Chickens!
As part of our quest to be as self sufficient as possible and to make use of the land and sheds we have it seemed like the next thing to do was get some chickens.
Luckily my mother has a large flock of mixed breed chooks and was able to provide us with a nice 'starter pack' consisting of one rooster, 2 laying hens and 2 pullets (young hens)
I had done some work to the old pig shed to enclose one of the bays in netting and make it nice for them. It all seems to have come together ok with a few additional modifications as I saw it in use.
At present we are feeding them the last of the applies that are on our trees as well as feed barley from Milmore Downs. They enjoy being outside and scratching around for grubs and berries.
Beware of Ferrets
One night I didn't close the chicken house at dusk like usual as we had guests for dinner. When I did finally get out there to close the door to the outside it was probably around 9:30
One of the pullets was lying dead and quite badly mutilated in the middle of the enclosure while the others were nervously perched above.
I have set a trap twice now, using the chicken carcass as bait. But so far failed to catch the culpret.