Thursday at the Zeddary

Indi isn’t daft – she was waiting for me when I went to feed the bantams this evening, having learned that I’ll tempt her along with morsels until I get to the door of the chicken run.  Then she will scoot in, to have her share of the food I scatter.  I put their corn in feeders now, but give them other stuff night and morning, because they enjoy it so much.  We’ve been back up to four eggs for the last couple of days, and the Sage ate three of them for his lunch.  I had the fourth.

After lunch, we went over to Lowestoft to buy him some new trousers.  Honestly, his clothes have been hanging off him.  It wasn’t the easiest of journeys, because the traffic was awful, and it wasn’t until I was looking for the shop in the High Street that he mentioned that the shop he used to buy clothes from shut a couple of years ago, and I should have been a mile down the road.  Had I realised, I’d have gone a different way from the outset.  Ho hum.  Anyway, we got there in the end and he was duly measured, tried on trousers with a 32 inch waist (i think he used to be 36″) and he bought two pairs.  So he looks a lot smarter and is much more comfortable.  Mind you, the amount he’s been able to eat today, he’ll grow out of them within a few weeks at this rate – which would be great, of course.  I’ve got clothes in sizes 8, 10 and 12 (I did ditch the 14s) so I don’t see why he shouldn’t have the equivalent.

We’ve got little Rupert the spaniel staying for a night or two, and then he’s returning next week for a fortnight.  Ben is in heaven – he adores Butch, the little boy next door and his small brother and he loves having Rupert to play with too.  I was chatting to Butch and Rico’s mother today and she said they aren’t yet sure when their house will be ready.  I’ve assured them it doesn’t matter at all.  We have no plans to use the annexe ourselves at present and, though we will have guests to stay in a few weeks’ time, we have enough spare rooms in the house for all.  It’s lovely to have them there.

Weeza is coming over tomorrow with the children and we’re both looking forward to that.

5 comments on “Thursday at the Zeddary

  1. sablonneuse

    Things are certainly looking up. let’shope the hens lay enough eggs to satisfy Russell’s newfound appetite.
    As for Indie, I think she proves that chickens have more intelligence than we credit them with.

    Reply
  2. Blue Witch

    So pleased that Russell Sage’s issues have now been identified.

    Hope he’s soon feeling a lot better. Talking this week to a friend who is a Nurse Practitioner in geriatric medicine at the local hospital’s Elderly Assessment Unit, she said that about 15% of older people have ‘unexplained’ weight loss. I wonder now whether that is becuase they test for the wrong things, or give up testing too soon?

    Don’t you mainly feed your hens layers pellets? Modern thinking is that they should only be fed corn/wheat as treats, in the afternoon, once they have had their balanced nutrition from the layers pellets. I know that the old countryfolk fed scraps, and layers pellets weren’t invented until about 40 years ago, and that it is (strictly speaking) illegal to feed kitchen scraps, but… 4 eggs from 30-odd is pitiful! I currently have 17 hens, of all ages, and we always get at least 8 eggs a day, all year round. It’s very rare (nay, unheard of) for them all to go into moult at once. I wonder if you ahve a hen nutrition problem too?

    Have you by any chance been trying food spells and got it all wrong accidentally? 😉

    Reply
  3. Z Post author

    I’ve worked out how she was escaping, hope I’ve plugged the gap.

    Back up to 6 eggs today, we’ll be overwhelmed again soon. There are 29 girls and a cock, some of the hens are very old. I did buy them some layers’ pellets a while ago and feed them 50/50 with the maize/wheat mix, plus scraps. They are in a relatively confined space, perhaps it’s like a convent and menstruation: proximity encourages synchronicity!

    We had soufflé for supper.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to 63mago Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.