Saturday, 23 May 2009

My plan is to put the hen house in front of the shed during the summer and early autumn. But I need to move the old chimney pots and pile of bricks first.

I also want to surround it with paving slabs to stop foxes digging under the wire so went to B&Q today and bought 8 paving slabs.

My hen house also has a serious design flaw. The floor of the nest box is in two parts which can easily be pushed up from underneath. This would mean that a fox could get into it so I took the nest box to my brother (he has a shed(!) load of tools) and he cut a piece of plywood and screwed it onto the outside - so no more danger.

Brought my niece Ellis back with me and set her and my Mum to work giving the hen house another coat of wood paint.
While they were painting I made a start on moving all the bricks and old chimney pots.

Most of the bricks have been stacked against the shed for 4 or 5 years and there were hundreds of spiders (some quite large) lurking in the cracks, but with the help of a stiff brush and a thick pair of gardening gloves I managed to move the bricks and even gave the shed a coat of white paint.

Tomorrow's job is to level the earth and put the paving slabs down leaving grass and earth inside the run so the chickens have some dirt to dustbath and grass to scratch in.

Monday, 18 May 2009

Ever since I saw the Chicken Out tv programmes I've wanted to do more than just buy organic free range eggs and for the last few months have been looking into actually keeping chickens myself.

But not any old chickens. I want to rescue ex-battery chickens. Blame it on Hugh and Jamie!

Now, it looks like it will really happen.

I applied to a chicken rescue organisation - www.henrehomers.net - and they've approved me and have also told me that I can have my 3 chickens at their next rescue day - Saturday, 6 June!

So I bought a self-assembly hen house from eBay last Thursday and it arrived today.

This is it ....


This isn't its permanent location - I will be clearing rubble and some chimney pots in my garden this weekend and it will be moved onto the grass and into the sun. The first sun and grass these little birds will have ever seen.