Well Happy New Year everyone but I wish I’d said the same to my Chickens on New Year’s Eve!
The combination of the sustained and loud Fireworks over New Years Eve (the various back garden fireworks displays started at 7pm and didn’t end until 1am) plus the terrible storm that hit England on Monday night/Tuesday has meant that our chickens have gone on strike. Just 4 eggs yesterday from the 11 ladies. The soggy weather can’t have helped either.
Speaking of the storm – the new run we in early 2011 from Avuaries4U stood up very well to the storm of 2nd January 2012 with no damage … unlike my neighbours fences of which I can see from here 6 are down.
Well things to do for the early part of the new year when everything’s a little less wet.
- Clean out the run – recycle the old Hardwood Chippings and put in fresh – what they’ve had in there is a year old and although I’ve riddled it a few times in 2011 (more of that in a moment) it’s just to damp to get the chicken poo
- Give the Omlet Cube it’s annual scrub up and clean
- Move the Omlet Super Glugs from the far side of the run, to next to the entry door for ease of filling
- Find them a few branches to play with
Speaking of riddling – the hardwood chips we’ve had in the run have lasted a year with just a few top ups – and we’ve riddled out (a riddle is like a big sieve for earth) 12 wheel barrows of chicken poo – which has gone on the garden and vegetable beds and provided us with prize winning* fruit, flowers and vegetables. (*okay – there weren’t any prizes but in my mind everyone flower was a winner).
That’s all for now.