Even though I have been on a blogging hiatus that doesn't mean that I have not been busy in the garden.

Our weekends during August and September last year were taken up with building a chook pen.

First Post 

Pen Taking Shape

Bricks and metal poles down and up

1/2 wire on

All wire on

Shed built, lawn mower catcher installed

satellite dish wired in

All ready for habitation

First morning exploring

First egg

As I said earlier, we are pushed for time during the week and this project took 8 weeks to complete.
I had set aside (mentally) a 5 metre by 3 ½ metre corner of the back part of our back yard specifically for chooks. I had figured that we could keep a maximum of 8 in a space that big which would more than cater for our needs.
Recycling for this one was a challenge, we had to buy the treated pine posts as I scoured Ebay and Gumtree for months looking for second hand building materials to no avail.
In order to make it Cattle Dog proof we had to have posts 3 metres in length buried in the ground to a depth of ½ metre (never underestimate the strength of a determined dog). We also had to purchase the wire which is not your average chicken wire – we decided on a vermin proof aviary wire which is very thick and very strong and of course the cement.
There are however, 2 dismantled Hills Hoyst Clothes Lines, 200 bricks, 1 satellite dish, 1 brick compost bin, ½ tin of house paint, some old fencing panels, timber left over from our house extension, external plasterboard also left over from our house extension and the piece de resistance … the fly screen door off the back of the house.
The satellite dish was a stroke of genius (even if I do say so myself) as it is attached to an upright pole in the middle of the yard and holds up the wire covering the top of the pen. The white, powder coated screen door adds a certain elegance to the entrance and is very secure with a 3 pin locking system.
The old compost bin now has a top on it and some perches inside on one side and 2 lawn mower catchers (acting as nesting boxes) on the other.

In preparation for our feathered friends I scattered sugar cane mulch, straw and Lucerne hay all over the yard and shed to give them something to scratch around in and also to encourage any worms or grubs to settle there.

The big day arrived, well, night actually – Paul and I picked up 'The Girls' and installed them on their new perches.

So far, in keeping with my dream of getting rescue hens, we have 4 white leghorn hens. Edna, Maude, Elsie & Dulcie. We were given them by a friend's Mother who is in her 90's and was worried that the girls would be someone's dinner if anything happened to her. She was very generous, including feeding troughs & food and even some home grown veggies for us humans.
Over the next couple of weeks I intend to go to the shelters and put my name down for another 4 girls who will be rescued from the battery hen farms. They will need some TLC as they will be very sick but I'm sure the Chicken Emporium at the Citrus Grove will be just the ticket for their speedy recovery.