The week of late turns and the one weekend of late turns in our five week shift cycle were the days that we had to contend with as the 'real' problem days. We now knew that any chickens left chucking about at dusk would end up as fox food , but unless we could find a chicken minder for those shifts we had a problem on our hands.
The MK1 chicken run just wasn t going to be big enough.....oh yes I forgot to mention, in memory of Bella we have aquired two more ladies in her place. So now we have a small flock of four birds. The original two of Babs and Frankie have now been joined by Patsy( named after Patsy Palmer as she is also a ginger bird ) and Dolly (who is a light coloured beautifully marked lady with a striking chest hence Dolly Parton ! )
So..... we knew that the coop was big enough but the actual run would be a struggle for four birds, plus we wanted a run that was fox proof and that was big enough to leave the birds locked in there with enough room to chuck about whilst confined to the run on our late turns.
The design was drawn up in my head and the materials sourced. Thankfully the weather turned for the better and so the last three days off were a sweltering three days of chicken run building but also three days of sun tan topping heaven !(and a little burning of my neck and blistering of my office soft hands using hand tools again!)
Here is the run in part and then finished complete with log perch in the corner so the ladies have somewhere to sit and have a day time roost off the ground. The run has a wire skirt sunk a foot or so into the ground and then reinforced with concrete so hopefully it will have to be a very determined fox that digs that far down and the roof is sealed welded mesh too so protection from any climbing or airborn predators.I ve just got to add a perspex covering to give rain protection.
So just the shed to re-coat in the same fence treatment and I think the outbuildings will look rather nice all matching. Plus hopefully our ladies will be safe when we can t be here to watch over them.
The veggies are coming on and I ll put an update on the blog either tomorrow or Thursday when I ve put the last of the plants into the ground . .....it's busy down on the Cheyne Garth small holding....or as our neighbours calls it on 'Tom and Barbara's' plot.
