This morning I took the girls some cooked peas as their breakfast treat. I am struggling to find different things they will eat at the moment. They came running as soon as they saw me, but were not impressed with the peas. They pecked at them a bit, then abandoned them. Pepper took a peck at my ring instead, I have heard that they like sparkling things!
I left the small pot of peas by the feeder and when I came back later in the day they had managed to shell them and just left the husks. It’s amazing how good they are with their beaks.
Now we have seen the enclosure in action for just over a week, we realise that we need to make a few modifications. The main thing we need to do is to extend the dry area. We are finding it too cramped for the chickens, their feeders and us.
When I replaced the pine shavings in the coop at the weekend, I found there was not enough room for me to comfortably move round. We will extend the plastic roof, out over all of the patio area and leave the garden part as the open area.
I would then swing the coop round sideways so that I can get round it easily. We also thought we would put a shelf behind the coop to store the overflow of chicken related things, which at the moment are cluttering the shed.
We have also put a gate closer on the back of the gate.
Another minor thing, is to move the hanging basket from the front of the enclosure to inside. We thought it would make it look attractive from the outside but now find it blocks our view in.
I mentioned in an earlier post, that we only had three apples on the tree in the enclosure, as we have now realised the mesh put the bees off going in to pollinate. After a heavy shower this afternoon, I looked in on the chickens and saw that the top most apple had fallen off. It seems the apples are not meant to be this year. Never mind, I would rather have chickens!
Click here to see the history of my flock.