Mission "veg patch" continues :-)

The transformation of the vegetable patch took a leap forward once the covered chook pen went. After dismantling it, Iain removed all the paving slabs that we had laid down on the earth inside it in our (failed) attempt to stop the rats tunnelling in. Then he dug a huge hole, filled it with hardcore and then began to create this cemented paved area which he left for a couple of weeks covered up to harden off. Now he is building brick compost bays on top of the paving to make it totally rat proof - they might like the warmth of a compost heap but they are NOT welcome in this one...They aren't welcome

in the current one but that hasn't stopped them from getting in. Now the only route into them is through the lids which as Iain concedes were not the best design, but we have learned.

The new compost lids will be made from the old sections of the chicken pen -hinged to open easily. The benefits are two-fold: we are recycling items we would otherwise have to get rid of (although some of the wire panels will also be useful to dry onions and garlic in the summer and for protecting newly planted seeds from birds) and

the wire will allow rain to add moisture to the composting waste through the summer months. The old PVC roof cover will double as a compost bay cover through the winter. Using mostly reclaimed bricks to build the bays will, we hope, make them blend in with the, believe it or not, Listed Victorian outhouse (complete with old 'thunderbox' hole!)behind it.

You can see how much room the pen took up! As well as the three bays and a clear way in front of them for wheelbarrow access we should also be able to create another

long raised bed and a smaller square one that I plan to use for carrots (ie no compost - just lots of sand mixed in). We hope to re-build all the existing raised beds using oak 'sleeper' style lengths to make them more sturdy. The current gravel boards aren't too happy with the strain placed on them when we dig up the potatoes.

Oak will look nicer too but it is more expensive so we plan to do it a couple of beds at a time. I hope to have a square herb bed too and as most herbs like well drained soil I want to be able to rotate a little with the carrots. I suppose it will become a proper kitchen garden by the time we have finished. Raised beds, compost bays and greenhouse all in one efficient area. And the chickens close by to catch thrown worms and donate their poo to the compost effort. Very Monty Don/ Hugh F-W :) Though, erm, without their rather larger budgets sadly.

The garlic is now coming through, the frosts have given it a kick start. I have some tulip bulbs from last year that I decided to put in low terracotta bowls for this year down there and they are pushing their leaves through. I keep telling them to get back under - winter isn't over yet and they're not due up til April....

So where is the new chook coop? Well Iain used some of our stock of old bricks (everyone round here hoards old bricks, pamments, flints and anything else that could be used to fill in, build or create something) to make a brick and pamment plinth for this coop. How clever! So now the chooks have a space beneath the coop itself, as well as the field shelter (and the bay bush) to go under out of the wind or rain when either are coming from the south. We intend to put a 6ft x6ft coppice panel along the fence line here and plans are afoot to create a small shelter between the coop and the field shelter with a see-through plastic roof of some sort to let light through, and then it'll be even better for them on that side of the garden.

When the wind or rain comes from the north the chooks have an old brick plinth built some years before we arrived under a yew tree. This spot doubles as a useful dustbathing crater location as it stays relatively dry under this yew tree, which borders the lawn part of the garden, in all but the most horrid of weather, and as a south facing sun trap for preening as well as morning or afternoon naps!

The coop is much easier to keep clean for them and this is I believe one of the many reasons why they have adapted well to it. I can poo pick, replenish aubiose and diatom, rub diatom all over the perches and wipe over the light misting that can develop on the inside of the roof, when the weather is cold (chickens, and their poo, generate quite a lot of heat did you know!) and the air is still, in around ten minutes - tops - before I leave for work. And thanks to the pamments at the back that Iain laid I don't have to stand in the mud to do it. OK so I sometimes find I have bits of aubiose stuck to my clothes or sleeves daubed in diatom when I get to work but if anyone has noticed (unlikely - everyone's far to harrassed) they have been too polite to say anything.

There is, however, possibly more risk of warmth loving red mite moving in in droves now than in their old pen (not saying they weren't in that pen, just that they never became a problem for the chooks), it is still far less likely than if they were in a wooden coop. So far, with the deterrents of plenty of ventilation, vaseline smeared on and into every cranny as well as liberal amounts of diatom sprinkled in the aubiose and under the plastic sheets I have inside the roosting area and the nest boxes to make it easy to lift the bedding out, the dreaded red mite have not taken up residence....Yet....I'm crossing everything because they are evil little b********s.

Spring is definitely on its way. Robins are making territorial displays and Herb has conquered Maggie- chook!! Saw the deed last weekend :-) This really is good news as it proves not only that he has enough attitude to compensate for his slightly smaller size but that he doesn't need to be bigger than them either, which of course a cockerel usually is. Partly that is how they can persuade the girls into submitting to their fertilising attentions plus of course their hormones. Herb has all the hormones but has to be a bit more gentlemanly and attentive (and determined :-) ) to achieve his ends! Maybe, though, he would be even if he wasn't a bantam. Some cockerels are really vicious bullies with the girls. Bert wasn't at all, and neither is Herb. Think I'm just lucky. Maggie's top hen and a medium size chicken (Black Rock which is a Rhode Island Red x Barred Plymouth Rock - mine are the proper pure strain from the original Scottish hatchery - beware of imitations!), while Herb's a Barnvelder x New Hampshire Red bantam ! The NHR bit gives him that bit more bulk and height which made it possible to take him in with a flock of hybrids. Phoebe, Fliss and Belle are Black Rocks too while Fanny-Anne is a White Sussex, Edna a Cuckoo maran x, and Tilly is a Bluebell which is a Rhode Island Red x Maran. All of them are just a little bit bigger than he is. Phoebe and Tilly a bit more so again. But he's standing his ground and, now at about 10 months old, gaining confidence! So the expression 'it's not the size of the bird but the fight in the bird' is, in this case, true.

And it is definitely Edna laying some of the eggs we are now finding - at least one most days now. I found her just leaving a lovely warm one in the nest the other day. Herb was hovering anxiously until she reappeared. Maggie was next. As I clean the coop every morning she keenly investigates the arrangements and 'chats' to me about what I'm doing. Being treaded by Herb pretty much sealed her resumption of egg laying duties. He knows when they are ready!