The hens in their winter quarters

Well another cold and snowy day. The girls are shown in their winter run which incorporates next springs raised beds. They will manure and dig over the beds before being moved over to the winter beds for a few months.

This rotational pattern rests the ground on a regular basis and also fertilises the raised beds for the following season. The hens seem to love it and they live really well on it too. Fresh grass, leftover vegetables, plenty of roots, bugs and slugs to pick up too ! This and their organic layers pellets and even in sub zero temperatures I still get 4 eggs a day ( 6 this morning ).

They will be on the move in a couple of weeks when I have had the last of the sprouts, leeks and curly kale out of the ground. I will then dig over the raised beds they have been living on and top them up with the soil out of last seasons grow bags. The next step is to warm up the raised beds by covering them over with frames that I made out of wood and thick translucent plastic sheeting. This enables me to get at least 2 weeks head start with my transplanted vegetable plants and I often leave the frames in place for a few weeks after to protect the young plants from frost. You can see more photographs of this process on my website and online photograph album www.m6jdb.co.uk .