26th February

The girls are all in good health at the moment.  I decided to worm them properly, Ive usually used Verm-x, but I decided to use Flubenvet which is a more thorough wormer.  Sorting out the dose, and making sure they all had a fair share was interesting, but we got there.  Someone had a few worms, but otherwise they were pretty clean.
One thing that did happen was a huge lump of bloody something that was in one of the soft eggs I found in the poo tray.  I felt quite sick for the morning, it was disgusting.  I posted on the Lane forum and they said it was a meat spot, I hope there arent too many of those!
I put in some perches for them.  The first one they loved, and there would be three or four chickens on it, then I put the second one in, and made it a bit higher.  They werent too keen on this one, I think because the peice of wood was a bit on the thin side, but Bramble likes it, and Ive seen Clara on there too, so there's hope.

Bramble on the higher perch, Alice, Clarice and Henrietta on the lower perch.

11th February 2011

Its mild and damp at the moment.  I had white plastic over two sides of the run to stop snow and rain getting in, but it was almost spring like this week, so I rolled the plastic up and its really nice being able to see to the bottom right and corner of the garden.  The girls seem to enjoy their extended horizon too.
John announced the other evening that there was a rat living under one of the compost bins. So I got the almost empty galvanised dustbin out of the chicken shed and put their food in it at night, and hung the water from a rafter in the run.  He emptied the compost bins today, he was very brave because he hates rats and mice, and found a nest of babies in the bottom.  Poor little things.  They are in rat heaven now, the parents are hopefully long gone, and I have left the food out, though I think I should really go and get it put in the bin.
Ive been getting a lot of soft eggs lately, so now Ive put limestone flour on the food, and the shells have firmed up nicely. Its amazing how quickly it happens. 
I put two perches in for them to use, they like the lower one, but the taller one is a bit wobbly to stand on and they dont use it, so we are going to lower it and find a better log to go on the top.