New hens not going into Eglu Go Up

[Alis girls]

Not really sure where to post. We have this horrible gravel on the path of garden which I know cats mine and others use for toilet (and I do remove then I can ) there are loads of flies - non in hen house which is very clean and changed wood chip today - sprrayed citronella spray round and short of putting candles in run with citronlla I dont know what else to do. The gravel is going and we are debating on slate as they dont seem to poo on this. I dont want anyone to blame my girls as I poo pick daily. Help - I remember something about lime - but cant remember waht its used for and where do I buy. Mods please move if in wrong bit Ta

 

Have moved this to My family and other Animals, as guess that is the best place? - Christian

[Alis girls]

Ok - er they are not pets

[Lesley]

erm......perhaps Green Thinking might be more suitable

 

The citronella sounds good - did it not work? Cats don't like the smell of citrus so I thought it might have worked.

 

I throw orange peel all over veg plots to keep cats off and I also use dried out, used, teabags with drops of Olbas Oil on them - it seems to work.

 

Slate paddle stones would be good as they are bigger than gravel - be wary of the small slate chippings though as they may not be very different to gravel.

 

I can remember when cats used to dig a hole and cover their poos - cats today just seem to leave it on the surface......including our farm cats

[Redwing]

We swapped pea gravel in our old garden for slate chippings (not the very diddy ones, the ones about an inch long or so) and this did the trick

 

While we were saving up for the chippings we used netting over the top of the gravel which kept animals off of it

 

Stalosan F may work in the short term