New hens not going into Eglu Go Up

[Mrs Potts]

Hello, everyone.

 

It's a lovely starry night so I have spent five minutes sitting on a bench up the garden trying to figure out where best to site the WIR I am planning to buy in February.

 

My garden is on a front south-east/back north-east tilt. In midwinter, shadow covers the entire left hand side of the back garden because the sun is low and because of the five foot panel fence. The girls are currently located in their Classic on woodchip on grass in the middle of the lawn but at the moment, they are just shy of any sunshine that falls into the garden.

 

How did you all decide where to put yours? I've searched all the threads and can't see one for this - please point me in the right direction.

 

Thank you.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I remember that feeling . Although my garden's so small, I didn't have much choice .

 

Could you post a photo of your garden? That might help us decide for you .

[Olly]

It was a case of somewhere that wouldn't be too wet in winter, and that had some shade in summer. Now their WIR is in the only place it would fit - I have quite a large garden, but it has various large shrubs, fixtures etc which limited the options.

 

Bear in mind that in winter, when you need to go up to them, it's good to have a site that's on a path so you don't have to tromp over wet grass to get to them, and not too far from the feed bin.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

It's nice to have them close enough to watch too (but not close enough that squawking wakes you up ). Close to a compost bin is handy too!

 

Think about an area for netting off for free-ranging too - you could give up a flowerbed if you don't want your lawn ruined.

[Plum]

It's same as mine except back is north west.

 

I have chosen the left hand side because it's sheltered by fence/trees and the rain and wind predominently come from the southish. So the front facing NNE is unprotected most of the time but I have covers to put down when we get rain/snow from North and East.

 

They are woodland creatures (or so I believe) so like shade and would be distressed in a lot of sun coming in the front of the run in summer.

 

Yes not much direct sun in winter but I add a bit of codliver oil to feed occasionally for vitD and get a lot of sun in summer when the sun is high and use shades.

 

Well that's my theories anyway and it's the only bit of flat land in the garden I would choose that side anyway

[Mrs Potts]

Right ... not sure if this is going to work ...

 

Damn, nope, that won't work. I have put a small stream on flickr but have got to work out the privacy settings. I think I have blocked anyone from seeing or doing anything and have forgotten where to locate them ... back in another two hours ...

[Mrs Potts]

Have failed spectacularly to read and understand all instructions on Flickr and the forum about posting pictures. I am sorry, all of you seem so capable, so will get my DH to talk me through it when he is up and about.

I have managed to set up some photos on a stream on Flickr, under Twigworth, which show the greenhouse and garden and where I sit and plan expanding my chicken empire.

It looks very neat and tidy but the photos were taken about a month before the chickens hit the lawn. Needless to say it looks like a JCB has gone through and removed a huge long strip of turf now.

I think all the bright stuff is sunshine ... it seems so long ago!