Cheery's country living adventure

EagerLearner

Ah that's good Cheery phew, a lovely haven for them.

Cheery_Daff

Gosh, has it been that long since I've stuck my head in here?! :eek:

Still loving having chickens :j :j Still haven't finished the run although it does have all four sides now, and fox-proofing the base has started in earnest :j :j If I didn't have to go to work I'm sure it would have been finished weeks ago :rotfl: Still, they seem perfectly happy pottering about in the stables for now.

I bought an egg-skelter :rotfl: Looks like a helter skelter but sits on the kitchen counter for you to put eggs in so you can use the earliest ones first :rotfl: Of course, our ladies laid NONE this morning for me to play with :rotfl: Did have four in the cupboard though, and found another one this afternoon in the nest box. Most fun

So... MSE related things...

* finally rang the wayleave people to request a copy of the letter that I filled in, signed and then completely lost rather than putting in the post :rotfl: If I ever get my act together this should be a one off payment of £2000 so well worth doing! :j

* got notification of payrise today :j :j Payable in wages next week, backdated to the beginning of August, from messing about with The Salary Calculator it seems I'll have around an extra £103 a month take home :eek: :money: I think the backdated bit will go towards the mortgage, and I need to decide what to do with the rest. Would very much like to start adding to savings again properly...

Not sure what else. One car needs the wheel tracking done - I had 3 tyres replaced a few weeks ago but they didn't do the tracking cos there was something wrong with the rocker arm or something - had that fixed now but still need the tracking done. Annoyingly, the other car's MOT is due at the end of next week. Bloody things!

Anyway, all buttling along nicely here Chickens happy, I'm happy, all good

themadvix

It sounds as if everything is going well here! Love the sound of the egg skelter, what fun!

Well done on the payrise

Cheery_Daff

Evening MSE chums :hello:

All cheerful here chickens buttling along nicely :j Run still not finished :eek: just needs a roof but we've got weather warnings for wind uo here this week so no ladders while carrying large plastic sheets :eek: :rotfl:

Still, I'm sick of them being inside the stable so going to experiment with a little free ranging (supervised!) time tomorrow afternoon :j Not ideal as they may just take off down the field behind the stable :eek: I think they're friendly enough with me now that I'll be able to get them back... i hope...

Of course when they do get their new run (finally) they'll have to be retrained to go back there at niggt, not the stable... Most tedious but there we are...

Not much else to report...

gallygirl

Hope the free-ranging goes well Cheery, good luck with it :rotfl:. My grand-chicks (only three now, RIP Bluebell and Bubbles ) will come running if you appear with anything in your hand - 'plastic cheese' slices are a favourite, they can spot them a mile off and come galloping up :T. I love the little egg laying songs they sing :smileyhea. Much more fun than my grand bunnies who basically eat, poo and repeat :rotfl:. Oh and one of them chases the chickens sometimes :eek:.



The run sounds very impressive .

Fortune_Smiles

Hi Cheery :wave:

I used to throw a handful of corn into the run whenever I wanted to get mine in. A loud call of "Chook, chook, chook" at the same time and they'd come running from miles away. They came to the call without the corn eventually.

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

Well, so much for the chickens running off - they poked their little beaks out of the door, got their feathers ruffled in the wind, and went straight back inside :rotfl: :rotfl: admittedly the weather has been VILE here the last few days. I've been leaving the door open every time I've gone in there and they've not had more than five minutes outside before coming back in :rotfl:

(Just reminded myself I've not actually shut them in tonight! Not a problem - stable door is shut when I'm not in there so they're safe, but they'll be tucked up together in their little house so I'll go and shut the door to that for coziness...)

jodles16

Hi Cheery,

Have enjoyed reading the diary!

We are so in love with our rescue girls too, it amazed me how quickly they got used to living somewhere new, their feathers grow back well and they are just fab! We have a lot of foxes around her- also love foxes, fab creatures- so ours have a nice big safe run from a certain egg based company which is great. Also my big dog is not keen on them so that could cause problems!

We have the egg-skelter too! Its so good!

We have fields around us where the cows come- anytime now- over winter, lovely young bullocks who are so funny to watch!

Sounds like you are settling in really well, good luck with the run!

Jodles

edwink

jodles16 wrote: »

We are so in love with our rescue girls too, it amazed me how quickly they got used to living somewhere new, their feathers grow back well and they are just fab! We have a lot of foxes around her- also love foxes, fab creatures- so ours have a nice big safe run from a certain egg based company which is great. Also my big dog is not keen on them so that could cause problems! Jodles

You are so right in that that feathers grow back well and that they get used to living somewhere new so quickly. They are really clever little things when you think about it.

We have a hen thread running on MSE if you would like to join in with all us hen keepers. We are a friendly bunch, honest. The link for it is in my signature.


Cheery.... Sorry your post was meant to be quoted in this post too. Looks like I lost it along the way.
Well done with your new hens:T. You are doing really well with them and picked it up so quickly:T. And to think you were so worried before they came to live with you a couple of weeks ago. Three cheers for Cheery's chooks as Pyxis calls them.
I knew you would get the hang of it Cheery :smileyhea
Love reading your diary too and finding out what you have been getting up to. Keep up the good work.

Edwink

Cheery_Daff

Evening MSE chums :hello:

Gosh I've been absent lately! Tis my super busy time at work right now so it's just one thing after another, and I've been riddled with a grim cold on top of everything else this week. I've had the two cars taking it in turns in the garage (exaggerating slightly - but only slightly) and today I had to call the breakdown people for the one that was in the garage on Friday (unconnected - garage did the tracking and this morning the battery was flat). Other one is going back tomorrow after having had an MOT last week to have a leaking fuel injector repaired so the smell of fumes inside the car won't be quite so overpowering (or rather, won't exist at all) :eek:

Yawn.

I'm in the big city every single day this week too :eek: In fact, pretty much every single working day between now and Christmas :eek: :eek: This is NOT what I had planned when moving to the middle of nowhere, and I have tried and TRIED to get things changed to no avail. There will be the odd week when I only do four days, and an occasional week with only three. But otherwise it's two hours of driving every day for me for the next 12 weeks or so.

Sigh.

Hey ho. I am thanking my lucky stars that it's only until Christmas, and after that I shall be working at home pretty much until next October :j :j :j So I can't complain TOOOOO much (although I probably *will* complain...) :rotfl:

MSE things...

* we've had the contract for the wayleave so I'll get that signed and sent back and then £2000 should be winging its way to our bank account :eek: :money:

* the less said about the cars the better :eek:

* had a good haul of reduced bargains in the supermarket the other night - a couple of giant bags of leggy parsnips, huge and tasty apples reduced for no reason that I could see, half price yogurt, and some heavily discounted flowers which are brightening up the whole house and making me extremely cheerful :j

* I've got soup in the slow cooker ready to take to work with me tomorrow (and probably the next day too)

In other news, I'm extremely pleased that the chickens have now been moved to their permanent outdoor run, so are no longer in the stable :j I'm not sure they're quite so pleased as it's been a bit drizzly today :rotfl: But they'll get over themselves I'm sure - they've still got their house to shelter in and their whole run will have a roof in the next couple of weeks. They're staying locked in the run for the next few days to learn where their new home is, and after that I'll let them out a bit (and hope they don't all try to head back to the stable!)

I'm in danger of letting the evening drift away with me so I need a list...