SHELL SHOCK

.. But it's all white!

EGGSCITEMENT in hen house as arrival

marks a new chapter for Scots Dumpys

 YIPPEE! That little bundle of yellowy fluff on the right marks a historic first for my Scots Dumpys because she - or even he - represents the arrival of an elusive white feathered chick. And if you look close up and left another egg is cracking open and I sneaked a peek to discover yet another white Dumpy is on the way.
 This is so eggsciting! Sorry but I can barely contain myself as I've been wanting to breed white Scots Dumpys for more than a year now.
 It was a real struggle to even find a white hen and then Thumberlina arrived via an incubator ... the only egg from a batch of 20 to hatch. The nearest thing I had to a white cockerel was Horatio who is a very light cuckoo rooster with a pair of all white wings.
 They made a perfect couple and have spent the last few months in their own exclusive pen just to make sure none of the other roosters got up close and personal with my little Thumberlina.

THUMBERLINA: Unaware that 

she's a mum

 And then, with a little help from a broody hen, I placed her eggs in among the others and hey presto!

HORATIO: Clueless as usual about his

historic contribution

 While I can barely contain my exictement all of this has bypassed the parents who seem totally oblivious to their key roles in the arrival of the chicks.
 I've no idea what goes on in the mind of a hen but the foster mum seems oblivious to the fact two of her chicks are white and I wonder what Horatio and their real mum will make of them when their paths cross in the hen pen.

LOWERING THE TONE OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

.. Crows create an eyesore

  He-who-should-be-obeyed-but-rarely-is has landed himself in the dog house without even breaking into a sweat. The beautiful dovecot my mother bought several months ago has been languishing on the top of a fridge brought in to keep our workmen in copious amounts of fizzy pop.

EYESORE: Crows' handywork

ruins dove's des res

 It's bad enough the courtyard looks more like a junkyard while renovation work is being done, but the new occupants of the des res for doves have managed to lower the tone even further. The biggest crow I've ever seen has decided to squat in the handmade dovecot and to make matters worse she and her crow partner have virtually blocked the entrance with a bunch of unsightly twigs - some have fallen onto the entrance below.

SITTING PRETTY ... until the neighbours from 

hell moved upstairs

 The arrival of the rowdy neighbours is proving to be quite an unsettling experience for the dove below ... she has been sitting patiently waiting for a couple of eggs to hatch and now she has to endure the neighbours from hell. The crows are elusive and every time I get my camera at the ready they do a runner - or take flight to be more precise; but believe me, they are there.
 What should be focussing hubby at the moment isn't the dove or the crows but another impending arrival ... my mother, and when she sees her dovecot gift has yet to be installed she will not be happy.
 Suddenly, the noisy neighbours and their unsightly mess seem to pale into insignificance.

DUST DOWN AT SUN UP

.. or a case of mass hysteria?

A FEW years back I went on an anti-war protest which ended with a 'die in' near the Houses of Parliament and I have to say the media pictures which followed showing a pile of lifeless bodies was quite impressive. It certainly drove home the message of the stark reality of war.

 I was reminded of the protest just the other day when I was walking past the hen pen and saw my feathered friends thrashing around on the ground as though in their final death throes.

 It was a sunny day and the quagmire that had been the hen pen dried to such an extent that the mud was cracked and turning to powder providing Napoleon and his ladies the opportunity to have their first dust bath of the year.

 As you can see they were so wrapped up in the pleasure of dusting themselves down they seemed oblivious to my camera.
 The sheer joy they experienced is obvious to see and I don't think I've ever seen Napoleon (black rooster in the centre) so chillaxed before. He's usually so full of his own self importance as he struts around the hen pen that it was quite amusing to see him joining in such an unrestrained group activity with the Scots Dump hens.
 I defy anyone not to smile at the simple joy of the moment.
 * By the way, the screams heard at the end of the clip are down to the peafowl

A CRACKING EASTER EGG

.. With a real chick but no choc

 IT WAS my birthday the other day and I forgot - in fact with the exception of a card from one of my sisters just about everyone else (including hubby!!!) did as well ... but I still got a surprise present.

EASTER EGG: Chick about 

to make surprise entrance

FIRST DRINK: Chick quenches its thirst after

mum shows him/her how its done

 The gift came wrapped in an egg shell and marks the arrival of the next generation of my rare breed Scots Dumpy hens.
 Mum is still sitting on more than a dozen eggs although I doubt if they will all hatch and nothing arrived the next day although one egg showed a tell-tale hairline crack and chip today.
 I've decided not to intervene - too much - in the process this time around but as you can see from the picture to the right it takes some effort breaking out of a shell.

SOLO: "Am I the only one, mum?"

 Within 24 hours the little 'un was taking a drink but looks slightly forlorn and lonesome at the moment.
 Only time will tell if I get any white chicks this year after I sneaked a few eggs from my sole white hen under the broody hen who is the daughter of the late Josephine.
 I also sneaked in a couple of pheasant and turkey eggs as well so we could get some interesting results over the next few days. Naturally I shall keep everyone updated through your favourite countryside blog.
 In the meantime two more hens have gone broody and are sitting on a dozen eggs each rather making my incubator redundant so far - there's no substitute for the real thing.

GOING, GOING ... GONE

..But for how long?

 ONE of the joys of living in isolation is you don't really have to worry about the neighbours when the cockerels decide to kick off in triplicate with a cock-a-doodle-do at dawn, around about noon and just before dusk ... as well as numerous times in between.
 It's been very, very noisy of late as five young Scots Dumpy pretenders matured and had to be ejected from the hen pen as the chief cockerel Napoleon started to get upset and the hens weren't happy with all the attention either.
 I've sold most of them and today Stan left his buddy Ollie for a new home in Selkirk with the proviso if he gets too noisy for the neighbour's liking he may return.
 Since he was kicked off a film set recently for being far too noisy, I've a feeling I might be seeing him back shortly - in the meantime here he is revealing exactly why his cock-a-doodle-do was just too much for the director.

THE CIRCLE OF LIFE

Like mother like daughter..

 REGULARS of this blog will remember Josephine, a beautiful black Scots Dumpy who was bought in Northampton in 2012 with cockerel Napoleon. The two were devoted to each other, as much as hens can be, until a fox snatched her.
 However, before she was taken Josephine had become broody and raised six chicks without the assistance of an incubator or heaters. She was a wonderful mum.
 I'm happy to say her legacy looks set to live on as one of those chicks has now matured into a beautiful hen just like her mum and she is sitting on no less than 12 eggs at the moment.
 Hatching should begin in around five days time - so watch this space.