Well, after many years of research and a whole year after orginally buying our chicken coop, we have finally got chickens!! It has not been easy, I tell you that much. About a month ago, I asked Steve to extend the run area because I really didn't feel that it was big enough for two much less three birds. So after much measuring and moving things about, Steve made a brilliant extention which I was very happy with. We had already purchased a whopping 20kg bag of organic chicken feed, grit, oyster shells, louse powder, Eglu feeder and Glug (which Steve managed to fit on to the side of the run - what a clever chap he is to be sure) plus bark for the run itself. Now all we needed were the chickens!! So it was that we went to Smilers Farm in Wickford (who were brilliant and have so many different types of hens including heritage) and purchased three hybrid hens for £15 each. I couldn't believe it when they arrived home - I couldn't believe that after so many years, I actually had chickens in my garden!! Isabella was so excited and helped to get the house ready by putting in their bedding etc. Anyway, after the first day and night, I decided to return one of them because I could clearly see that there was not enough space and there was some bullying going on (not the same as sorting out the pecking order) which would only get worse due to lack of space. So we sent that one back and now have two hens which have more than enough room. One is a speckledy (Dash) and the other, my favourite, is a little red hen who Isabella has named Daisy. Perfect names for chickens, I think! They have been here nearly a week and, although at first I was checking on them every five minutes and barely slept a wink because we have a lot of foxes here and, in fact, I actually bumped into one on the garden path in broad daylight only a few days before getting the chickens! On the second night, Foxy Loxy came to introduce herself to the hens and her paw prints were all over the hen house! She had left no stone unturned and had also knocked over my fly catcher on the roof which stank!! She had clearly had a good look to see if there was any way of getting in but seems to have given up for the moment. We've made it as secure as we possibly can - it has a concrete base, is risen up from the ground, has hardcloth wire all over it, a solid roof, locks on absolutely ever single opening, including the pop hole. I am hoping that it's safe. No doubt the fox will wait - will lure us into a false sense of security and wait for us to make one tiny mistake. Hopefully that won't happen. Anyway, I wasn't looking forward to getting up at the crack of dawn to let them out, but actually, I have very quickly worked out a good routine. After they have put themselves to bed, I go into the run and clean out all the poo etc (not a nice job but not as bad as doing the litter tray!), put the Grub (their food) into the feed bin (which is lidded and kept in the greenhouse) and lock the greenhouse up before emptying the water from the Glug into one of my plants and then placing it in the bike shed near the back door of the house. I then lock everything up. In the morning at 6am, I simply go out, grab the Glug and refill it, grab the Grub from the feed bin, open the house, put the Glug and Grub in place and then let them out. Easy as. In the afternoon I clean out the actual house which isn't that dirty actually, and that's it. I have tried feeding them various treats in the afternoon such as strawberries (they didn't like them), grapes (Daisy gobbled the lot), fresh yoghurt (Daisy gobbled the lot) and some bread (not interested). Now all I'm wondering is, where are the eggs?? If those chickens don't start laying soon, Steve isn't going to be very happy!
