Well we've had a very full cortijo this last week with number one daughter popping out to see us and we now have a full compliment of guests in chickenopolis .
The arrival of our daughter fell on the back of the guy working on the small bedroom / office consequently the room had been emptied into our guest room so the lovely wife was running frantic to redistribute the stuff we have accumulated since we arrived . Forty two months ago our whole life was distilled to 18 m3 of van space but now we have stuff a room full of it and just like the last lot of stuff we got rid of, its all essential of course.
The room is now much warmer as the recent high northerly winds have proven and it's another complete room , could just do with a furniture upgrade , I think we'll loose the single bed and go for just an office , maybe some fitted units from IKEA .
Whilst this was on the go indoors the task of the chicken ranch was still on going outside . This seemingly small job has been a complete pain it has gone on and on and on , mainly due to my poor mobility and the insane amount of flies that have been around very day from mid morning on . By about 2pm we've had enough , the lovely wife has a head net but I can't get on with one as my glasses mist up.
The netting has been dug in and a suspended net roof is in place the walls painted and the gutters run. The hutch has been built with nesting boxes and multi level perches and all over a self cleaning floor . The girls have a balcony and a ladder down to the driest bit of dirt you've ever seen , they have indoor feed , grit and water and the same outside with logs and stumps to play on and swinging apples and lettuce to chase , all was set.
TThe lovely wife and number one went down the agri supply and picked out eleven russet hens of shall we say mixed heritage all around twenty weeks so the guy reckoned and to be fair they have small pale pink combs and that's in line with 16 - 20 weeks . To keep them in line she picked up a cockerel again mixed heritage possibly with some game cock roots as he sports a large blue green tail . He's the only one with a name "Lenin" in a little homage to the good life
They all arrived and were installed without an issue and the next morning they finally wandered out at nr lunch to explore the grounds , all seemed well they liked it so much that come bed time the call of the boutique lodgings was not enough for them to climb the stairway to heaven.
The lovely wife had already read ahead in our chicken keepers manual that this could happen and if required you should pick up your girls one at a time and place them on a perch as some may not be used to perching ? This is not so easy when their bad boy lover is running around trying to keep them away from the local police sweep at curfew .
After a bit of fuss and our amateur status as chicken wranglers confirmed all were tucked up in the love shack for the night . This is thankfully a declining trend as they learn to climb the ladder at sunset un aided , I still believe they sell eggs in the Lidl ?
It was good to have a project were we all came together , all three of us just as it used to be . Well I say all three I should say four as DeeDee has been around all the time getting in the way and sitting on every pile of dirt we dug out and her head down every post hole .
I'm sure she would cause havoc if she could get to the girls and we're not fooled by her quiet watching , to give some separation from her stares we have fenced off a section so that DeeDee has no direct line of sight and the plus side is its made a dead handy veg patch to boot .
So the place seems a little more alive and each day is now started by Lenin our cock singing in the morning glory .