Monday 23 February 2015

A new home for my feathered ladies

After a few hours of effort in the garden, the ladies have a smart new run. I say 'new', actually it was the same run they had already been living in, just completely dismantled and rebuilt in a new way! I'm really pleased with it. It hasn't cost us a penny more and, despite actually having a smaller footprint, it affords them a more spacious area to trot around in. In fact there's definitely enough space for me to get a couple more ladies in the spring :)
They've got logs and a plank to run around on, the bird bath is in there because they seem to prefer drinking rain water and I also have some space around the edges, very fertile now having been inside the run beforehand, to grow some plants! It still needs a bit of tarting up, but all in all, it's a good start to 'Project Garden'. Quite frankly, the whole garden needs 'tarting up'!
Next steps are to clear the chaos caused by my escapee and prepare for planting all the yummy veg I want to try. Exciting, eh?

The run as it was, with an inner run and more temporary outer area, from which Rosemary kept escaping

Mr D hard at work

Part way though the rebuild

The finished run. As you can see, we've re sited the coop to the side which makes cleaning easier. We do have a rain cover, which we may add a little later, but by this point I was beginning to get frostbite in my extremities!




4 comments:

  1. Thoughts from a looooooong time chicken keeper! If your lady escapee still hops over the top, have you trimmed one wing to make her unbalanced and another idea is to heighten each post by a few inches and then run a wire round about 3 inches above the solid top of the fence then they will have no where to jump up to.

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  2. I've clipped their wings, but she was still pretending to be a harrier jet with vertical take off! The idea of the wire is brilliant - thank you. She hasn't escaped yet, but no doubt she'll try! Funnily enough it normally happens when her sister goes in to lay......thanks for the advice - all tips very welcome!

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  3. It's looking so much better .. well done Mr D for following your plans so well.

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    1. Thanks. He did well didn't he? Took a little persuading that it would work, but once he got to grips with what I wanted, he was off! It's a steep learning curve for us, but I know that when we work together, it is generally successful!

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