Plants all ready for selling ...

Preparing for the new hens

 To get ready for the ex commercial flock hens we needed to sort out a secure run and house for them. As I do not know if they come with the terrible Red Mite attached, I decided to use the Eglu as the hen house - it can more easily be scrubbed and disinfected if the new girls DO bring any Red Mite - a wooden house is harder to get them gone!


So we removed the Eglu run and Compostman made up a link so the Eglu would fit onto his home made run. The Eglu run is not much use with new hens (who do not understand coming to humans for food) as you cannot get inside it to catch them or get dropped eggs etc. So we wanted to use the wooden run with the lift off roof - so if we needed to catch a hen we could do so .

All ready for the new girls :-) We can't wait until Sunday :-)

 

More rescue hens

I know I said I was not going to get any more hens after what happened a few weeks ago.

But after much thought and discussion, we decided to get some more ex commercial hens - so at least I will have some new girls to love and make well again - they will not replace the girls who were killed , but we are giving some hens another chance of a better life. Also we can manage a smaller number of hens more easily so fingers crossed Fox can't get them this time. We now only let them out to free range when we are around them and we shut them back in their ( huge!) run when we have to go away from the garden.

When the new paddock area is done ( gods know when!) there will be a very secure large enclosure for them to free range in - and then I will get more of the pure breeds and hybrid girls - as well as more ex commercial " spent" hens.

But for now just a few ex commercial hens from rescue will be all we can safely manage. And we can give them a taste of a normal henny life.

That will do, for now.

Fox attack, again.

Have just come inside after burying 8 hens in the wood. One other hen is MIA, presumed eaten by the foxes who killed the other hens. Remaining 3 live hens (Yarrow, Marjoram and Nutmeg) are rather traumatised and unhappy.

We have never  lost so many to the fox in one go before, we had 5 taken in one go a few years back  but this was worse as only one hen was taken and the rest were hidden in the wood ditch for us to find - really  horrible to see :-(
2 of the "new" ex batts survived - Yarrow ( aka Limpy Hen) and Marjoram, also Nutmeg hen, because she is an escapologist hen and was in the garden rather than with the others. And I now only have ginger hens, - all my other coloured pure breeds and hybrid girls died.

I am SO sad, I am still crying now. Burying them was horrible. Especially Comfrey, Cumin and Marigold the ex batts. I felt I had let them all down, somehow. :-((((( by not protecting them enough from foxes.

RIP Lavender, Treacle, Cocoa, Cumin, Comfrey aka Flappy hen, Marigold, Pearl and Opal hens. I shall miss your feathery antics enormously.

(update Sweetie re appeared the next day!) 

Mothering Sunday

So, today I had a

Lie in
Home made card
Home made dream catcher
hand picked and tied bunch of flowers

and lots of love and cuddles

What more could a Mum ask for? :-)

Added that as Compostgirl went on a Guide Camp from Fri until after lunch today, we ( Compostman and I ) had a very grown up couple of evenings as an additional treat!