Cat food and rain

The new chickens seem to have settled into the Alsop chicken family now - they are not being pecked apart from the odd sly peck from Ginger and Speckeldy - just to remind them who was there first! Dopey has been living up to her name - she often takes a nap in the mid afternoon, following a dust bath. Yesterday I was a little worried about her, as she seemed to be dozing off - following Sarah Jemima's pattern, yesterday would have been an 'off colour' day, followed by dying today. I phoned Cotswold Chickens where they came from, and was advised to give her some beef cat food (in jelly not gravy), hardboiled egg and Poultry Spice. After standing in the shop in front of row upon row of cat food, and finding no beef in jelly (I could have had tuna, chicken, lamb, rabbit, turkey, but no beef), I finally found a tiny packet of 'Waitrose special beef terrine' which looked like it would do. I've put that out to perk them up. This morning she seems fine, and not in any danger of imminently dying. She seems to like the wet weather more than hot - I think she maybe gets a little dehydrated, as certainly the journey back from South Newington seemed to drain her.

One egg yesterday - definitely from Honey - she took ages about positioning herself in the nest, squawking, and finally laying, followed by a deafening BRAAAAAAUUU-bock-bock-bock-bock BRAAAAAAAUUUU-bock-bock-bock-bock (not sure if that is correct spelling for chickens, I've probably just written something highly insulting in chicken language!

Some pictures of our first eggs back on Tuesday...