The Waiting is Almost Over

I have been in touch again with the farm breeding the Dominiques, and they have two strong chickens at two months old that are ready for me to take, as well as some further chicks that are a bit too young and need another couple of weeks to be ready to leave. As its a two hour journey each way at best, I said I would rather wait and take three together. They reassured me that the two are not going anywhere but with me, that its better for them to be a little older and they are happy to keep them until three are ready.

So with this in mind we are now thinking of collecting them on the last weekend of June or the first weekend of July. In the mean time I still feel like I am looking after invisible chickens, as I am attending to their space. I have pruned the apple tree to keep it from taking up too much of their space and as well as the pots of green things chickens like to peck at, I have planted them their own vegetable patch. I needed to thin the pak choi and chard from the vegetable plot, so I planted a seed tray of pak choi to grow on for them later and planted the extra pack choi, chard and a broccoli plant directly into their pen. They are spoiled before I even have them. The guy at the farm said they will be in chicken heaven with me. I so hope he is right!

While I was in the pen today with the gate open, I noticed a few bees came in. This led me to thinking that once I have chickens and the tree is in blossom, I could occupy the chickens with something tasty and leave the gate open for a bit. It’s a bit down to luck whether any bees come in but may be worth a try.

Two of the three apples on our tree

I am so excited about getting the chickens but as I have now invested so much time waiting, I have to hang on in there and focus on the fact that once I have them, I am in for the long game, so it will be worth the wait. They will be spoilt and I will love and appreciate them all the more for the wait.