Returning to MFW, my elusive unicorn!

Grogged

I'm so sorry @coldcazzie, that's awful news.
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for Mary, hope she pulls through.
All the best,
G

Hazelnutty

Oh no - so sorry to hear about your chooks

South_coast

Ahhhh, so sorry to hear that x

Jessy103

Oh no, so sorry to hear about the chickens x

coldcazzie

Thanks all. Today has been very quiet. Both Manwife™ and I have had naps. Dinner was very low effort. Manwife™ put the heating on and we didn't feel even remotely bad about it.

The chooks are recuperating and the drugs are on standby in case they're needed. Think the vets messed up the invoice though as only 1 drug is on it, rather than both. I'm gonna ring on Monday and query. The next 2 days will be fairly critical. We'll see.

An actual early night, without trauma and bloodshed, is needed tonight.

coldcazzie

coldcazzie said:

I'm gonna ring on Monday and query.

I'm not ringing on Monday because it's a bank holiday but I keep forgetting! Manwife has asked me to remind him NOT to log on to his work laptop in the morning  

Today we used the garden shredder for the first time. OMG. IT. IS. AMAZING. Didn't do too much, trimmed back some brambles and other weeds, and chopped a few saplings back that won't just give up and die, but wow. It munched its way through three huge piles much quicker than we expected, and the tiny amount that the stuff shrunk down to was quite amazing. Barely took up any room in the wheelie bin at all, whereas it would have been completely full if they were still whole. We are very impressed, and Manwife is itching to use the new hedge trimmers tomorrow, to start cutting back the ridiculous currant bushes, which are probably about 10ft high right now.

Anyway, definitely feeling like that was money well spent

Have made a mental note to ring the door/window company on Monday Tuesday to find out what their plan is wrt doing the work. Totally happy to wait, but would like to know either way! The not knowing is always the killer, isn't it?

We are also starting to cost up the renovations to the chicken coop. Obviously we had already planned to relocate them and extend the space, but we have edited our plans slightly in light of this weekend, both to make it easier and also to make it more secure, so hopefully we can get started on that soon. Knowing what's going on with the door/windows would help in that regard.

Finally, chicken update:
- Hattie is feeling very perky. I gave her a pedicure today. She did not enjoy it one bit and ate one of her clipped off toenails in protest. She has been merrily making a mess with her food, yelling, and also explored the hallway today, all of which is pretty standard for Hattie.
- Mary walked a few steps to me and ate some pear for breakfast. Then she had a quick checkup, tried to get away and fell on her face. Then she sat in her box and slept for several hours.
- I have been researching how to make chicken nappies. Surprisingly have everything I would need for a super basic one, and most of what I would need for a slightly fancier design with waterproofing and buckles (I would just need the waterproof lining and some buckles). I suspect this will be on my list for the next week - birds poop a lot. Like, A LOT.  

Grogged

Whilst it did cross my (small) mind wondering if you could bandage a chicken, I never would have thought of nappies! Glad they seem to be on the mend.
Sounds like good garden progress as well.

coldcazzie

Erm, I suppose you could? Although it would be more of a simple physical barrier to stop them pecking themselves (or each other) rather than anything else. Like a jumper. They're currently both covered in purple spray (which is antiseptic and also supposed to stop them from being inclined to peck at the wounds, not that it's working for Hattie, who is a right peck monster at the best of times), and being kept separately - with Hattie being much less injured and more lively she would be likely to bully/further injure Mary. Chickens can be brutal, and Hattie is Top Hen and probably feeling a bit insecure right now.

The nappies are quite well known in chicken circles, and predominantly used by people who have house chickens. They do seem to be more common in the US than here though. They have a pouch that fits under the vent, and then bits of material and elastic straps that fit round the body to hold it in place. You can also get/make them for ducks, geese and turkeys.

If you are wondering how seriously the chicken community takes clothing/accessories for their pet chickens, you can check out the #weirdthingschickenpeopledo tag on ig, and probably lose a significant amount of time  

Grogged said:

Sounds like good garden progress as well.

I honestly wish it was, but our garden is big (probably about 120ft long?) and WILD, and pretty much everything we do is purely to stop it from being completely reclaimed by nature. What we did today... you can barely even tell. Hence the purchasing of superior/additional tools. It's so much harder when you don't have the right tools for the job.

coldcazzie

After being sat at £4.62 for ages, I had a Prolific submission be approved this morning.... worth 30p taking me to £4.92! Thankfully it was only a couple of hours for another 50p to be approved so I've now cashed out £5.42 and put it in the OP account, bringing the running total to £355.25.

I also have £4.23 pending so hopefully won't be too long before I can cash out again (she says, touching all the wood nearby).

Grogged

I've only ever had one house with a garden that long. We did what most other neighbours did at that time, fenced it off at a more manageable 30 foot.
Sad, but true. 😟
My only (poor) excuse is that we were young and had other priorities, plus a small terrace house was all we could afford at the time...  How times change.