The sitting Hen

 At the moment we dont want any more chickens.

And we have a broody hen. 

And we have a goose that is laying eggs but at the moment isnt incubating them.

 

So 

 

Weve taken some eggs from the nest that the goose has made 

 

And introduced the hen to them .,And she is incubating them 

  Goose egg incubation time is about a month.  So wait and see what ( if anything ) comes of this.

Repaired.

 

Some repairs are necessary

 We've not had a lot of rain  recently . 

So there hasnt been an obvious  precipitating cause . 

But 

A bit of the perimeter stone wall has collapsed. 

And removing the loose stones leaves a slightly bigger gap.

And I found this in the wall as i removed the loose stones 

And cleaned up a bit........

 I wonder if its possible to date the can ?  . Which could give an indication of when the wall was last worked on . 

One goose a-laying

 We have restricted the geese to a lawn as part of the Bird flu restrictions.  

Weve found a nest 

And it has some eggs in it . 

 Previous attempts at hatching geese  have been unsuccessful

So weve  created  a pen and some netting to stop predators getting at the eggs whne the goose is not sitting. 

5 eggs so far . Once she starts sitting on them , incubation period is 30 days. 

The Wall

The wall . 

  So the hens were managing to jump over the wall. 

So ive raised the wall. 

So that seems to have stopped them hopping up 

:-)))

Moving them out

 So the hens went into the greenhouse .  But as the sun gets above the hill, the greenhouse reverts to its proper function - a sun trap. And this isnt good for the hens. Whilst Avian Flu

So we had to move them. So we moved a hen house , and transferred the hens and after a day or so  locked in whilst they became familiar with  their new home, we let them out and they went exploring their new environment. 

 

 

 

And the lights got moved as well , and they kept on laying ( which is good) 

 

 But we have discovered a problem 

They've discovered they can hop over the wall. 

So we  either

- live with it  . But if they discover the vegetable patch thats not going to be good. 

- put up some fencing 

- rediscover my drystone walling skills 

 

The Inside Hens

 

 

 So in line with the diktats about Avian flu, we have  been able to house the new lot of hens inside the greenhouse which , fortuitously , was erected in the autumn. 

 

 

 

 

  And ive fixed up some lights - and a result !