Improving the ground for the chickens

It’s the third day with the umbrella in the chickens garden. When I did my morning clean up the girls hadn’t been out long and were still staying close to the patio area. After lunch I decided to try to improve the ground for them as it has been very wet and the ground has got quite compacted. First I did a poop pick to give it a clean start. From this I could see that the chickens had ventured further out. Instead of all the poop being at the patio area, it was beyond the umbrella, round the edges and in the corner of the garden area, but none actually underneath the umbrella. They are getting more adventuress and will sometimes cross under it but are obviously not spending any time under it.

I started by digging over the ground with a fork. This was quite a work out for me although the ground was still quite wet, so not as hard as it would have been if dry.

Half the run is dug over

The digging over is completed

I then spread a bag of wood chip over the run. It’s been four months since I last did this and the wood chip looks so clean and pale, but it will soon change to a muddy dark colour. I finished off by sprinkling some D.E. over the whole area.

The wood chip is spread over

The chickens had stayed out of the way while I did this. I did wonder if I was making too many changes at once but decided it would be better to get it all over with as quickly as possible, because the whole idea of doing this is to give them a better outside space during wet weather. I decided to sprinkle some dried meal worms into the wood chip to entice them on to it.

A sprinkling of dried meal worms tempts the chickens to go and have a look

They enjoy a good scratch around

I needn’t have worried as soon it was clear that they were enjoying having something to scratch in. This hasn’t effected them in the same way as the umbrella. It soon started to rain again and they returned to the patio area. I think it will take a while for them to really get used to the umbrella and I don’t know if they will ever work out that it stays dry underneath it, but at some stage they may realise that while the rest of the garden is wet there is a dry area under the umbrella to scratch in. I can only hope!

I have a postscript to add here. I was just about to put this out but needed to read it through first to check for mistakes. I decided before doing this that I would just go up and have a last check in with the chooks before their bedtime. It was raining and much to my amazement they were all stood underneath the umbrella having a scratch about! Has the rain given them a light bulb moment? Hurrah!

I left them as they were all heading in to the coop for bed. I can’t believe I just saw that! Maybe we have cracked it after all. Once used to the umbrella, it will make wet days better for them. It will be interesting to see how they get on tomorrow. They never cease to surprise me.