How to use The Compost Bin.

Welcome to The Compost Bin, which contains my musings on my life. I live in Herefordshire with my husband and 11 year old daughter. We have 4 acres of land which contains a woodland, small orchard, garden and veg plot. We grow our own organic fruit and veg and make lots of cider, wine, jam and chutney. We share our lives with 16 Chickens, 3 Cats, 4 Guinea Pig and assorted wildlife!

I am a freelance Forest School Leader and Environmental Educator so work with both adults and children on all sorts of things. I also volunteer as a Master Composter and Master Gardener, helping people make compost and grow veg.

So, I might talk about; what we have been doing on our patch of land and in our wood, my work, the chickens and their funny ways, how to grow veg, the fun things our cats get up to, self sufficiency and what it actually means, more general environmental issues, composting, making various crafty stuff, happy and sad times here, living a slower, more hand made, frugal lifestyle, making and mending and re-using and re-cycling stuff, living more lightly on the Earth and my views on life in general.

I hope you enjoy your time spent inside The Compost Bin. I would also love to welcome you as a member of The Compostbin forum

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Sunday, 31 January 2010

The Sunday morning after the massacre.

Morning all

Thanks for the good wishes, seemed very odd to let the remaining 9 hens out this morning (gulp) and see so few...

Spot the Cream Legbar Cockerel and the 2 Cream Legbar pullets have refused to go into a hen house and have become feral birds, roosting in the Juniper or Wellingtonia trees about 20 foot up in the air..I can't get them to come to me and I can't get them down, so they have become a "problem to be dealt with sometime"

Ruby the Silver Dorking was their Brooder Mum, so I guess they saw what happened to her and have become very frightened?

Anyway, they can fly very well and seem to have the sense to get up out of reach.

If any of you reading this came on one of my chicken keeping courses last Autumn, you would have met Ginger, as, although quite new to people, she was the star turn who whould let you all stroke her and everybody cuddle her and allow me to point out all the chicken parts...I am missing her a lot this morning.

I DID wonder if some of the missing girls had been pinched, but as this happened in broad daylight, from my garden, quite close to the house, it seems unlikely. I guess I am clutching at straws in the hope they might still be alive, somewhere. But not so.

Also 3 of the missing girls were not tame and no one else would have got near them..they didn't squat or come to any one else...so I have discounted the idea and sadly assume Fox(es) had a good meal yesterday...

Feel a bit...at a loose end this morning. Not sure what I want to do, today...think I will continue in the polytunnel, maybe plant some seeds ( always makes me feel cheerful!) and of course take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch for the RSPB.

Have nice days, everyone..

5 comments:

Tree Huggin Momma said...

How sad. I worry about raccoons in my area if I decide to get hens (since I live in the city), but foxes are a common culprit.

willow said...

I am so sorry to hear about your hens, in daylight too, no wonder the other hens are frightened.

ms lottie said...

We are so lucky here in NZ that the worst I have to worry about is the neighbours dog.

dND said...

I was sorry to read about the fox visit; losing so many at one go is hard. I guess there are a few more foxes around these days and more pressure on their food supply.
Deborah xxx

Missy AKA Little Messy Missy said...

I am so sorry. We had raccoons take out entire flock of chickens and ducks, 2 different times and two years apart. A dog solved our problem nicely not to mention the "ladies (chickens)" love him and he follows them around proudly. We adopted an 3 year old dog who had never been around any other animals and it took a a couple of months to make sure everyone played nicely together. I wish you luck. Once again so sorry.