Things are going to get rough for a bit with my posts. I hope I can get the spoilers to work.
As some of you know, I've taken on some of the care duties of a group of chickens that live on an allotment plot not far from where my daughter lives.
All the chickens are rescues and more recently Ex Batts. This lot of Ex Batts are part of 2000 rescued by a farm in the next county. This farm contacts the people they know who keep chickens and asks if they can take any of the Ex Batts. The person who has been trying to run the allotment project and look after the chickens and geese, unwisely imo took on 14 Ex Batts.
The coop is disgusting as is the run. The person who has tried to take care of the chickens just doesn't have the knowledge, or the time to do more than feed them basically. There used to be aperson who was at the allotments full time. This person built the coop and run and maintained the place. He died over two years ago and the place has slid into the state it is in now.
My first priority was to get them fed properly. I bought decent pellet feed at 17% protein and 3.5% calcium. All flock feed isn't easy to come by locally. They were getting fed once in the morning at what I estimate to be a bit over half of what they need.
My next priority was to get them out of the run as often as I could. They are not safe out without supervision. The Ex Batts don't have a clue about the outside world.
I started gently with half an hour a day out of the run and kept a close eye on where the Ex Batts went and what they tried to eat. On the first few outings most didn't even scratch the ground for bugs etc. They've got the idea now from watching me weed and the other hens scratching. There are tow or three that stand around looking a bit bemused by it all. I might add this is not thhe way I would go about things in better circumstances. I must work with what I have at the moment.
I've increased their time out over the last week. I've made small repairs to the allotment border fence in the hope that it will stop them wandering too far away to keep an eye on and still be able to get on with stuff.
I have plans and I think the money to expand their run by 59 square meters, 635 square feet. I doubt I'll get much by the way of help.
This is the view with my back to the coop and run as it is now. I'm hoping to fence up to the two wooden post in the distance just past the bucket.
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This is the view if I trun around to face the coop. This was waist high in nettles and brambles up to where I'm standing and a bit. The stuff on the right of the picture will give you some idea of what it was like.
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I'm sure she knew you were there and she was as comfortable as you could make her. As far as death goes, you gave her a good, peaceful one. That's all anyone could want. 
