Winter gardening with beautiful chickens

Time for another post featuring my beautiful rescue chickens. At this time of year, they are heavily involved in winter gardening. Actually, they are tremendously involved at all times of the year, but here we are in the winter.

I love spending time in the garden with my fabulous girls and enjoy their feathered antics. We pack our days with antics, feathered and otherwise.

The photo above shows Rafaela, Letitia Lettuce, Tansy Teapot, Pickle Pixie Pantaloon and head hen Sophia on her Soapbox.

Of course, I name all of my lovely hens and have a fabulous time interacting with them all.

And as you will see below, they clearly enjoy themselves too.

If you missed my last hen post, I have added a link below

Beautiful rescue chickens get gardening for England

Naturally, if the winter weather is harsh, they scamper into Favolosa, the greenhouse.

And who can blame them? None of us wants to get soaking wet or have our feathered bottoms ruffled by strong winds.

Right, on that note, let’s get on with some chicken shenanigans

On with some winter gardening

For my first photo, I have chosen one of my new bell cloches. These are perfect for keeping my tender plants cosy over the winter.

Clearly, they are also perfect for some percussion by my lovely chickens.

Tansy Teapot was first up to investigate.

Naturally, the others joined her and chose a bell cloche each.

Within moments, their beaks were in turbo charged motion and a new tune was being performed.

I must say, after about an hour, the tune was becoming rather monotonous.

Well done girls, time for a well deserved interval and some mealworms for a treat.

More fun with my hens

For my second snap, we have Rafaela helping with the cosmos seeds.

I thought, as the wind and rain lashed down, it would be a good plan to look at seeds in Favolosa.

First up, cosmos seeds. Clearly, I only have eight packets of cosmos seeds so far.

Naturally that will never be enough. After sowing twenty-six varieties last year, I will need to increase these woefully poor numbers.

Clearly, Rafaela was counting packets too and coming to the same conclusions.

Luckily, I have now found another twelve packets in another seed box. Although I will need to order some more soon. I am wondering if thirty varieties might be enough. We shall see!

I order most of my flower seeds from Thompson and Morgan and Sarah Raven and have added links below.

Cosmos seed options from Thompson and Morgan

Sarah Raven cosmos seed options

Night time hen patrol

Next, it is time for a shocking AWOL hen story.

I checked the time, and we were heading towards three pip emma, after a day full of gardening. Suddenly, I saw that one of the girls was missing.

All of them had been engaged in some helpful winter gardening up to this point. Mainly scratching out the soil in one of the flower beds, with those turbo charged feet.

When all of a sudden, I noticed Tansy Teapot was missing.

I shot around the garden searching for her, but she was nowhere in sight. Consequently, I checked Favolosa, hedges were checked and ponds inspected. However, no Tansy Teapot.

When darkness fell, she was still missing. In addition, the temperature was dropping rapidly.

After I had spent hours of searching by torchlight, I had a sleepless night. Minus two and a missing, much loved hen!

I raced back out at dawn, thinking the worst but hoping for the best. Well, there she was, emerging from a hedge!

Naturally, we had a cuddle and a joyous reunion. Clearly, this had to be followed by a stern talking to.

I said my piece, and as you can see from the photo, Tansy Teapot was not making eye contact throughout.

Hopefully, she will never go off nightclubbing again!

On the positive side, I will know where to find her, if she does sneak off again.

Perhaps I should fit a disco ball in their run. We could have our own nightclub in the garden. I can envisage plenty of karaoke, led by Sophia and her Soapbox!

More winter gardening

Onto a lovely sunny day, ideal for some winter gardening with my lovely hens.

In fact, the sun shone down on us all day long. Therefore, we spent the entire day in the garden.

Occasionally, winter gardening gave way to the all important sunbathing. We spread our wings out for some preening and soaking up the sun.

Naturally, I continued working with my trowel in the borders, weeding for England. Obviously, I stopped occasionally to take some photos of the girls soaking up some winter sun.

Rafaela enjoyed herself in one of the raised beds, as seen above. I kept a close eye on the emerging spring bulbs, to ensure they were left in situ.

Thankfully, no bulbs were catapulted out, in spite of the overexuberant feet and beak action on display.

I even brought my potting bench out from Favolosa, the greenhouse, and sowed some seeds in the sunshine. Despite having an abundance of sweet pea seeds already sown, I couldn’t resist sowing some more.

Overall, we had a thoroughly fabulous and fun packed day.

Winter gardening stops for an egg

Next, we enjoyed another fabulous day of winter sunshine. Moreover, two days of sunshine and not a storm in sight. Goody Goody Gumdrops springs to mind!

After a relatively peaceful morning with the usual chicken chattering sounds to accompany our gardening. Followed by some of the “tuk tuk tuk” calls which means, come on over, there is some tasty food in the flower bed. I thought our gentle chatter would continue into the afternoon.

However, suddenly I heard a jolly loud “buk, buk, buk, ba-wark” on repeat. Naturally, all my chickens joined in, and the noise became thunderous.

Clearly, someone had laid an egg. Therefore, a celebratory song had to be clucked, sorry sung, by all resident chickens. Sophia on her Soapbox, who lives up to her name, was the loudest singer.

Of course, I provide lovely nest boxes for egg laying, snug and cosy spaces in the hen house.

However, today a nest was made out of some dry leaves, making an alfresco nesting site.

I suspect this will be a favourite nesting spot for every sunny day in the future.

Clearly, I shall need to check the new nesting site every day and scoop up the eggs.

Adopting rescue hens

I adopt rescue chickens, those that have finished commercial egg laying and are lucky enough to be rehomed. The charity I adopt my beautiful rescue chickens from is British Hen Welfare Trust (BHWT)

I can thoroughly recommend contacting them if you would like some chickens. Link below for more details.

https://www.bhwt.org.uk/hen-adoption/

In addition to the eggs they will lay for you, they are tremendous fun and make lovely pets. They are gentle, endearing, inquisitive, friendly and chock full of character.

I cannot imagine my garden without my beautiful rescue chickens. Naturally, my favourite days are spent pottering in the garden with my beautiful hens.

We have tremendous fun together, whether this is spring, summer, autumn or winter, and the garden benefits from all our attention.

Time to say goodbye

Sadly, my beautiful hen, Sophia on her Soapbox, passed away yesterday. After a good day of sunbathing and pecking in the flower borders, she passed over the rainbow bridge.

She was five years old and had enjoyed three and a half years of retirement. I will look back with happy memories of all her antics.

Likewise, her constant chatter and conversations, hence her name. Indeed, every conversation I had with my friend, the Cosmos Queen, became a three way chat. Naturally, Sophia always had an opinion during our gardening chats.

I like to think Sophia is now with her best friend Lottie Lushpot. They were inseparable from adoption day onwards.

Despite the sadness I feel, I will remember all the happy times she had in the garden, living her best life. Of course, it is hard to say goodbye, but it is so worth adopting rescue hens and seeing them thoroughly enjoy their retirement.

So, rest in peace my beautiful girl and know that you will be remembered with love forever.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and will join me next time. I imagine Remus Nautilus, my beautiful black cat, will be featuring in a new post soon. He will be expecting his share of the limelight, now the chickens have a new post!

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