First eggs from the new hens. Young hens, small eggs. The big one is from one of the two old hens.

Integration is progressing slowly. The cock definitely has a new favourite and there's some jealousy going on 💚

#Chicken #Egg #Chickens #VillageLife

Picked up 5 new immigrants today and clipped their right wings in the dark garage, which worked surprisingly well.

Integration is difficult, just like with humans, but we're carefully guiding them through the process.

This first one is already pecking around curiously in the yard and the cock is edging up to her with a twinkle in his eye.

Three are cowering in the coop but at least they eat. Number five is hiding in the bushes and might need help.

#Chickens #Chicken #Immigration #VillageLife

Preparing for new chicken immigrants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=750NtdtUgWI

Because lessons were learnt last time and chickens were located and retrieved from neighbours.

#Chickens #Livestock #AnimalHusbandry #VillageLife

I must just share this gem from a #mumsnet thread on village shows. #VillageLife

The infamous chicken jungle.

That is, the jungle in the chicken enclosure, behind the coop. The front where we feed them is all scratched away by claws, but this is where they like to play hide & seek.

These are horseradishes that are growing like crazy fertilized by all that nice 💩.

It's actually tidier now because I got annoyed at the nettles and smashed most of them with a plank. The compost at the far end was difficult to get to!

#Gardening #AnimalHusbandry #Chickens #VillageLife #Farm

Fox came in the night and dug into the chicken enclosure. The chickens are normally locked up in the coop, but because of the heat the door was left open, a fatal mistake as it turned out.

Two hens got carried off and three more left dead. The oldest two and the cock remain, minus some feathers. And the dog is limping, although it doesn't look serious, nothing broken, no wound, maybe just pulled something.

😦

#VillageLife #Death #Chicken #Fox #HeatWave

Trimmed some branches off the neighbour's trees which were hanging over our fence and rubbing on the roof (with the neighbours go-ahead). Then fixed the fence, which had gone a bit saggy, too.

This was in the chicken playground, so they were very amused by this, and in turn amusing me with their antics.

Twig fell on floor? Must peck! Oh shit, next twig is falling on me, must flee! Wait, new twig, must peck! And so on 🐔

#Chickens #VillageLife

#ghana #FocusNewsAfrica #sarkodie #abusivemen #africanmen #africanmusic #afrobeats #villagelife #village #Villager #GBV #women #womenbeater #Abuse #GhanaNews #ghanaians 👉🏽👉🏽👉🏽👉🏽🔗 https://flip.it/yS-8oI Sarkodie Appears As Typical Abusive Black African Man Who Beats Women Calling His Ex A Whore

#ghana #FocusNewsAfrica #sarkodie #abusivemen #africanmen #africanmusic #afrobeats #villagelife #village #Villager #GBV #women #womenbeater #Abuse #GhanaNews #ghanaians https://flip.it/yS-8oI Sarkodie Appears As Typical Abusive Black African Man Who Beats Women Calling His Ex A Whore

Ahhh #VillageLife - the Langcliffe Show catalogue popped through the door. The categories always make me chuckle. For example.. Culinary 3b 'Gentleman's lemon drizzle cake'. Amused to see they no longer have 'Floral arrangement done by a gentleman' - one year husband suggested he might enter a bouquet of foxgloves, aconite and deadly nightshade!

Storks!

There's lots of stork nests around here, and it looks like a good year for breeding. This nest has two offspring which are already fully grown. One of the adults was in a nearby field looking for some juicy frogs.

#Stork #Bird #Lithuania #VillageLife

Local music festival opening was unexpectedly good (I had no idea what to expect, but the last thing in this place was a bunch of school kids singing more or less well).

Today we got the Lithuanian Symphonic Wind Orchestra, which did great!

Even the rain waited until the end, although then it really chucked down and everyone suddenly got very interested in viewing the art exhibit under the large roof of the recently restored horse stables :)

#VillageLife #Festival #Music

Cooked some chicken food. Old, manky potatoes and apples. Also carrot and potato peels (the best part). Water to not quite cover everything.

Boiled for a couple hours in a big pot on the outdoor wood stove, let it cool down, pour into a bucket and mash with an ancient chicken slop tool, a sort of large, coarse potato masher.

First time I did the entire process. The chickens seem to approve of my cooking, and they're literally picky eaters 😏

#Chicken #VillageLife #Landlubbering

Shashlikh time!

#BBQ #Food #Grill #Landlubbering #VillageLife

The sweetest season begins
#strawberries #villagelife
#gardening

Some chicken vandal broke a rung off the ladder. Fixed it with a piece of yesterday's apple tree.

Curious chicken came and gave me the side eye.

#VillageLife

The other problem with the roof: An apple tree has grown too big and is rubbing on it.

So I did some mid summer tree pruning, chopped the logs for BBQ wood (yum, fruit tree flavour) and since we don't have a shredder, I spread the twigs and leaves around the lawn and then shredded them with the freshly sharpened lawn mower, which worked well enough, although it was a lot of work.

#DIY #Gardening #TreePruning #Landlubbering #VillageLife

Chop chop. Sharpened the chain on the electric chainsaw and gave it a bit of TLC. I've only just learnt about filing the burr off the guide bar and flipping it around to level the wear.

Works well again as you can see by the cookies :)

Then did the same for the stinky but more powerful (and portable) 2-stroke saw.

#Chainsaw #DIY #Tools #VillageLife #Maintenance

The chickens, pecking some corn I threw out the door in exchange for this photo.

#Chicken #VillageLife

Fun chicken facts:

- Chickens only have one butthole (cloaca), for everything: pooping, peeing, mating and laying eggs
- Cocks have no ... cock. Only another cloaca
- Mating happens by squeezing their cloacas together briefly and squirting some sperm over
- Sperm is viable at body temperature, therefore no need for external testicles
- And it stays viable inside the chickens body after mating for up to two weeks

#VillageLife #Landlubbering #Chicken #AnimalHusbandry