Cluckdown

An epidemic of avian flu means that all outdoor poultry in the UK has to be kept indoors for the foreseeable future. This is so they don't  come in contact with wild birds that can carry the disease.

Since the little hen house in which my four girls spend the night is too confined for round-the-clock habitation, I have had to  requisition the hay shed to accommodate them. It's meant heaving half the hay out and into the next door shed, then cobbling together  a perch (supported by the saw horse) and  a couple of make-shift nest boxes in case they feel inclined to lay.  Son has filled in the gaps around the door frame with expanding foam so that the stoats that attacked the ducks wont be able to gain access.

The move is not popular. Enclosure is no fun for birds accustomed to free range foraging. No matter my assurances  that 

Stone Walls do not a Prison make,
Nor Iron bars a Cage.
Minds innocent and quiet
Take that for a Hermitage.


they are not happy hens. Cluckdown is Cluckdown though so they will  have take up new hobbies or get down to some serious reading as they endure this challenging period.