Progress with the hen “cuddle training” since my last blog story has been a slow. Mainly because I have been super busy holding the fort. Adrian took a full-time job at the start of the year which means that I’m juggling more plates on the smallholding. The hen cuddle training has continued but not as speedily as I had hoped when I started back in April.
This said, we have progressed a few things with the training; there is now a picnic table in the hen run where we can have our elevenses with our feathered friends and not get our bottoms wet anymore with sitting on the grass.
More recently, Adrian has done some nifty wall work. At the weekend he created a neat gap in the stone dyke which runs between our garden and the hen run. He did this in 27’c heat, and if dismantling huge rocks to form a gap wasn’t sweaty enough work, digging two deep holes to take the enormous gateposts was pretty impressive, hats off to Adrian!
Now we can enter the hen run much more quickly and easily. Previously we used a gate halfway down the orchard which meant carrying things like water and 20kg sacks of pellets etc was a right palaver. Not to mention balancing trays with tea and scones.
Now we can nip in and out of the hen run carrying our cups of tea and cake without danger of spilling our tea by the time we get there.
We still haven’t managed to pick up any hens other than Becky and Babs (and Cherokee the cockerel), but now we have better access and a posh picnic table, we hope that it won’t be long before our other hens become partial to cuddles too.
