The garden

We have had a strange spring this year. April was a dry month with many more frosts than usual. We lost our large and mature rosemary and sage. This was followed by a very wet and cold May.

Our climbing rose that always flowers by my birthday in May is a mass of buds but with only a few just starting to open. Everything is late this year but things are just beginning to get going and we have splashes of colour in the garden.

I took some photos starting by the chicken run and working my way down the garden to the fence opposite the back door.

A mixture of sunshine and showers has made everything look lush and has helped the garden fill out.

In chicken news Smoke is still broody after ten days so shutting her out of the nest boxes hasn’t bought her out of it any quicker. A week after Smoke went broody Flame went broody too. This is just five weeks after Flame started back laying which is the quickest she has ever become broody again.

I think for Flame it is seeing a little broody girl that sparks her hormones. Flame wants to be a mum and mothers the little girls and they seem happy to play at being a chick. I decided that it would be best to try to break Flame out of it as quickly as possible as this means my best two egg layers are out of lay but worse than that is the mother and chick behaviour which goodness knows how long that would go on if I let it.

Like the last time this happened I am putting Flame in the dog crate in the shed with food and water and a perch while any of the girls are laying. I return her to the run when the nest boxes are closed and I leave her in the crate over night.

It only took three nights in the crate to break her out of it last time so I hope that it won’t take too long.