Chickens!

So at last yesterday this arrived -

Stan and Tommy immediately came to investigate and Stan appeared ready for action – Tommy took a closer look at the boxes and disappeared off to his bed – he does not like work!

We had spent a long time preparing the space where the chicken house was to go as I wanted them to able to roam around the area close to their home as well and this had to be separate from the dogs.  We had also invested many hours in shopping around to find the best house including pricing wood and planning to build ourselves.  In the end we settled on this one which was the right size and very good value  from the Aquatic and Pet Warehouse in Swadlincote.

Stan tried to convince me that arranged like this the bits made a good sleeping shelter from the breeze…. I was not convinced and set about reading the instructions for assembly.

Stan worked hard testing each section as it was built up.

He even drank out of the water containers to see if they were working properly – he even tasted the chicken food!

While all this work was going on Tommy was catching up on his beauty sleep!

 

When all the hard work was done Stan stood guard and waited for the new additions to the family.

We set off to visit Sunnyside poultry where Ian helped us select six lovely girls to live in the new house and surrounding chicken pen.  If you need to know anything about keeping poultry Ian is the one to ask – he is very friendly and helpful.

Our new girls made the short trip home in a dog crate.

They were popped inside the house and left in peace to settle in over night.

Early this morning they were allowed out to explore their new home.

Already they are showing that they all have individual personalities and you will get to hear much more about them as time goes on.

 

 

 

 

Chicken house is coming!

It has been a sad week and today I was feeling pretty down but then I got some great news – my new chicken house has arrived at the shop and will be delivered tomorrow.  I shopped around for ages and selected one from Aquatic, Pet and Garden-Warehouse in Swadlincote – if you are local I would recommend them for this type of thing – catch them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aquatic-Pet-and-Garden-Warehouse/319058951512138?fref=ts

Hopefully we will have chickens by next week – watch this space

The boys have been studying all types of poultry – on their walk today they had a look at water fowl and next they want ducks!

It could be hatch day….

Well we have done loads and loads of reading and after all our research we now know that the quail could hatch today…. or tomorrow…. or the next day or anywhere up to 26 days from when they went under heat!

Google can answer most questions the only problem is you get so many right answers!

This morning they still looked like this -

In just a few days we could be looking after these little guys – hatch day is less than a week away now!

Stan and Tommy are now just waiting…..

The boys waiting to meet the babies

 

Caption needed….

This is my mate Virgil and I walk him while his family are out at work – we get up to lots of adventures and go to some lovely places.  I took the photo last week when we were exploring Swadlincote Woodlands on a very sunny day.  We stopped to practice some of his tricks and this was just as he did his favourite – roll over…..

Can you think of a good caption?

A little warning for those of you with fluffy ears :)

If you – like Tommy have fluffy ears you need to take care, especially if like him you have little bits of dreadlocks hanging from your soft fluffy ears…. make sure your soft fluffy ears do not come to any harm.

This is especially important if you have a shoe fetish which requires you to rub your soft fluffy ears all over any abandoned shoes you happen to find lying around.

It is VERY, VERY important if anyone on your house has shoes with velcro……

Tommy had a good look at these trainers this morning….. but it ended in tears when his ears met the velcro

Tommy wants to warn you all to stay away from this type of footwear…

 

Sorting stuff out

We are having a sorting and tidy up day today – not sure the dogs approve – they prefer hiking days or snuggle days or just belly scratch days!  Still I want to get house as straight as I can before chickens and quail need looking after…..

The boys would rather go out to play but sometimes we have to do other stuff!

In just a few days we could be looking after these little guys – hatch day is less than a week away now!

Lemon curd and helping collies!

I made this Lemon curd yesterday.

Very, very tasty lovely lemon curd made in my kitchen

It was easy and fun to make and it tastes great – much better than the stuff you buy in the shops.  I also make jam and pickles and I know lots of other people do as well.  When you do this you usually end up with more than you need so I have a plan……..

Later in the year – around October time to allow for harvest times and chance to make some stock – we could hold Pickles and preserves sale, or even better a BCT mini farmers market.  Not sure on the venue yet, although I have a few ideas, and we could even have an online section so people could order and have some things posted to them.

If we had homemade bread and cakes as well and maybe even fresh laid eggs etc it could really become a mini BCT farmers market – obviously if we do an “online bit” we would have to select certain items only to be sent via the post as some things may be difficult – not sure how well a lemon meringue pie would travel!

To make this work I would need people to donate things they had made – jars of picked onions, Strawberry jam, maybe you have chickens so could let us have some eggs or you do local farmers markets already selling cheese and could let us have some to sell…..  I would also need people to run the stalls on the day….. help set up…. promote the event …..

It would look great if we used the same jars for jams and pickles made by several people and the same BCT branded label.  The label could be put onto all the items sold to say “sold to support the work of BCT.”  There are lots of ideas like this we could use on the day to make it look really good for the people coming to shop.

This is how most ideas for fund raising events start – I jot down some bits and pieces of an idea – it grows and then you end up with an event like our recent Rescue Dog Weekend which made a profit of over £400 and resulted in some great PR and raised awareness of our work at Border Collie Trust.

If you think this is an event you could help with – perhaps by simply donating a single jar of your homemade jam or by spending the whole day before baking fruit cakes, or dog biscuits (says Stan with an excited glint in his eye) and donating them – let me know what you can do to assist and I’ll be in touch closer to the time – all offers of help gratefully received no matter how small J

One other thing you could do that would help is let me know would you come and shop either online or by coming to the sale/market?  Having the reassurance that people think an idea will work and that they would be likely to shop it is great for those working to organise it – anyone who was with us to help on the first day of Rescue Pet Weekend will tell you that I arrived looking very sleepy, having had very little rest the night before as I had dreamt that not one single person turned up!  Currently our Easter Auction is going very well and looks set to raise a lot of money but before it started I was getting worried about where I was going to store all the items we couldn’t sell!  It turns out there won’t be left over items and my worries were just me being silly but advance reassurance is always welcome!

Please do nip over to our Easter Auction on Ebay and see what great bargains we have there.  I’d like to say a massive thank you to the people donated all the lots and all those who are working hard promoting this on twitter and face book, in pet shops and vets and even in the pub!  Without you it would not be working – keep it up we have a few days left to get those bids in and up as high as we can.  If you have not looked already please do visit the auction at http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/bctgb_fundraiser/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=&_trksid=p2050430

Happy Easter Shopping xxx

Tommy’s vet visit

Now Tommy is feeling better I thought I would share with you his visit to the vets….

He went last Thursday to be neutered as I feel very strongly that all dogs should be and it is the duty of a responsible owner to get it done to avoid unwanted puppies arriving in a world that already has far too many unwanted puppies, who end up is rescues and pounds and often killed as there are too many of them.

It is a simple process and with our local vets feeling strongly that it should be done to reduce strays it is affordable as they work hard to keep the cost as low as they can.  We went to Easipet in Burton and it cost under £50.

The evening before Tommy had his tea as usual but then nothing to eat after 8pm.  He could drink in the evening but his water bowl was removed in the morning as well.

He hung around us in the morning look unhappy – trying to remind us he needed his breakfast.

He seemed to sense it was not a normal day and hid under the chair to see what would happen….

Things looked up a bit for him when we got to the vets though as he got a cuddle from his friend Nicky the vet who he loves very much!

I brought him home at tea time and he had a quick toilet stop before being helped into the house and onto the sofa where he napped, and napped and napped with his get well card from Easipet close by and me next to him for a snuggle…

Stan stayed close by to make sure no one disturbed his pal. 

Later on Tommy had a much smaller than usual tea and then popped his head out of the back door to see if he wanted to nip out – he decided it was far too tiring so gave it a miss for once.

He settled down for an early night – for once not in his crate where he usually sleeps as he needed to sleep in the head collar to make sure he didn’t chew his stitches and I was worried it would catch on the doorway of the crate – I leave the door open over night and he does pop in and out a few times and I didn’t want him to knock himself. He seemed to get the idea and lay on his bed as soon as I took it out of his crate.

He stayed settled there until morning when at 5am he woke up and began to cry very pitifully.  I went down to him and it seemed he had woken up and was confused by the head collar as when I removed it he stopped crying immediately and gave me a big cuddle and some licks.  We didn’t put the collar back on as he seemed to understand that he had to leave the stitches alone.

Now we are a few days on he has made a very fast recovery and this morning we went for a walk in the snow which he loved.  The effect on Stan seems as though it will have a longer lasting impact as he was very upset by the whole affair and still is really but more on that later – I now need to go and have a snuggle after the cold snowy walk.

 

 

 

 

Tommy I do love you – you are a hero

Tomorrow my Tommy will be taken to the vets to do a very brave and responsible thing….. he will be giving up his boy bits to help reduce the numbers of unwanted puppies in the world.  Many, many, many puppies die every year just because there are too many and there are two things we can do to reduce this -

1. Don’t buy puppies – adopt instead – this will reduce the number of breeders breeding unneeded and unwanted pups that will die.
2. Be sure your dog can’t breed – it is rubbish that bitches need to have one littler, they can die having pups you know and owners of male dogs should make sure they are neutered BEFORE they nip off out to make babies!

Tommy will be going to Easipet in Burton and I know they will take great care of my baby as the team are really fab.  This is what it says on their website -

Welcome to easipetcare

Low cost vets in Burton upon Trent!

 ”Hello and a very warm welcome to easipetcare. My team and I are the first vets to offer pet owners in Burton upon Trent a true low cost veterinary service whilst at the same time offering the highest level of care.

It has been our absolute passion to provide the pet owning public with gold standard primary veterinary care at the most affordable price. We were very lucky to be regularly featured on BBC TV and radio where pet owners so kindly said we were their preference for caring, affordable veterinary care.

No appointment is necessary – our highly trained staff are ready and waiting for you. You’ll be amazed at our parking… there is so much of it… right outside your easipetcare clinic in Burton upon Trent!

We would be delighted to offer you our veterinary services.”

It is a bonus that they will be kind to my pocket but even more important is how kind they will be to my Tommy and I know they will be great with him.  Still I’ll be giving my baby a big hug before I leave him.  Look out for updates on how he gets on over the next few days.

If you live in the Burton area you may like to see how committed the team at Burton Easipet are to ensuring price is not a barrier to getting this essentil job done – this is again from their website -

Neutering

Special offer- All dog castrations £45 and all bitch spays £70! Please call the clinic to book your dog in!

This really is one of the fields in which we at easipetcare excel. Our dedicated and caring team at easipetcare have neutered over ten thousand pets in the last few years. We don’t believe you’ll  get a more experienced team or a better price. All surgical procedures are by appointment please – so please give us a ring and let’s choose a day to suit you.

Neutering your pet really does make them happier and healthier, and it really does stop problems later on. If you would like any advice at all, please pop in and have a chat – we are here to help.

We can neuter dogs from 5 months of age and cats from 4 months of age. Female dogs can be spayed at any time, as long as they are not in season. There is no need to let them have a first season before spaying. There are upper age limits to neutering, but we do recommend that pets over the age of 8 years have a pre anaesthetic blood test, which is an additional cost. Please speak to a member of staff for further details.

Stan and Tommy offer their services

Stan and Tommy have decided to get together and offer personal tutoring.  They learnt to read only a few months ago but they are fast learners and now offer courses in English, Maths, Science and advanced biscuit tasting.

Here Tommy is getting ready to give a year 10 science lecture.

Stan assists Steven with maths problems

Both dogs give moral support as Steven does an assessment.

Tommy gets in touch with his inner artist to help Cathy out with her sketch book.  See those boxes behind them? That’s just a few of the great things we have collected for the Border Collie Trust Easter auction!

 

The reward for all their hard work?……. You should be able to guess……..

 

 

 

A treat or few from their friend Dalton at Wagg of course!