Broody Hens...... and Not Spending

Look what I found under some of our hens today, this was hours after I had done the first sweep of the henhouses fetching the eggs.   With the much higher temperatures of the last few days three of them have gone broody on me, including Mother Goose, who must now have decided that her three HUGE children are most definitely big enough to look after themselves.

Of course this now means that I must be vigilant each day and go out and fetch the eggs from under them.  We don't want any more chicks on the smallholding this year.  We have more enough hens at the moment.

Hopefully I will be able to persuade them that motherhood is not all it's cracked up to be and get them out and about eating and drinking with the others.   While a hen is broody she usually stops laying, and disassociates herself from the flock, I don't want to have any outsiders while the goslings are growing so quickly, and these three are simply pinching the other girls eggs to sit on.

What's more annoying at the moment is that I haven't actually got any eggs to eat myself!!

We sold out of eggs at the Car Boot sale last week and then Lovely Hubby had a bumper order from work which we just about managed to fulfill and now, she says with a sad sulky face, I haven't got any eggs for me!!

And on a completely different note....

Today I have made a decision NOT to  spend any money for the rest of the month.

There are three reasons,

1.  I don't have much money left. 

2.  I don't think really I need anything.

 3.   I want to eat up what we have in the cupboards and freezers to make room for storing and freezing our own produce in the next few months in readiness for Winter.

So although  I will still have my normal weekly housekeeping allowance of £50, in case of emergencies, I'm going to try NOT to  spend it.  Whatever is over at the end of each week will be transferred to the £2012 in 2012 Challenge pot, which is looking decidedly poor at the moment and way behind where it should be.

Call me strange (and some folk do), but I like the idea of this, let's see how long I can go before I spend any money.

Sue xx

Chickens and Finances

Meet Amber, she's the leader of the pack of little Amber Stars that we have just bought, she wasn't supposed to come home with us but where we went for our birds had four Amber Stars, we had originally gone for 3 of each kind of two birds but we couldn't leave her as the last of her breed in the mixed flock so home she came with us, along with her sisters, Annie, Amelia and Annabel.  She's the bravest of the bunch already coming up to sit alongside me on the log after I go in to feed them with their corn each afternoon, and watching me from the perch while I clean out the hen house each day.

An Amber Star is a Rhode Island Hybrid that lays brown eggs with a plum blush, I look forward to seeing them in the next couple of weeks, they are all Point of Lay.

This is Belle, she's one of the trio of Bluebells that we got at the same time.  They are a Maran Hybrid.  The others are called Beauty and Brandy.  They have the most dramatic looking faces, a little fierce looking because of their colouring and their piercing eyes but they are gorgeous birds.  They have grey legs and feet which is something new to me, all my other birds have light coloured legs and feet.  They are still a bit skittish at the moment and run away from you rather than to you but they have all fitted in nicely, and after a few minor skirmishes have reached a relatively stable pecking order with the established flock fairly quickly. They tried briefly to bully the little Lavender Pekin Bantams but got short shift there when they quickly discovered that Alice is the leader of the whole flock.  Small does not always mean timid!

I never rush to get hold of my new girls, I let them get used to me over the space of a couple of weeks and then start to pick them up, find out who likes a cuddle and who doesn't, but I always get them all used to being handled, tipped up in all manner of undignified positions, wings stretched out, feet played with etc just in case they need any medical help in the future.

The new girls watch avidly as the older girls come to me to sit by me and be stroked so they will soon learn that I am a safe, friendly giant that invades their patch each day.

The Hylines are doing well, I have only 4 now.  One decided her time was up last night.  I had been in with them lots over the weekend and everyone was fine, healthy, in full feather and running around eating and being their usual cheeky, wellie boot pecking selves, but then when Lovely Hubby went to close the henhouse at dusk last night he said, "it's strange, but one of the Hylines is in a nesting box" (they usually all roost on the perches).  He asked me to keep an extra eye on her today, but when he went to open up the house at first light this morning she had died in her sleep.  She must have sensed it coming and didn't want to fall off her perch.  A dignified end for a lovely dignified little hen. Her four sisters watched intently as LH moved her body and then trooped out into the damp morning, much quieter and more somber than usual.

Some of the new girls under the hen house.

One of our Hylines - note the clipped beak, I hate that my poor girls have clipped beaks but they are rescued free-rangers and this is what happens to most of them.  It's done so they don't fight, or if they do, so they can't inflict as much harm on each other.  Luckily mine cope very well with feeding but sometimes beaks are over clipped and the birds have trouble.

Annie - she will get used to me taking photos soon!

Finances

After last weeks successful Live Below the Line Challenge and being temporarily food obssessed I am now getting back into studying our finances again and setting myself the little Challenge, (nothing too strenuous)  of seeing how much housekeeping I can save each week.  As usual all my cupboards and freezers are full, so I'm going to work my way towards emptying them (yet again).  The challenge is just to see how little I have to buy each week, and therefore spend, hopefully it should only be a bit of salad stuff until ours grows a bit bigger.  We have our milkman who brings us 3 four pint bottles of milk each week (and a little treat of a pint of Tropical fruit juice on a Saturday),  so really there's not much need for me to go to the shops. The more you go the more you are tempted to spend I find.  How long can I last, I wonder? 

All the money I have left over each week goes straight into my £2012 in 2012 Challenge Fund.  At the end of the year this money will be added to our savings ready to buy a place of our own.  You can check out facts and figures and follow my progress as I add them each week in the stand alone page listed under the Blog title.

I've decided to start using my 'How Low Can You Go Blog again to chart my progress emptying the cupboards and reducing the spending, see it HERE or click on the 'cucumber question mark' picture at the top of the right hand side bar.

It's nice to be getting back to normal, whatever normal really is !

Sue xx

No Spend Days - Update

Last month I managed a total of 20 No Spend Days, not bad in a month a that contains only 29 days to start with.

I kept my purchasing to the absolute minimum and the food cupboards are looking healthily slimmer, there's still lots there though and I have some brilliant bulk buys  that will last us for ages (huge boxes of pasta from Approved Foods and loads of Cous Cous and rice, so the base for lots more meals.

Last month out of a total housekeeping budget of £200 I was left with £141.48 to add to my '£2012 in 2012 Challenge' coffers and ALL of my personal money went there too, I also sold three old mobile phones and managed to add another £18 to the grand total of  £239.48 for the month. 

You can always follow my progress in the '£2012 in 2012' tab at the tob of the Blog.  I can't wait for the Car Boot season to start so I can really start to earn some money each month.  At the moment I am selling little bits and pieces on Amazon and Ebay to keep a trickle of money, and therefore inspiration, rolling in.

Sue xx