Fox alert!

 

As the weather warmed up in April, I decided that it was warm enough for the chicken coop door to be left open at night. The chickens were free to go to bed when they thought it was getting dark enough and get up as early as they pleased, giving me and Hubby a chance to have a lie-in. It worked marvelously and I loved waking up to the sound of the chickens having their breakfast and softly chatting away under the bedroom window.   

It all changed one day about a month ago when my neighbour knocked on our door and told me they had seen a fox in one of the other neighbour's gardens. I had a bit of a panic and decided there and then to start locking the coop door again at night. I'm quite happy knowing that the girls will be safe if the coop door is closed properly, but I wouldn't be able to sleep a wink if I knew there was only the mesh run (although advertised as 'fox-resistant', I'm not looking forward to putting it to the test) between the chickens and the fox. The garden is dog-proofed to make sure that Hound can be left out unsupervised, but as you can see from the clip, it doesn't take much for a fox to get in. Although I haven't heard of any more sightings of Mr. Fox, I'm still locking the coop at night, just to be on the safe side.

The weekend lie-ins are over. Now I wake up to loud complaints coming from the coop if I'm not up at seven.

  

Room for two, room for four?

From: http://www.omlet.co.uk/  - KIT B

I can't resist a bargain. I thought I had already stretched the run to the absolute maximum I could fit in our small garden, but then I spotted the run extensions on sale on the Omlet site. After some quick measurements in the garden I asked Hubby for his opinion on whether or not we should get another extension. It seems like my normally oh so sensible other half has also gone completely bonkers as he seemed to think it a very good idea. So, here we are with a four metre long chicken run reaching from the corner of the shed to the raised bed.

Cleaning the run will be definitely a two man job from now on, but I'm happy knowing that the chooks have more space, especially now that they show no interest in going out of the covered run to free range in the snow.

(And now I've got room for four chooks. Might go and choose a nice Black Rock or two for my birthday in the spring!)

The extended run

We collected the run extension on Sunday and had an all round fabulous day. I think it's becoming a sort of hobby of mine, finding good deals (so far chicken related) on Ebay and having a nice day out when collecting them. We drove past several nurseries, and then braked and reversed. I've trained Hubby well, as nowadays it's him spotting all the places of interest and asking if I want to stop and have a look.

On the way back home we had the car packed with the extension, a James Grieve apple tree (same pollination group as my Discovery), some garlic (French Thermidrome) which I planted yesterday in pots and a dozen free range eggs from a lovely man and his garden hens.

Here's the run with the extension, I'm sure the girls appreciate it as they haven't been allowed to free range while being wormed. Let's see how long the hemp bedding will stay nice and clean before they mix it up with soil and... other stuff!

Extending the run

Image from http://www.omlet.co.uk/ - KIT A

I was lucky enough to find my eglu second hand (as they are quite pricey) and close by (as it had to be collected). I've had the girls for almost a month now and I've already been thinking about making the run a bit longer. I measured the distance from the end panel to the raised bed and there's definitely enough space there for a small extension. Adding one metre to the run will leave me just about enough space for opening and closing the run door, and pottering about with the feeders and drinkers. I might not be able to change the run bedding without poking the rosemary with the end of the rake, but that's hardly the end of the world.

I thought it was a long shot, but I had a look on Ebay and  found a second hand run extension for sale not too far from where we live. Yesterday, I was biting my nails (figuratively speaking, I didn't want my taste buds anywhere near my fingers after handling all those chillies), waiting for the auction to end. The result? The girls are going to have more room to stretch their legs soon!

Keeping the chooks warm

It's cold, wet and dark, but at least I now know that the chickens are going to be alright. I'm still keeping a beady eye on them and my fingers crossed, but as far as I can tell, they seem to be doing absolutely fine. Yay!

They enjoyed another little outing yesterday (I sit out with them most days and hand-feed them corn, even Cissy is eating out of my hand now) and are getting braver and braver. My herbs won't be safe for much longer! I was trying to get some little jobs done while the girls were pecking the grass and it seemed that as soon as I turned my back they made a beeline for the sorrel. I had to stop turning the compost or filling up their feeder and run to shoo them off the raised bed. It makes me laugh now, but I know I'll be in trouble later. I think I really will be needing that netting.

The grass is slowly turning into mud, thanks to all the rain, and it can't be long before we get some proper frosts. I had a taste of the joys of chicken keeping in winter already, in the form of frozen water. I thought apple cider vinegar was supposed to help to keep the water from freezing. Apparently not. I have to start either emptying the water out on frosty evenings or de-freezing it the first thing in the morning.

I know the eglu is well insulated and should be warm enough for my girls, at least until the temperatures drop below -8°C. The chooks snuggle up side by side in the coop at night, so they should keep reasonably warm, but it worries me that there's only two of them in the coop. So what's a panicky hen keeper to do, order one of these?

It's a heat pad for pets, it can be heated in the microwave and in the case of chickens, put under the roosting bars to keep their fluffy bottoms warm. It should release heat slowly and keep the coop warm up to 12 hours. It comes with a lovely cover, which is probably wasted on the chickens as I think I'd rather use the pad without one, for cleanliness issues. I might even wrap the pad in a sheet of newspaper to make sure it stays clean.

Call me weird, but I don't want any chicken poo in my microwave!

A taste of what's to come

We ventured out into the country last weekend and found a lovely little farm shop selling some proper free range eggs. We could see the hens happily scratching away on this big field and came home with dozen eggs. The colour of the yolk was an amazing yellow and it tasted fab. Can't wait for our own eggs now.

Talking about chickens and eggs... We lugged huge amounts of compost from one raised bed to another to make room for the coop, just in case the chooks decide to arrive soon. I also might have placed an order for some layers pellets, mixed corn and other little bits and bobs.

Oops!

Why chickens?



Image from http://www.bbc.co.uk/


I suppose it started with watching the Edible Garden and falling in love with Alice and Gertrude... Now, for the past few months I've been reading about all things chickeny and browsing chicken houses, before finally stumbling across the ultimate chicken coop (and run) for a small urban garden, the eglu. It keeps the hens safely in and the foxes out, is very easy to clean (with plastic you don't need to worry about the dreaded red mite) and it looks lovely. The problem is that these beauties won't come cheap. After what has felt like an eternity, I'm happy to announce that I'm finally the proud owner of a second-hand eglu!


Image from http://www.omlet.co.uk/


It's all really happening now and it got me thinking, why do I (or anyone) would want to keep chickens? Well, here's how I see it. You'll have lovely pets that will gladly eat the slugs pestering your lettuce and the bits of veg that would otherwise end up in the compost bin. They will produce fertiliser for your veggies and you can use their dirty bedding to speed up your compost. They will keep you company when you're weeding in the hope of finding a juicy worm. And after all that help they still thank you for caring for them with an egg! Where could you find a better pet?

I've told all of this to Hubby, without going into finer detail about chickens wrecking the garden and eating all the veg. I guess he'll find out about that bit soon enough.