Day 653: the playground

We have a massive list of things to do around the house and garden... but yesterday we concentrated on the chickens' playground :o) Well, it was sunny so nice for all of us to be outside in the garden!

We made two proper ends and fitted one. They're removable (like a safety gate, as it's fitted with special clips) so it allows for access for de-pooing and weeding... AND, once the babies are finally in with the big girls and their Eglu and run packed away, we can extend the playground to the right (we'd made the 2nd long front panel at the same time as the first but the babies arrived and took up all the space!). The other end will be fitted once we work out how to connect the tunnel between the main run and the playground!

The new end panel, just clipped onto the front so it's removable.

We raked over the baked, rock-hard topsoil and then covered the earth with cocoa shell. It crossed my mind that it might be too dusty for the girls (they can suffer from respiratory problems so, for example, we make sure we buy dust-extracted bedding) so we left it for a bit before letting the girls out. (And today the rain's cleaned it right off!)

A nice big log from the public footpath and rockery stones that we brought from our old garden!

Spot Roxy, digging in the background! Doesn't it all look neat and tidy?

Sophia, enjoying the new rabbit water bottle - she really got the hang of it very quickly!

And they had a WHALE of a time! We had to scatter a bit of corn to encourage them out, as they were a bit terrified of the new surface (chickens - always terrified of anything new!). Angelina missed out on all the fun, as she spent about 2 hours laying an egg :o)

Eventually, we plan to make it fox-proof (replace the flimsy plastic strawberry netting with weldmesh and put on a weldmesh roof) so we can let the girls out into it when we're at work. It'll also need a flap of weldmesh at the bottom, either buried into the ground or flapping out onto the grass with slabs on top (all to stop foxes digging in).

Once it's fox-proofed, we'll make a third short panel so we can split the run into two halves and put the Eglu into the right half - useful for a hospital wing or for quarantining/introducing new girls (ahem). Clever eh? Hopefully won't be needed for a while yet - OK Roxy and Sophia are two and a half years old but they're doing well... for hybrids :o)

Spot the decking plank stopping the cocoa shell being flicked out onto the grass!

Oh! Nearly forgot to say but it rained a few hours later, on and off until it got dark, and our girls ALL went in when it rained and only came out when it stopped! Not so bird brained, eh?