My spoiled chickens get an umbrella

It’s been really wet recently and I have started to worry about the chickens not having any dry garden area. The patio area is dry but I worry that they miss scratching in the dirt and dust bathing, I have provided a dry dust bath for them which is a tray with a mixture of sand, ash and D.E. but they have never used it for anything other than to stand in.

I thought of all sorts of things we could do. I suggested to my husband either a bus shelter type thing or more simply a table that they could perch on and shelter under ( the draw back being keeping it clean), or fixing some struts that we could put a tarpaulin over or even a gazebo.

Later that day my husband said he had had a brain wave. We could use our patio umbrella/parasol, to keep the area beneath it dry. It’s old and tatty and needs replacing plus we have a spare base from a previous one that’s been thrown away. He said he could shorten it and it has the advantage of being flexible. We could have it up during wet weather but close it in windy or dry weather and remove it altogether if we needed too. It means the only cost is a new one for our patio which we needed anyway and minimal work involved, also being green it would blend in quite well. Brilliant idea!

We took it in after lunch and it proved very traumatic for the girls. First the scary umbrella came in, then the fork and spade to level the ground and make sure it was stable. Making it shorter insured it fitted under the net but also helped to make it more stable. The girls hid behind the coop while this was going on, they really are so easily scared by anything new.

The umbrella from outside the run

The umbrella from inside the run

The umbrella from the side

I gave the girls a treat of some sunflower hearts after their ordeal and waited to see what they made of the new addition to their run. What I hadn’t anticipated is that they were so scared of it. They would not venture near it. I tried rolling some grapes under it to encourage them but they were having none of it. By the end of the day I had to pick up the grapes as they still would not go under it. They go under the bush and under the roof over the patio area, I hadn’t thought they would be so nervous of an umbrella. They skirted round it but wouldn’t even come to the corner as usual when I approached. This may take a bit more time than I thought it would. You can’t tell them you have done this for their own good.

The down side of this is that they have now confined themselves to the patio area and the patio that had minimum poop before this, now has all the poop which is not so easy to clean as the outside area. They have now gone to bed. Oh well, I can only hope tomorrow they will start to accept it.

I may resort to another bribe. Their favourite thing of all is yogurt. Maybe a pot of yogurt under the umbrella will entice them under it. They recognise the white pot I put it in and if we take out a cup of tea in a white cup they get excited as they think it may be yogurt. The white pot has proved irresistible so far. Will this work? Tomorrow will tell.