Well, I did get the graph paper and pencil out and started on my plan for the garden but it’s all going to have to change now.
We lost two birds in the space of three days. Duffy, the Light Sussex, was whipped away on Thursday night then Charles, our Rhodie cockerel, went on Saturday night. It appears that the hen-harrier / buzzard just waited in a tree until it was dusk and the chickens were making their way to bed, then swooped. I took the dogs out in case it was a fox but there were no fresh prints in the snow and Sami just stood and stared up into the tree although I couldn’t see anything. The remaining four are very subdued and nervy, not helped by all the snow, so yesterday we moved the coop to a more sheltered place at the other end of the garden. I’ve kept the girls in the run today but they’re happier to stay in the coop at the moment.
So, it’s back to the graph paper. The current thinking is that what was our chicken coop area will now be a patio for the small table and chairs. As the area is ‘reclaimed’ we can’t grow anything there so the choice is to keep it as lawn or pave it. The area where we have relocated the coop is on a mossy slope so we are very restricted as to what we can do with it. Using it for the chickens was something we have considered in the past but it was too slopy for the eglu. Time to pick up the pencil again!
