Additions . . .

We have had a busy couple of days chicken and garden wise. On Thursday evening I headed to Granda's Farm and bought 18 hatching eggs off him for our two broody hens. Lacey and Buffy had been on the nest for over a day and I decided to see how they would get on with some eggs.

I got 6 Light Sussex, 7 Maran, 2 Pekin (from Ethan's hens), and 3 cross-bred eggs. They were all marked with pencil and put under the two girls later that night. They took to the eggs immediately. It was kinda cute to watch Buffy push the eggs around so they all fitted under her. I know they wont all hatch, and I know most of them will be male, but it is all good fun and the children are mightily taken with the whole idea.

I then decided that we needed a new small run for the chicks as you can't let them in with the grown ups for a long time so we went to B&Q to buy plywood and wood to make that. Remember when you were in school and you said "I'm never going to need the half of this stupid maths"? Well, could I for the life of me remember what an equilateral triangle was called and what each of the angles should be. Took me ages to work it out. I think I have the compound saw angles all set now but we concentrated on the new outside run on Sunday and this chick run was put on the back burner. By the way, YAY! for B&Q's 15% off ALL products over the weekend. We saved over a fiver on that trip. Oh, and we got a free box of screws too because the girl failed to see them on the trolley - in plain view!

On Sunday we tackled the larger project as both Iain and I needed to be involved in this. We were adding more space to the original run so the chickens can be much more contained. All through the winter they have had the full back garden to free-range in and much as I love to see them on the back doorstep welcoming me every time I open the door, I really want to plant some vegetables and get on, generally, with gardening life. I have an apple tree, a pear tree, and several fruit bushes, all to be planted but you daren't put anything within reach of those greedy girls. 

We managed to get the basic frame put up, and the first lot of wire stapled into place. We have two doors to construct and the rest of the wire to staple on. Somehow or other we ran out of wood. I'm saying nothing about the lack of not one, not two, but EIGHT extra pieces of 12' timber but suffice to say, I wasn't in control of the working out of the timber. I organised the chicken wire. . . there seems to be plenty of that! We will buy the extra timber today on the way home and hopefully have the rest of the run finished within the next couple of nights, after which, it will be open for visits and inspections!