New poultry pen - work in progress

Just over a year ago we were given back an area of land which was no longer being used by my husband's uncle as a vegetable garden. It had been left empty for sometime and was over grown. We started by fencing the area and dividing it into two, with the hen house in the centre. This would allow us to alternate the areas as the house has a pop hole either end.

Photos: 1 & 2 The old vegetable garden being fenced.




One side was completed and the Welsummer flock took up residence. We had planned on reseeding the other side and once the grass had become established move the hens to that side whilst we reseeded the other.

However, as usual things didn't go quite as planned. We had bought a mixed sex group of weaners and it became apparent that we needed to separate the gilts from the boars. So the gilts were moved into the unfinished pen. Over winter, once the now pig pen was empty we planned to rotovate, level and re seed, ready to move the hens this spring, but the weather prevented us from doing so.

Photo: Tamworth gilts in residence



We have recently been able to make some progress at last. The first major job was to dig a soakaway and dismantle an old rusty water tank, now that has been done working the ground back to something remotely suitable to reseed can begin.

Photos: 1. The old water tank to be removed 2. Tank removed, trench and soakaway dug. Now the digging begins.