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.

Converting a Rablu to an Eglu

Having moved my hens onto the patio and cleaned their eglus, I decided it was time to clean up the red guinea-pig eglu that a friend gave me. I had used it last winter during the complex process of moving 6 chickens from my old house, 5 miles away, to my current house.

Chicken Moving Process:

1. assemble red guinea-pig eglu & 1m run on patio
2. after dark (when hens asleep) collect 3 wyandotte bantams from green eglu at old house 
3. drive back home and put hens in red eglu
4. next day drive to old house and disassemble green eglu and run and put in car
5. drive back home and assemble green eglu on patio
6. that evening, drive to old house and collect 3 big hens when asleep in eglu
7. drive home and put hens in green eglu
8. next day drive to old house and disassemble pink eglu and run and put in car
9. drive back home and pile eglu to one side and collapse with a glass of wine. 

After this procedure, the bantams spend several weeks in the guinea pig eglu, quite happily. When I finally assembled the pink eglu and moved them into that, I couldn't face cleaning the red guinea-pig eglu so it has languished ever since.

There was a sale at Omlet - and conversion kits had dropped from over £70 to about £50. There was lots of other stuff on sale as well, so I put together a big order. When the conversion kit arrived it had very clear instructions with it….for everything except actually converting one eglu type to another. However it seemed to be simply a matter of unscrewing 4 big screws to detach the base and screwing in 4 new ones to attach the new base form.

The red poop tray slides in the back and the roosting bars slot in neatly on top, with the nest box shown just inside the door.

Having a fully functional chicken eglu as a spare emergency "hospital" eglu if I need to isolate a poorly chicken, I now find that another friend has offered me her green rablu plus run and warm jacket.

With two eglus - I wonder if I could get some more chickens. 

Off to browse the internet to see what breeds of hen are around.

First Steps

I have too many blogs. Some are active, some have lapsed into disuse. That's OK. Obviously nothing to say on those subjects. But my current and growing passion for chicken-keeping and associated activities (I'm seriously considering a wormery) needs an outlet.

Although I'm keen on growing and eating my own produce, energy efficiency and minimising waste, I couldn't do without the conveniences of the modern world - particularly the internet, hence the name of this blog; The Connected Peasant (not pheasant!). There seems to be a growing trend of keeping chickens in your garden, growing your own veggies (think of the recent Gardeners World Dig In campaign) and using energy efficiently. This spread of ideas and attitudes is supported by the internet with stores and support systems providing advice and services to support this trend. For example, Wiggly Wigglers provide a range of useful products for the would-be smallholder, Omlet not only provide stylish, colourful and above all practical hen houses and related products, they also have an active set of Chicken Forums where chicken keepers new and old can share their experiences, ask for and give advice, arrange to meet up and, basically, form a supportive community of interest that is unlimited by geographical distance.

Hence, The Connected Peasant.