Winter weather is here

Spend a lovely 3 hours today pottering in the garden sorting out the chickens. I'm now down to 7 - Maud and her little trio of bantams, Lulu, Velvet (silkies) & Vera (wyandotte) in the large walk in run. Then in a separate run on the patio, I have my lovely babies Mapp & Lucia (lemon sabelpoots) * Porsche (porcelain sabelpoot). I keep them on the patio because they have very feathery feed.

Last weekend I spend an amusing hour or so washing their feet one by one. They had got all clogged up with poop which had solidified in globs on the feathers. I didn't want them to get poorly feet so carefully washed each one and dried them with the hair drier. I then popped them all in the pink eglu 'hospital' run which is also on the patio.

Then I moved their eglu cube and swept and shovelled everything away to the compost, moved it to a new position on the patio and today restocked it with wood chip.

This morning it was slightly frosty. The patio run water had a small crust of ice - easily breakable, but the big run water was more frozen. So - today I did a full clear out of the big run with my new rake - restocked with clean wood chipping, changed all the water and poopy trays and installed the infra-red poultry heater for the big run.

Snow is forecast overnight. I'm a little worried about my new chickies, but I've shut their door and will check their water first thing. I am wondering about buying some heated pads that you warm up in the microwave and which purport to last 10 hours. I have only one poultry lamp, so the little cooks are at risk of frozen water. However being nearer the house seems to keep the water warmer. I'll see how it is tomorrow.

I sometimes marvel at how much fun it is simply letting all the hens out to run loose in the garden whilst you potter about. Maud seems to get on really well with the newbies, so I could probably put them all in together if the weather gets really cold.

Hen Brothel in my Garden

Last week was a bit of a worry. Periodically, I spend nights away from home. When my daughter lived with me, this was not a problem. Generally, it is not a problem. 24 hours isn't really long enough for the hens to get broody over the eggs not being removed, and they have a nice 2m WIR to walk around in.

For indoor use really, so I hang it well under cover

However last week, the temperature was set to drop to well below freezing. I had glug water bowls frozen solid so I was in a panic as I had to spend the next night and following day away from home, so wouldn't be around to put fresh water out. My neighbour was away as well so I couldn't ask him. I fretted but fortunately the temperatures rose.

Looks like a chicken brothel at night

I was voicing my concerns to a pal, Penny. She suggested an infra-red lamp as a solution. She had one that she no longer needed - she had used it when she kept her cats in an outhouse overnight while she was having an extension built, which was too cold. Now she had extended the house so the cat could sleep indoors and she offered to lend me her lamp.

She said it was a poultry lamp. As the photo shows, it is a big thing with a cage protecting the bowl. I put it on to test it out. During the daytime it is hardly noticeable, but at night it bathes the end of the garden in an eerie red glow.

However, the most important thing is it does stop their water freezing. I have tested it out overnight when all the other glugs have frozen solid, yet the two in the WIR near the lamp remain nice and liquid.

My worries are over. It is not the perfect solution since the wire runs over the ground, but I only need to use it occasionally so I'm happy with that. It's better than thirsty chickens.

Patchwork Quilted Cube Cover

Jogging bottoms gave up their life to save an eglu cube cover

Well, the weather finally warmed up enough for me to think about repairing the quilted eglu cover.

First I had to try it out inside next to the radiator. It didn't smell.....all that much :)

Next I needed to find some fabric to patch it with. This was much more difficult. I haven't done any sewing in earnest, as in making things, for quite a long time so I have no scraps. I ended up cutting a square out of the leg of some old jogging bottoms that I had used for painting white gloss work (and were therefore liberally bespattered with gloss paint).

I surprised myself by remembering actually how to sew and making what I think is a fairly good job of it

As you can see, there are still little mice chew holes on the green edging, and the fabric is cotton rather than the slightly water-repellent cube cover fabric. Nevertheless, I am very pleased with my efforts. Now at least I don't need to worry about the silver stuffing dropping out and flying all over the garden in the wind.

Preparing for the Snow and pesky mice

For the past two days, the Met office have been forecasting snow. It is shown at its worst over Ireland and the North and West of England, but certainly it was shown as coming as far as the south east.

So I assembled the cube, added a half-meter extension (I have a meter extension, but one of the side panels seems to be missing) and then went into the garage to pull out the quilted cube cover. As I did so what looked like silver tinsel scattered to the floor. It appears that mice have had a go at it and chewed a hole to try to extract the sliver filling to make nests.

I had previously realised I had mice in the ground floor of my garage when I went to top up my bird feeders and noticed that the metal lid was not on. I ALWAYS leave it closed, in case of mice. When I opened it I saw that the peanut bag had been shredded. Some muscular mice must live in my garage.

Hopefully they have good appetites because after the damage to my eglu cover, I've put down the rat poison.

I can repair the cover by sewing on a small patch. However in the short term I've just stuck some sticky plastic over the hole, rather badly. It needs repairing soon, but I wanted to get it all ready for this snow.....this photo was taken this morning in bright sunshine. Snow may well be around the corner, but it doesn't look like it.


Still, it is good to be all prepared so I can get my chooks all snug and safe should we get bad weather. My two bantam silkies, Velvet and Lulu, are not waterproof and my bantam frizzle as well as the silkies all have feathery legs which get very bedraggled in the wet or snow.

Winter Quarters & Eglu Cleaning

With the rain we have been having recently, I decided it was time to move my 6 chooks onto the patio. That is where they spent last winter, and it was easy enough to clean the patio when they moved to the end of the garden, but meanwhile they were close to the house, had hardstanding with woodship to walk on so didn't end up caked in mud, and were a little sheltered from the elements by the proximity of the house. It was also useful that one fateful morning when a fox decided to attack the two eglus! Fortunately he didn't succeed in getting in, but I was able to run downstairs, turn the lights on and face him down through the french windows. Chickens were unsettled but unharmed.

It was good time to move them. The chicken end of the garden had turned into a dustbath during the summer, and both eglus were covered in black dust. Jet washing them with my new jet-washer made a huge difference, they were like new. So now my hens are happily on the patio.

My pink eglu hasn't looked this pink since it was new!