Simple living in the country - back to basics

beanielou

So sorry Cheery.
3 in a month is so very tough.
I still havent recovered from loosing my two best boys in less than a week in 2020.
Shuddeer.
Take care of you xxx

Tescodealqueen

Take care of yourself Cheery, so sorry to hear about Bessie xxxx

Jessy103

Sorry to hear about Bessie, cheery x

KajiKita

Ah no …. Not again … 😢 I am so sorry to hear about Bessie. Bless her and hugs to you both. 

I think you’re right about having a break especially when Mr Cheery Senior needs quite a lot of support. 

Hope tomorrow feels a bit brighter. 

Hugs,

KK

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all for your kind words xxx 

We've been in touch with the person who, a couple of weeks ago, said she'd be up for rehoming the new ones in the future. Of course none of us realised it would be so soon, and she's now said she can't take them as she's about to do quite a bit of travelling 😕

So I've got to find them a different home, which is a shame. I'm going to ring the British Hen Welfare Trust this morning and see what they advise - I've seen various people post in their Facebook group in similar circumstances and other people offer to add them to their flock, so I'm hoping that might happen. 

Anyway, work today, a LOT to do as it's been a really disrupted time. Probably best if I get out of bed... 🙄

Cheery_Daff

Evening chums. 

Another difficult day here 🙄 However, I have had several people offer to give our remaining chickens a home, so that's nice, although mingled with a lot of sadness.

I've messaged one person, who's not replied, but someone else has since got in touch who is a lot closer, so I'm trying to arrange that instead, so it's less time in the car for them.

Hoping to get it sorted over the weekend. I'm not looking forward to taking them somewhere else, I'm be a complete snivelling wreck, but it does help that everyone who's got in touch has been very kind. 

So. Some work to do tomorrow for various reasons (on a Friday!! Pffft). And two letters of complaint to write as well 🙄 Most tiresome. Not making any more plans for the weekend til I know what's going on with the chickens, but I do need to get some exercise in for IronMay, or else I'm going to end up doing ghe best part of an IronMan in one day at the end of the month 😱

KajiKita

Blimey, at 12.21am I had been asleep for two hours! 

Sorry this is such a painful process for you …. Sending sustaining hugs.

This might seem like a blunt question, but have you given any thought to what you will do with the space where the chickens are living atm? I suspect it would be really fertile ground for growing things …. I just wondered if seeing an opportunity in what you are going through might offset some of the loss and misery? 

KK

Cheery_Daff

I would have liked to have been asleep for 2 hours by that point!! 🙄 

We have been thinking about it, yes. The chicken run is pretty sturdy, and we won't be dismantling it in case we end up with more in the future. It's in two halves, and it's likely we'll use the back as a shed (we don't have a shed in the garden - the garage etc are down by the house, so tools end up getting left outside.

The front part has a roof, but is quite light and airy - the plan is to clean it all out and use it as a kind of summer house, for sitting in, having a meal outside when it's a bit windy or drizzly 😊 I'll see if I can find a picture from when we first built it.

Cheery_Daff

OK, here's a couple of pictures from when we first built it a couple of years ago.



In reality, it'll probably sit empty for a while, but it would be nice to get it set up as a shelter from inclement weather - we get plenty of that round here 🙄 There are windows screwed around the bottom layer - they were good at protecting the chickens from sideways rain and snow but in some the double glazing has blown, so I might remove them if it's just for us - they were added to the outside of the original wire mesh so it'll be easy enough to take them out I think.

Karmacat

That sounds good, Cheery, and I'm glad you've been able to look forward.  You're going to miss the chickens, of course, and I'm betting they'll be missing you, but you're doing it so they can have a life that's closer to their natural one, in a little flock.  

Thinking of you both.