New family members...

....Meet The Yicks as I call them. I think 'chickens' morphed into 'chicks' which morphed into 'yicks'.

Are they not loverly ladies?

The orange one is a Lohman and is called Oliver Foxy and the black speckledy one is GoGo Sausage.

Lets hope they do not meet with a sticky end. My track record of Chicken Husbandry is poor. I've had a fair few chickens over the past two years and despite lovingly caring for them things out side of my control have thwarted my little menagerie.

Two died naturally and I found them in the coop 'asleep' but stiff and molded to the shape of their resting place.

One escaped.

Two were got at by Rosie the mad dog we used to have who now lives at Granny and Poppa's where she is much happier. She had leader of the pack issues here. Something to do with the garden being her territory and our house being a small area within. Big long story about how crackers the hound is....

Six were savaged by a fox, he took off with two of them, left two scattered about the coop and left two alive but in a real state. I had to shoot them. IT WAS AWFUL. Actually it does make a funny story as I must have looked totally comical in a t shirt, knickers and wellies brandishing a large shot gun. Actually if I can get my physical gestures I usually use to tell the story into words it's worth a post all of it's own. It always raises mighty chortles. Which is odd when you think the story is about having to swiftly put the poor girls out of their awful pain. *

The eggs are teeny at the moment.
See how I had to fill the egg cup with salt to hold it?

It's taken me 18 months to feel brave enough to get more Yicks. This time if I am up all night with sick children and up all day too, when I go to bed before dusk, I will say to Mr C "Don't forget to put the rubbish out and put the Yicks to bed" and then Mr Fox wont get them.

Apparently male wee keeps foxes away, so having tried to stop my boys from tiddling willy nilly in the garden for the past year I am now going to encourage them to spray all over the chicken enclosure. But not on the actual chicken house or the Yicks themselves...although that really would safe guard them. Food for thought.

We got the girls before going to Spain and my neighbours looked after them. This was a bit of a sneaky plan as my neighbour really wants chickens but her husband thinks they are too much hard work. So I said I'd get some before going away so he could see how easy they are. They are getting chickens in the Spring apparently. At least that's what he told me when I dropped of these flap jacks as a thank you.

✴

Blogger is still being difficult and not allowing me to upload a banner directly to my blog, it's says I have surpassed my upload quota. I'm having to link to photobucket. It's the only way I can do it. I know I haven't exceeded my upload quota, I can't have. I have only been blogging a little while compared to others and I have few photo's by comparison. Very frustrating.

Ms. Mildred (thank you, I can't email you back as you are anonymous, so I'm thanking you here and hoping you see this) left me a comment the other day saying that my banner takes forever to load and fills the whole screen. Is this the case for all of you who visit me? I've viewed my blog a couple of times from other computers and it looked ok on them, but I wonder is it slow and big for lots of people? I'd be so grateful if you'd tell me.

I want to have a change but if blogger is still being difficult I may have to stick with the roses, I just hope that they are a normal size for most of you. When I view my blog I can see the roses and my blog post title all on the same screen.

Oh I am glad to have posted today. You see I have lost my get up and go a bit of late. I've returned from holiday and haven't got back into the swing of things. The boys are in destruction mode and I am struggling to keep on top of the house work. They are up stairs now, in Big's room, cackling and chanting "Heave Ho!" I just know I'll go up there in a minute and find they have stripped the bed again! Little rat bags. 

Very little is going right first time. I have made a snood which is way too big and needs frogging. I have embroidered a cardi and then cut a hole in it when snipping out the label. Food is being cooked and then ruined as I'm getting the timings all wrong. The washing, both dirty and clean, seems to be multiplying quicker than I can deal with it. I really shouldn't be on here at all. So I'm going now....and I'll see you all soon with a crafty post and a little holiday blurb even though I only took 3 photographs.

xxx

ps please let me know about my banner. I'll get it sorted/or give up and then I'll stop bleating on and on boringly about it.

*edited to add. I weighed up my options. a) leave them to slowly die of horrid injuries. b) call my neighbour to help me c) go on you tube to see how to wring a chickens neck d) pick them up and run them over e) drive 6 miles to the nearest vets having got dressed and bundled the boys in the car which would have taken over half an hour even at speed f) or shoot them. Shooting them was going to be the quickest way. There was no saving them. They were so broken I'm still astonished they were alive.  I really hope I haven't upset or offended anyone here.