Work, Work, Work

This weekend was very busy for the Queen... the King too, but this is the Queen's blog so let's focus on me shall we?

We started out by putting the fence around our chicken run. It always takes a while to get started but we got as far as we could. The King got a head start on it while I tended to the royal flock.

I had come up with an idea for the ducks, one that would still be disgusting, but more easily managed. With the idea in my head I scouted out the local Tractor Supply to see what I could piece together when lo and behold... there it was, almost like I envisioned it... a rabbit cage. It had a grate over a removable tray, and I could attach the food and water bowls to the cage so that it was out of the way and also immobile. AND it was on sale. It isn't perfect, I had to wrap the outside to prevent them from pooping through the bars (and they still managed) but it is much, much easier to clean.

Ours looks exactly like this except that it's covered in shit:

Moral of the story: DON'T GET DUCKS

That said, they will let you know when something is amiss. No food in the bowl? Howard shrieks. No water? Howard and Sweet Lucy create a cacophony. It's like an automatic reminder so you never, and I mean EVER, have to worry that you forgot to give them food or water... they will let you know...

Later that evening we met up with members of the royal family who were passing through the area on their way back to Boston.  It was great to catch up with them and, as usual, we enjoyed hanging out with them. The royal uncle apparently has excellent taste in beer - he had to order three times before they had one of his options in stock (sort of)... he got 3/4 of a glass because they tapped the keg, so they gave it to him for free.

Next day we were going to finish getting the fence up and... it rained/sleeted/snowed. Every Sunday for the past month it has rained. We did what we could and I finished the clips today. That leaves tension wire, a gate, hardware fabric and netting over the top for the outside, then outfitting the inside with all the fun stuff.

I laid out some hardware fabric just to get an idea what it will look like when it's done. Part of it goes up the fence to stop hawks from reaching in and grabbing chickens, the other half goes on the ground to dissuade digging.

And, in our spare time, we cuddled with the chicklets. Here the King plays roost to one of our tweens. Hard to believe only three weeks ago they were fluffy butts... sigh... they grow up so fast...