You know those round bales of hay or straw you see in paddocks, but never up close?
Well you can't fit many of them in the ute at once!
This is wheat straw to spread around the orchard:
In just a couple of rainy days the ground had become pretty muddy. The straw will keep the chooks cleaner and make it a bit easier for us to walk around in there too. One more bale will cover the whole orchard to a nice depth. Of course it will rot down and get muddy, but the straw was only $12 a bale, so topping it up won't be a problem. Apart from the issue of getting it off the ute and into the orchard, that is.
The chooks seem happy. Here's 5 of them in the straw:
Some of them look a bit ratty because they are still going through their autumn moult. And some of them are just old! The black Australorp in the centre is about 10 years old. You can see her in her prime 8 years ago
here. The ISA brown in the front is 8 years old. See her as a pullet
here. Behind her is a Barnewelder looking very ratty, which is 3.5 years old. See her when she arrived
here. The two in the rear are a silver-pencilled Wyandotte and a blue Andalusian, both of which are about 1.5 years old. Their arrival
here.
The newest chook is not in that photo, but here she is in the foreground with the blue Andalusian:
She is a Dorking. I haven't posted a picture of her before, but we have had her for a bit more than a year. She will look prettier when she finishes growing all her new feathers.
Speaking of pretty, here's my Mystic Star dahlia looking lovely in the sunshine today:
6 comments:
I'll bet the chooks loved the new straw. That is one big bale!
We see those bales a lot when driving. We used to tell the kids they were giant shredded wheat biscuits. ( Shredded Wheat is a brand of breakfast cereal).
Those chooks have a great home now. Looks good.
That hay was incredibly cheap. We used to get hay like that for the garden when we lived in the suburbs. Hope the chooks have lots of fun scratching about in it.
Looking downright rural among the happy hens.
It would have cost more like $70 - $90 if it was actual hay.
It is cheap though. In the city small square bales of straw used to cost us $15 or so.
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