DOH!

We finally dug up the onions, shallots and garlic we put in last. Im calling it a success because our onions always come up really small, and we had never tried onions or garlic before. While none of them are exactly big, they are well formed and all taste really good - really please and will be doing the same during winter this year.

carrots. hmm. Im going to take a partial success here. It would seem that the only things that grew well in the front garden during the rains were weeds and poppys. lots and lots of weeds and poppys. Unfortunatelly they strangled some of the beds and 2 thirds of the carrot didnt even get off the starting blocks. The first lot we put in managed to fight through and we ate the first of those a few nights ago - fresh from the garden cooked with home grown new potatoes and a lamb chops. Hopefully the weather will now improve so im going to see about putting some more in. Fingers crossed.

Im also going going to put some more potatoes in - I know its a little late in the year but with the way the weathers been, does that really matter. At worse ill waste a few spuds, but at best we will have fresh new potatoes for Christmas day.

thats it - ive had enough typing. I promise to blog again soon with everything else that is going on. Until then, I hope everyone is enjoying the sun and and lots of home grown food.