The chicken coop

We've always wanted to keep chickens-and here, we found a chicken coop hidden behind the weeds and nettles...

...and after a lot of clearing and a certain amount of
hard work, our chickens now have top quality accommodation with good insulation and a lifting roof on the nest box section which makes for easy egg collection. Martin's ingenuity has come in handy as he installed a roof gutter egg collector inside the coop to thwart the bad bird which had learnt to break-and then eat-the eggs before we could get to them.

We let the chickens and ducks go free range around the garden during the day-they're great company-very entertaining-and we've never had a problem with them getting on with our dogs...in the evening,or when we're away, it's also nice to know that they have the security of their own fenced area where they can peck and scratch-this area also contains the small duck pond which is filled by rain water from the chicken shed roof.