Making a start.

Photo: Whilst in the yard we couldn't help but notice how much Alfie has grown.

Running adjacent to the Fowl's run is an area of land of similar size.Until last year it was used by my husband's Uncle as a vegetable plot. Now in his 82nd year he has decided it is a little too much for him so we have ear marked it for the growers pens. The fence dividing the two strips of land at present is a mixture of rusty galvanised sheeting and old chicken wire tied together here and there with baler twine....lovely ! The plan is to remove the fencing and replace it further back with stock fencing and chicken netting.This will give the sheep slightly more grazing and will definitely improve the overall appearance.
The 'new' area will then be divided into two with the hen house in the center with a pop hole opening on either side.This will mean we can run the growers on one piece of land and then the next batch on the second whilst the first rests.

As we will need the pens fairly soon the first batch of growers will have to make do with the ground as it is now. The second pen we will be able to rotivate and reseed in time for the following group.While that side is in use we will reseed the first.

Today we made a start by renovating an old chicken house. It is probably going to be a haven for red mite but we have it and have all the spare materials we need to renovate it, so it will cost us nothing more than a few screws and nails.The outside will be painted with bitumen as it has years of tar painted on it and nothing else will 'take' now.The inside I will lime wash.

Progress so far.....

We have removed the old sheeting and roofing felt and taken out the rotting nest boxes.Unfortunately this revealed that all the back needed replacing. We have used cedar feather boarding which was left over from a job.Hopefully this will weather to a silvery grey .The roof, sadly a little industrial but again free and also practical, is plastic coated iron sheets. The rest of the house only needs minor repairs, so we should be able to keep the character of the house with just the back looking different.

Photos: Bottom - hopefully the cedar will soften to a silvery grey and look less harsh.The rest of the out side will be painted in black bitumen and the inside lime washed.