Chickens

The chickens continue to lay here, although we are down from 5 eggs a day to an average of about 3 from our five hens.

We use movable electric netting and try to rotate it around the garden so that they always have fresh grass. Although with more and more grass being turned over to growing space, we may have to find a more permeant solution, perhaps one involving woodchip.

Meanwhile, now that the ground is wetter they are finding it hard to scratch up a dust bath area, so I have helped them out by adding bucketfuls of sharp sand to their run. Dust bathing not only keeps them happy, but allows them to clean their feathers and keep parasites down.

I also add a dash of 'Smite' (Diatomaceous earth) to the sand and to their nesting area to help with this - a totally organic natural pesticide. So far, we haven't had a mite outbreak so it seems to be doing the trick.