This has been the strangest summer. First of course there is the whole Covid 19 lockdown which has created a lot of uncertainty. Happily everyone at Brookwood Shire remains healthy.
I have been doing all my usual gardening despite heat, drought, then torrential rains, and now more heat. It has been challenging in many ways.
I have also been busy up in Cluckingham Palace. The girls are all fine and surviving the changing weather. But to make it more interesting for them, I have been improving the big run.
I noticed that the girls had chosen a new spot for dust baths. They used to use the tunnel and still do occasionally.
But they also like a corner of the big run. It is a bigger space and they can have communal baths. So I decided to make them an actual dust bath there.
I raked up the dirt to make it nice and soft and added bricks and logs to enclose it.
The girls were curious and watched hoping for the addition of worms….they are always hoping for that.
I got some ashes left over from winter fires….
…some sand…
..and some diatomaceous earth…DE.
I poured them into the dust bath area and mixed it up.
I added some straw around it and some dried herbs (but sadly no worms) and….voila! A lovely soft area for dust bathing.
It took a few days for the girls to stop being suspicious of their new place.
But now they love it!
That inspired me to add a few things I have been meaning to get to for a few years now.
They have a roost in the little run but I have never gotten around to adding one to the big run.
And I noticed that all the plants around the run have gotten tall and they can no longer see out. Beatrix especially likes to watch the world go by.
We had a closet pole left over from the coop that fit one corner. Now they can see outside again!
I had been trimming back branches so I found a branch for the other corner.
And just for fun I stood up a pine branch between the roosts.
They love nibbling on it. I checked quickly to make sure pine isn’t toxic for them…it is not. Usually they won’t eat anything that is toxic. But I always check.
And after YEARS of thinking they would like a swing, I made them one. They are terrified of it and won’t have anything to do with it. Oh well, maybe one of them will be adventurous at some point. Win some, lose some. I like it.
I hung some water for them near the bath area. It has been hot so I like to have water everywhere.
We don’t have a pool at Cluckingham Palace but I do fill a tub with water on hot days. I have read that standing in water willcool chickens off but my girls haven’t discovered that yet. The y do like drinking from their “pool” though.
My mother used to say that if you change so much as a push pin you will need to redo the whole house. A saying perhaps unique to her but it is true that if you improve one area, everything else seems to need improving as well.
So I decided it was time for feeding stations in the little run. I have had food and water hanging there forever and the food goes everywhere and the plastic water holder gets slimy in the summer. Lisa Steele from Fresh Eggs Daily uses a feeding station and prefers it. So I thought I would try it.
Bill said he could build it. I decided to keep the food and water separate as that is what they are used to so we ended up with two feeding stations.
Food on one side, water on the other. I need to get deeper dishes as they are still spilling some food. Blossom especially is always standing on the edge of the dish and food scatters every where! I am thinking heavy enamel ware dishes…I will have to keep an eye out.
I had some old plastic placemats so I put them under the dishes to make it easier to clean. Still a work in progress I think.
As always I am drying herbs in the coop. I use them in the nesting boxes and dust bath area.
The herbs so far. I mix them all together and just sprinkle them where I want them. I add edible flowers to the mix as well.
But I don’t dry them all. In the summer I use fresh herbs and flowers in the nesting boxes.
Herbs are also nice for cleaning and repelling insects. Lisa Steele from Fresh Eggs Daily has a lot of recipes and I love them all. You can find them on her website: fresh eggs daily.com
I just finished these. Lemon Thyme Coop Cleaner, Basil Mint Lime Fly Spray and my favorite, Lavender Mint Coop Refresher. I actually make an extra of this for the house. It smells so nice!
So life goes on for my lucky girls. And as you can see, Cluckingham Palace is becoming quite a spa!