Access Denied!

Our chooks are about 10 weeks old now, and look almost like full sized chooks. They still have a little growing to do, but not too much. This is a pic of one of the ones I'm pretty sure is a rooster. His comb and wattle are larger than the others (except the other suspected rooster), and he's starting to get some greenish feathers in his tail. He's beautiful though, isn't he?

Unfortunately, they aren't as well behaved as they are beautiful! Since we put up the fence to keep the neighbours dogs out, they've become a lot more adventurous. They soon discovered my compost heap, and had a lovely time digging around in it. Then they discovered the grass I keep nearby. This used to be a nice, neat pile! Look at it now!

Then they discovered these tomato plants that self seeded behind the compost bins. I thought tomatoes (being a member of the deadly nightshade family, like potatoes) weren't a good thing for animals to eat, but apparently the chooks thought differently!

This is what they used to look like!

The grass and compost scratching I could handle, even the tomato eating, since they self seeded and it looks like I'm going to have tomatoes everywhere, but it was the last straw when they actually got into the garden bed! They love the nasturtium leaves, and now they've started on the pea and bean leaves.

It was time to take action, before there was nothing left!

After considering all the many options (OK, so there really was only one), we settled on using some of the wire we'd bought to go around the boundary fence to make a garden fence. We had a few star pickets that DH's dad bought over, so there was no actual outlay (although now we'll have to buy more wire for the boundary fence at some point).

Once we started, we were almost regretting it, and trying to work out other options, as the span down one side was quite long, and getting the wire taught was not as easy as it seemed, but we persevered, and once the first side was done, the rest were much easier. It doesn't have to be particularly strong, as it's only to keep chickens out, so I think it will do.

The gate is just a typical paddock gate, with a stick down the side (left over poly pipe from the original chicken tractor), a loop of wire to put the bottom in, and a loop of wire to hold the top in. DD has spent the afternoon trying to work it out, and she can open it, but not close it, LOL.

The chooks spent the afternoon wandering around the outside of the fence, pecking at the grass, and wondering why they had suddenly been locked out of their favourite scratching place!