Not a bike but some chickens. I know I should have been working on the bike, but had a bit of wood lying around so built a coup & enclosure. Fresh eggs! They are resuce hens from a battery farm so are looking a bit disheveled and it has finally stopped raining.






Cat thinks chicken is on the menu!

GMcQ

Now you'll be flogging off eggs on the forum

Egg sandwiches all round at the next meet GMcQ.......bags me go in front!!!

Not bad gmcq, very peaceful for the chickens. I'd love that here but some clever English person decided we needed foxes to hunt way back, and now we have to build maximum security concrete floored mains power electric fenced coops. Not worth the trouble.
Nice and green over your way. First frost here today.
RT

Yeah I noticed a lot of dead foxes on the road going to Narranderra and for there to be a lot of dead ones means a plague of live ones.
Many people around here complain about the feral cats but there are 10 times the number of foxes. Then we also have to contend with the Quolls who are worth 10 foxes in determination and cunning.

gmcq,

Would it be nice if you introduce your chickens to biking?
Next you will require a sidecar to have your chickens smiling

RT wrote:Not bad gmcq, very peaceful for the chickens. I'd love that here but some clever English person decided we needed foxes to hunt way back, and now we have to build maximum security concrete floored mains power electric fenced coops. Not worth the trouble.
Nice and green over your way. First frost here today.
RT

Just means when you go out to the coop to collect your eggs for breakfast you pick up an electric roasted chicken as well....Cant beat having your own eggs....

Will, are you allowed eggs?
RT, we have a fox den two fields over but you can see the guard dog in the photo below. Its green because it never stops raining! Well actually, it has not rained for two days. Think we are having our summer


Enough to scare off any intruder

Olaf, cant beat fresh eggs.

GMcQ

Nice one, we've had a few since we got married, the eggs are great. One tip you might find useful; if you need to go away for a weekend or even longer they will look after themselves if they have food, water and no predators (foxes, stoats etc). To achieve this we've got a vertical sliding door on the coop that has an electronic door keeper; that is a light sensitive cell and a motor and a bit of string. They put themselves to bed at night and this looks after them. A big hopper for layers pellets keeps 'em fed and we rigged up a trough with a ball valve (you can buy from below) connected to an open water but by a bit of hose - keeps them in fresh water and fills the butt with rain. A good UK place we found was Ascott smallholding supplies - worth a look for info.

http://ascott-dairy.co.uk/acatalog/Electronic_Doorkeeper.html

Cheers
Dave

Thanks Dave, thats a great idea, photocell and motor will have to look into it. I will check out the web site link.During the day I keep the hens in the A frame run and let them into the bigger run when we are about. I actually have stoats living in the stone barn you can see in the photos as well as foxes. But we all share the same space so I just try to keep them out. Rats have been around when the cattle are on feed but havent seen any in a while thankfully. Also have two cats that keep the population down.

GMcQ

Sounds a good plan mate. We had totally free range hens at the last place, only ones we lost to a predator in 8 years were to a stoat. They are fast, effective can get in very small spaces and will kill a whole flock on instinct alone Anyway, one day I saw a stoat outside the kitchen, and we all loved it; so smart, beautiful and curious so I gave it a pheasant leg and then the next day a wing and so on. It was only when I found the second beheaded chicken that the penny dropped there might be a connection! Ended up buying a live bait trap; it worked and I bunged it in the back of the car and released it a long way away. Never realised such a small animal could smell so strong!

Rats and foxes we never had a problem; I've had rats in boats and houses and they are the one animal that gives me the heebie jeebies, and I did not hesitate to poison them with multiple bait stations.

By the way good on you for giving those battery hens a bit of a life!

Cheers
Dave

88KE wrote:Egg sandwiches all round at the next meet GMcQ.......bags me go in front!!!

After me, you can be first

Apart from the chickens and eggs and things, it's a nice bit of woodwork, GMCQ.
Paul.

sidecar paul wrote:Apart from the chickens and eggs and things, it's a nice bit of woodwork, GMCQ.
Paul.

Thanks Paul. Still a few bits to do, sand pit under a canopy type thing. Amazing what you can do with scaffold boards and a table saw. £4 for a 8ft x 10" x 2.5" scaffold board in the salvage yard, murder on the saw blade though. Still thinking about that other project, keep looking at the photos you sent. Unfortunately I have been given a long list of duties to attend to first in the house, stone cladding & wood burner etc

Ahhh, the woes of a married man

larrikin wrote:Ahhh, the woes of a married man

What GMcQ would do if he didn't have his wife planning duties to occupy his free time?
Get bored and go burn fuel with the bike?
-o:

[quote="Crazy FrogGet bored and go burn fuel with the bike?

[/quote]

Eggcelant idea

Thanks Paul. Still a few bits to do, sand pit under a canopy type thing.


What is this? A chook pen or a resort?

88KE wrote:Egg sandwiches all round at the next meet GMcQ.......bags me go in front!!!

I remember learning hamburgers dont have any............................ham in them.

More recently we learnt European beefburgers dont have any............beef in them.......

Now where did those rats go?????????

Nuff said...

Cat thinks chicken is on the menu??

Looks to me like the chickens are thinking cat is on the menu. I wodnered aboutt hat one day in a friend's house when I saw a cat and chickens happily sharing the same space. Until I saw the cat get too close. Those darn chickens nearly turned it into mince meat.

Saxon7 wrote:Thanks Paul. Still a few bits to do, sand pit under a canopy type thing.


What is this? A chook pen or a resort?

Nearly! Finished sand pit, looks more like a villa of sorts! You know what its like when you get started, but i'm drawing the line at ducks and a pond

GMcQ