Pepper laid an egg this morning and it was back to normal so hopefully yesterday was just a glitch. This is her sixth egg in a row which is the most in a row she has laid so far. Bluebell also laid this morning and her egg was normal as usual and at twenty two eggs in a row she has just beaten her previous record. Dotty didn’t lay today but she had laid thirteen in a row which was also her record too. I think the longer days are causing the girls to lay more frequently.
I put the new plants in the thyme lawn today and gave the dead plants I took out to the girls along with a few dandelions.
Dead plants and dandelions
All heads down
They had great fun scratching and pecking at anything I took out of the garden. It took me a while to get the job done because as I dug up worms, I took them in to girls. The girls love watching me doing some gardening because they know they will get the worms.
The lawn with the new plants in
The plants look a bit lost in the lawn at the moment but this is a work in progress. I decided that rather than dig out all the thyme I would just dig out a bit to put each plant in. This way it will keep the weeds down and give the remaining thyme a chance to possibly recover as there are a few bits of green coming back.
I will buy something in flower each month and keep adding to it so it fills up with year round colour. It will no longer be a lawn but there is no point struggling to keep the thyme lawn if it’s not going to work. It’s a shame as I have enjoyed having a thyme lawn before but this one was just not working! beyond the veg plot is the chicken run.
When I went back in to girls they were enjoying a dust bath.
Dust bath in the sun
Afternoon dust bath
Twist and turn
They were having a lovely time writhing about in the dust bath. They always look so funny and I think they enjoyed the days sun as much as I did.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
I thought your thyme lawn was such a good idea,, How many thyme plants did you start with ?
The new plants will look good though .
The girls dust bathying I just love watching mine when they are dustbathing .Little Annie was bathing for at least an hour today .They always look such a wreck when they come out but only takes a couple of shakes and they are all fluffed up again .
I have done a thyme lawn in a previous garden and it worked really well. I loved it as it was green in spring, purple in summer when in flower and covered in bees, then a sort of purple foliage over winter and no mowing. But there have been a lot of things that won’t work in this garden which I have had success with before, maybe due to the chalky soil and I have learned that if it doesn’t work it’s best to move on.
Dust baths crack me up, if you didn’t know chickens you would think they were dying but they love it so much! As you say, like a dog coming out of water, they shake, dust flies everywhere and all is back to normal.