Winter plans 2014

I am now down to 7 hens. The two big hens, Maud and Amber, live in the splendid Pink Omlet cube that Fleur gave me when her last hen was eaten by a fox. The remaining 5 bantams, Lulu (white bantam silkie), Velvet (black bantam silkie), Lyra (grey bantam frizzle), Buffy (buff bantam wyandotte) and Vera (gold laced bantam wyandotte) all live in the red eglu attached to the 2m walk-in-run. I plan to move them all out onto the patio for the start of the winter while I level up their large area and put down fresh wood chip for them. Then I may be able to move them back again over winder provided the weather isn't too bad. Nice to have enough eglus to have summer and winter quarters. I currently have a green, pink and red eglu. I have a green rablu that I can convert into an eglu (as I did the red rablu) and a large pink cube together with a 2m WIR and extensions for the cube run up to 2m. It will be garden space that I am missing.

Agatha RIP

So sad. This morning I went out to check my happy hens, only to discover my beautiful Agatha sitting outside the eglu dead. She looked quite peaceful, just sitting there with her beak resting on the mesh as her head had I suppose, dropped forward as she drifted away. Animals do tend to go outside to die for some reason. Maybe they feel a bit peaky and fancy some fresh air. Anyway, she must have passed away gazing up at the sky and looked to be in no pain at all.

Such as shock. She can only have been about 3 1/2 years old and last time I saw her alive looked perky, red comb and wattles and trotting around happily with all the othersI wonder if bantams or wyandottes have a short lifespan. She was my favourite to look at - to me the sliver laced variety is the prettiest.

I'll try to hold off getting any replacements until spring. After all, I still have 7 hens. Deeply upsetting though :(

Storm on the way - Battening down the hatches

Or in my case, strapping every bit of sunshade/windbreak/rain cover on my runs.

Can't have my hens getting wet - the silkies aren't waterproof!