Putting on our shoes Jo, Kane and I jumped in the car and went to St Martin's Wood to have a look at some chickens and buy some feed. It's a nice drive, only about 20 minutes, but it's enough of a change to clear the head and see some beautiful countryside - sometimes that's all you need!
Jo had found their Facebook page and discovered that there was a discount, offered by the new owners, for this weekend only. The only way to secure this discount was to mention the new addition to their family, which was an Alsatian puppy called Indy. It all seemed a bit cloak and dagger if you ask me - walking up to the owner and saying in hushed tones;
"You have an Alsatian puppy called Indy"
I half expected him to say something back like "the larks fly at night"! It was a bit weird!
Anyway, we looked around and chatted about what sort of chickens we liked and the gentleman showed us what stock he had in. There were a lot of lovely looking chickens there, and it took a few minutes of looking at each other and debating to find out that we were actually going to buy some then and there.
Jo started to look around and pick chickens while the man tried to corner them and catch them - he said he could catch them first time, but seemed to have more than a bit of trouble catching the ones Jo and Kane wanted. Admittedly they were running around like Usain Bolt!
The chickens were put in a large box with plenty of holes, and then put in the back of the car with Kane keeping a good eye on them. Two bags of feed followed the box into the back of the car. I paid for the lot and also a large water dispenser which I will pick up next weekend as they were out of stock at the time - but we got the 10% discount which was really worth it in the end!
So, to the bit you've been looking forward to - the unveiling of my new 'ladies'.
So there you go - the gentle integration of our 4 new ladies into the family. I put them in with Star and two Isa Reds as Star is the youngest and fittest cockerel and will outlive Rhydian - sounds harsh, but it's how life goes I guess.
Thanks to Jo for those photos, below are the close up pics I took whilst inside the run. We have two Red Rock and two Blue Haze chickens.
Our Blue Haze ladies.
Checking out their new home.
A close up of one of the Red Rocks.
An unsure Star looks on.
I kept an eye on them most of the afternoon, and they kept themselves to themselves mostly, the new ladies taking over the coop, while Star, Queenie and Minnie decided the corner of the run was the best place to watch the new girls. Star tried several times to be amorous, but the new girls weren't having any of it - apart from once. We only have one name so far - as one of the Blue Haze birds has the lightest colouring, but is also heavy - so I thought of calling her Stone to start with (cos of the weight and colour) but Jo came up with Joss - as in Joss Stone. I'm happy with that!
Then in the evening Kane and I spent the second night in a tent in our garden - next post I expect!
