I've been meaning to update this page a long time ago, but we've been bouncing between loads of work and frustrating nothingness, that it really was difficult to get any motivation or - rather - inspiration on how to continue this website.
Post Chicken Chaos
So, trying to catch up with where I left things of: the chickens. My husband managed to build a whole new chicken coop from scratch sometime between December and January. Instead of renovating our workshop to our main living space he temporarily used it - to no surprise - as a workshop. He built a sturdy "little" box, that was a bit smaller than inteded but it is still much bigger than we thought and has loads of space. Almost a bit too big for our chickens.
The chickens had a cosy winter, we have to say, much better than the one that I originally bought. It's warm, insulated, it has a window to look outside, they can go up roosting shelves and he integrated some sort of (admittingly half-baked) roosting boxes. Basically just put 5cm high separators in, which the chickens are not quite a fan of.
As a result of them not liking the nesting "boxes", they have now decided to just choose the corner the furthest away from the door (or the integrated egg collecting flap). Whilst highly impractical for us to get out, the advantage is that all chickens lay the eggs at the same spot, so one big nest of around 5 eggs.
So we need to create proper nesting boxes, when the weather gets a bit warmer and less humid.
Still a temporary solution
Whilst the coop now has a good sturdy structure, we're still not entirely sure about its position. There are a few issues, i.e. we have a wonderful unobstructed view into the countryside, except now the chicken coop is quite big and sort of in the way. Also directly under the bedroom window, which you can guess, with a rooster is not the best of ideas.
This is followed by the fact that my aunt still would like to use this flat area of the garden for her own little projects (flowers, salad, herbs, etc.) - and it sort of makes sense: it's the only flat/levelled area of our property. Everything else is on quite an unfortunately steep slope. We would like to move the chicken coop elsewhere, but the slope is pretty much the same issue. I've inquired with some owners of neighbouring properties, whether they would be willing to sell, as their plots are a bit flatter. As they are also a bit bigger than we actually need, it would of course be of advantage for our daughter as well, as we would be able to provide her with some sort of a "playground" space that is not steep and covered in stinging nettles. The latter an encounter she recently had twice within a week and she wasn't happy, as you can imagine.
So for now, that the weather is improving, we have put up the temporary fencing again. At least the chickens get out of their restricted cage area and mow the garden a bit with some lovely greenery. I've also moved the temporary fencing after about three weeks, when they ate most of the grass. As a result my aunt now has a tilled piece of garden she can use again.
Chicks?
Our daughter insists of wanting to have chicks, but for the time being we have decided against it. Whilst the chickens took a long time to start laying eggs (and I am pretty sure at least one chicken still is still not laying any eggs after being a year old) we're now at a point where we cannot eat all the eggs. We do love eggs, but at some point we prefer eating something else.
Aftermath
Basically we need to tidy up the mess of the old coop. As we made the old area predator-safe (so foxes and martens trying to dig under the fence, for example), we now have to dig up all the stones and brigs that we originally buried under the old fencing. I've moved the mobile fences to surround that area. The chickens actually started the work already by digging ditches to dust bath.
The new fencing is also not particularly safe or stable, but as it was a temporary solution, this is somethig we planned for the near future. But unfortunately we can't do all at the same time.
We also noticed that some cats now jump up the wall in our garden and sit on the roof of the chicken coop. Whilst this is OK with friendly cats (and the chickens don't seem to care much about it), this is a different story with other wildlife (we have a desperate stray cat in the garden that keeps undermining our compost) and any other animal that basically has the option to sit on the roof and do a stake-out. I also noticed quite a few big hawks. I am sure they are not interested in our chickens (roughly both the same size) but you never know whether they will try to attack anyway. I actually need to look into this a bit further. Anyhow, at the moment the outdoor fence has no top fence for protection.
