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That is an absolute disgrace @Icemaiden . On a positive note there aren't many variations on a wood chisel, so that isn't a problem. There are stone chisels, or brick bolsters, or wood turning chisels and I'm sure you would quickly tell the difference. The most important thing with woodwork is...

We tie fine mesh plastic potato bags over the end of the feed pipes and throw them away when full. We do have a big problem with leaves, which then settle to the bottom and clog the filter on the pump.

I ahd a similar experience @Marigold . Whilst studying 3rd year Thermodynamics and Fluids HND we had to do Mechanics of Machines. The tutor, the head of the subject, was a joke. Spent all his time drawing diagrams that made no sense to me. Result a total fail with 27%. So I had another chance to...

I wish I'd not had to learn German, French, History and Geography. If I needed to know that stuff I'd have taught myself. What I needed to know is how to grow things and fix stuff. So I went on to do a degree full of stuff that's fairly useless (but not all of it because I have survived here)-...

We've been in France 7 years now and the only things I have done are replacing pop-hole pull cords and fitting clear acrylic sliding vent covers to the North side, instead of plywood, which is the one usually fully closed. The climate here means coops take a real bashing and realistically...

Trying to post a better photo but have to admit this is all pretty complicated, which is why I haven't posted any photos for years. It actually worked! Now you can see some of the chicken coops. The slope of the land is a bit less on the ground than the image appears, presumably something to do...

That's a very pretty location Bigyetiman. Guess if we lived somewhere like that we wouldn't be here. I took a photo this morning as the clouds have cleared- very frosty, but views of the Pyrenees are rare outside of Winter. Difficult to take as we face South and the sun was shining off me and...

The European Whip Snakes have hatched and the little ones, about 9" long, are wandering about. Florence, a free ranging 8 year old TNN, found one and stupidly tried to eat it. I noticed her shaking her head violently and backing away- a closer look and she had its tail in her beak and two coils...

We've been keeping chickens for 11 years now and today saw our first ever case of fly strike. We are very careful to wash bottoms as necessary but this happened just two days after inspection. Ruby, a Buff Orpington (had to be- they are really high maintenance), was brought in last night as she...

Just three weeks on from my previous 'paralysis' post and I found Poppy was missing when the coop was checked last night. She was in the run, collapsed in a corner unable to stand but was fine a few hours earlier. Bought her in and she started to overheating as before so she had 50mg of Asprin...

Sorting through old issues of Practical Poultry (with a view to reducing the volume when we move) I came across 'Fun Facts' in the March 2011 issue. "If a cockerel isn't present in a flock of hens, the dominant hen will sometimes take on the role, stop laying and begin to crow. This is rare...

Had a real shock days ago during the early morning coop cleaning. One of our young Leghorn Bantams (Poppy) was lying 'dead' on the floor. No signs of life at all but not stone cold, so she must have died in the last hour. She was fine the previous evening and was roosting on her usual perch. We...

Thought it worth sharing this experience. We have on occasion had eggs dropped from the hens roosting on the perches at night. There are several reasons for this that we were previously aware of:- Fright- a predator or unusual disturbance. Stress- overcrowding leading to fighting for perch space...

Seems we had our first case of Botulism yesterday afternoon. Ruby, a French Buff Orpington, was fine at 2.00pm but at 3.00pm was struggling to walk. We first suspected an injury and put Arnica gel on a hot knee joint. But after watching her wobbling about and then seeing her fall off a low perch...

When we started breeding Blue Laced Wyandottes we were told to expect 25% of the hatch to be gold laced and 25% to be buff laced, which is exactly what we got. These are the derivative colours of 'blue', which in reality is grey. I was rather puzzled by the terminology, because lacing is the...

The dog started barking at midday, which is usually because the postie has a package that needs signing for. So I went outside to see and was confronted by the sight of a TANK parked in the driveway. A soldier wandered over to me and explained they were on manoeuvres and could they park it in...

Basil is a 5 year old Buff Orpington cock. Built to show standards unfortunately, this means he is as wide as he is long and weighs in at 6Kg. This also means he has very poor tolerance to heat and yesterday it hit 39C in the shade. Having given him extra drinking water and stood his feet in...

We put 12 Wyandotte eggs into the hatcher, which is a Suro20 (without the rocking cradle) wrapped in extra insulation. The temperature was 37.0C and humidity set to 75%. It took over 24 hours to stabilise the humidity, which I think is an inherent problem with the software controlling the pump...

Our Blue Laced Wyandottes are getting old (5 years now) so we decided to let a local breeder have eggs to get a stock of our bloodline and save us breeding because space is limited. Our line is much larger than the breed standard. The breed standard is over 4Kg for a cock, but most lines run...

Now that Spring has arrived we are spending late afternoons in the chicken enclosure watching and listening to them. Our TNN cock Jean-Claude and our Wyandotte cock Zebedee have the clearest outlook to the surroundings. Their alarm calls are universally recognised and send all the hens running...