The pond lining arrived today – rather surprisingly, it was left at the end of the drive. Luckily, I checked Amazon messages and found a note that it was behind the brick pillar, otherwise I wouldn’t have realised. I won’t make a complaint, though deliveries are usually made to the house. It was delivered to the right address, that’ll do. Today, I’ve moved the feeder and filled it up, moved the feed bin, with Wince’s help. washed out and moved the small feed bin, put out grit and oyster shell, spread out the pond liner and covered it with chunks of newspaper in the corner, with wood shavings overall, lined the nest boxes with newspapers and shavings and sprinkled diatomaceous dust liberally. I left the small feeder and some water in the greenhouse, but put the bag of mealworms and another dish of water in the new home.
At dusk, Wink and I went out with a cardboard box. I picked up each chicken and Wink was in charge of the box. Every three birds, we moved the boxful. A number of them roost on top of their shed and I only managed to catch one of those, so 17 got moved altogether. Most of them were settled on the perches by the time we finished, though Jabber the Cluck and Jenga Junior Rooster were in nestboxes. One, I’m not sure which, was exploring outside and one more was wandering over the floor. But it went better than I could have hoped.
Tomorrow, I’ll put stepladders on two sides of their shed, and hope to catch some of the lingerers. I have Plan C and D to come, so I’m reasonably confident that I’ll have caught them all soon. Plan E is there too, in fact. Belt and braces, that’s Z. And bailer twine.
Excellent.
If the pond liner is bigger than needed, maybe cut off a strip and sub-divide for the bottom of each nest box? It will speed up cleaning them out no end.
We’ve had Amazon deliveries left at our bins at the end of the track which is a similar distance away from the house to your brick pillar. When you think how little they are paid for delivering – and very little more for rural cf urban areas – it’s amazing anything ever arrives at all.
2.5m square was almost exact. But I lined each nestbox with several layers of newspaper, then the shavings.
Delivery drivers are great, always polite and cheerful. If this one had to hurry, I’m not telling on him. Or her, but nearly all of them are men.
If the newspaper in the nest boxes gets damp, it is sometimes difficult to get out as it breaks up, but if you find you have this problem (which you might if some of them decide to sleep in the nesting boxes), you could always put a layer of thick plastic of some sort under the newspaper and sawdust, also going up the edges a bit – it is then much easier to pick it all up together when cleaning out. Great for the compost heap!
27 years of hen-keeping knowledge distilled into one paragraph…
Hope you manage to catch all the stragglers.