Poorly chicken

[mullethunter]

My 'new' Cube is now clean and waiting to be built. The Omlet instructions say to build the run as you build the Cube so it's all one unit. If I do this, will I be able to move it on its wheels down a small slope to its final position? If not, can I build the Cube and run separately and then join them?

[Ursula123]

The run is secured under the side and roof panels, so they need to be off to attach it all but the small panels under the cube can go on after as they just screw up into the underneath. I built the run separately and positioned the cube ( base and front) where I wanted it then fitted the run to it and screwed on the side panels. Not sure about moving it as one as mine has 4 metre run and would imagine it to be awkward, let alone down a slope.

[mullethunter]

Thank you. I found that the wheels actually let me move the Cube really well with just the standard run attached.

[kopperdrake]

We have Cubes with an extra 3m of run and move them anout 300ft across the ground to behind the house for winter, albeit it quite level ground. I think we're pushing it (ouch) though, with that kind of length; I can do it on my own but it's easier with two people.

[Luvachicken]

We have Cubes with an extra 3m of run and move them anout 300ft across the ground to behind the house for winter

 

Sorry to hijack the post but I just wondered how big your garden is kopperdrake ?

Any chance of a picture to ease my garden envy ?

[Ursula123]

From the pictures I saw when you posted recently luvachicken, I have a much smaller garden than you - so I have garden envy of you.

[Luvachicken]

From the pictures I saw when you posted recently luvachicken, I have a much smaller garden than you - so I have garden envy of you.

 

glad you like my garden

My garden is 30 feet by 40 feet and I would love it bigger.

 

When we bought the house the estate agents made it look huge by taking the photo from one corner

 

It's just I saw that kopperdrake moved their run 300 feet and I was quite gobsmacked and jealous.

[kopperdrake]

Sorry luvachicken - the pics won't help

 

We were really lucky to have a friendly farmer next door who sold us some land when we asked him if he knew of anyone with a spare corner of a field we could rent to grow veggies in! It took him a couple of years to get to know us, that we wouldn't build a house or anything daft on it. Being seriously taken aback, we raided the savings and bought just over an acre of newly ploughed dirt - six years later it's an orchard with edible hedgerow around it, and a veggie plot/chicken heaven!

 

The garden stopped at the five bar gate in the bottom of the picture - the other side of that is now the winter paddock for the chooks, so we can see them from the kitchen window, and you can just about make out a couple of cubes in the distance - one in the veggie quarter and one in amongst the fruit trees.

 

 

And this is where they live in the summer - the geese are separated by another fence as the two flocks just don't get on!

 

[mullethunter]

I love my garden but that looks like chicken paradise - and what a lovely Orchard

[kopperdrake]

Thanks mullethunter - there is only one farm and three houses here, and we've all taken advantage of the old farm orchard next door - or what's left of it - it must be over 200 years old, judging by the enormous pear tree still standing. Fond memories of standing in a tractor bucket whilst being raised high enough to pick the low hangers! When it came to what else to do with the land, a new orchard was the easy option - it'll outlast us, and hopefully those who come after us can make use of it all then. In the meantime, I'm having a bash at cider making on a small scale, and the chooks get to eat the windfalls! I strongly suspect that Colin the cock is knocking them down though - some look decidedly too good to have fallen naturally, and I've found more than one lady perched in the middle of a tree, eyeing the bounty

[Luvachicken]

Oh wow !!!!!!

That has only made my garden envy disease worse

It is just fab and that is really the kind of place I would love to live.

 

Thanks for the pictures kopperdrake

[kopperdrake]

luvachicken - your dog looks just like our sadly missed cocker!! We have a newf cross now, but Frankie our cocker was our first woofer - that's brought back nice memories

[Luvachicken]

luvachicken - your dog looks just like our sadly missed cocker!! We have a newf cross now, but Frankie our cocker was our first woofer - that's brought back nice memories

 

That's Daisy

We had her from a 6 week puppy and she lived until she was almost 17.

She has been gone almost 3 years now and I still miss her especially at Christmas

[kopperdrake]

Bless her - that is an amazing age!! She really must have landed on her feet

 

Frankie was a rescue - the day after we found him, at aged six (we think) he had to have 12 teeth taken out as the previous owner had never let him or his brothers out of the house and yard since birth, and his gums had rotted away with bad diet. The official "Cocker Rescue" place we picked him up from were no better - they bred Springers and had taken him and his brothers on, but didn't carry out any medical work. When we turned up to meet him he was the last dog standing - you could smell his breath a mile away as she brought him round from his kennel, and he practically crawled to us on his belly. His eyes were all gunked up and when we asked about it she just said "Oh, they all get that - we just wipe it away with his ears", and she did exactly that, in front of us! Needless to say we bundled him into our car, he sat shivering in the foot well, and it took a while to gain his trust - which like any cocker, was through diligent use of food He had his twelve teeth out - the vet couldn't age him from his teeth as they were in such a bad state, and he was left with one top canine. He'd never learned how to play, and couldn't figure out why we threw balls for him, but he was dearly loved, and is now under a hazel tree in the back garden. My only regret is that he saw us buy the land at the back of the house in the October, but he never got to play down there once the grass had grown and the fences went up

 

He did have this amzing knack of sucking raspberries from the plant as they grew - it took us ages to figure out what was taking all the low-hanging raspberries in the back garden, until we caught him in the act! He also had a penchant for mangetout, once he realised they were also edible from the plant

 

[Luvachicken]

Frankie looks like he probably got up to the same mischief as Daisy although I'm not sure she would have eaten lettuce or the beans - not unless they had cheese on or had been cooked with a bit of gravy