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Woken at 6:20 this morning by the hens making a complete din at the far end of the garden. Tried to ignore it for about 5 minutes before my mind started to wonder whether a fox had made it into the hen house and was slowly ripping them to shreds. Worse still – as Eliza has already escaped into the neighbours garden and I spent 20 minutes yesterday happlessly chasing her around – I started to worry that the fox was pulling them to pieces on my neighbours garden (In my experience, foxes rarely take hens, they just hack them up rip their heads off).

Turns out we had a muntjac deer wandering around the hen house winding the girls up, which on seeing me lept over the seven foot fence at the end of the garden. As it was probably no binger than a Labrador, that’s no mean feat.

This is where we are currently.  You’ll see a huge pile of mulch on the left from the tree removals, with loads of logs on top that I need to arrange at some point.  About half way down is the stack I’m currently making for a bonfire when the weather finally dries up.  You can just about make out the villagecomputerhelp.co.uk Burwell Weather Station (currently in need of serious repair) mid center left.  Near the back is Beehive 1 and Henhouse 1.  The plan is to relocate the Beehive to a purpose built apiary at the end on the left hand side with some screening.  The Henhouse will go on the right at the end.  A veg patch will hopefully cover the center, with a firepit / bonfire area about where the logs near the shed are.

You’ll also notice remenants of some of the junk we’ve pulled out of the garden by the shed.  This is currently stacking up on the driveway and is enough to fill a large skip currently.  Hoping to get that cleared.

Total spend so far:

Two ducks: £25

Large Water Butt: £10

Number plate for Horsebox so we could collect Henhouse 1 : £11.40

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Total: £46.40

Claire’s birthday, so we’ve add a couple of ducks to the brood.  We’ve been joined by a male and female magpie duck, both around a year old.  We sunk an old cast iron bath last week for this purpose, and our Eglu with the slats removed makes an ideal hen house, so Suzie and Matilda will be moving into our other hen house with Marina, Eliza and Doris this evening.

Magpie Ducks first appeared around 1920 and are a good all round breed for both table and laying.  We’ve no plans to eat either of these ducks yet.  They are also quite long lived, averaging around 9 years.

These came from V and D Poultry in Soham, a relatively new venture run by husband and wife Daniel and Vicky.  They were very friendly and knowledgeable and took time to show us around and pass on some tips.   They supply a good range of poultry and fertile eggs, and we’re sure we’ll be using them again.

Hattie, our 3 year old Farm Cat (9 kittens under her belt and now thankfully neutered), taking up residence on top of the hen house.

When we last moved we had to give away our on loan our old flock of 6 hens (though we did sneakily take a bantam cock and hen with us).   We also had to give away our almost new hen house (£350, and just three months old).  A friendly neighbour agreed to take them and also agree it was a long loan.

We sort of lost touch with out neighbour and so when we needed the neh house back it was one of those – “should we ask / did they understand it was a loan” moments.  Anyway, we called them only to find they themselves had rehoused the hens and henhouse back in October.  A quick phonecall putus back in touch with the henhouse and three of the hens, and I’ve just returned from a scary drive towing a borrowed horsebox in the driving rain (with no lights…).

So for now, Marina, Margaret and Doris and safely ensconced back in the old henhouse on the front garden.