A busy weekend

I don't know where I got this spurt of energy, particularly having a series of broken nights, but this weekend was incredibly productive.  I fenced off a new enclosure for the little girls as they had eaten every bit of green in their 10x8m run.  We free range them in the afternoon but they had started wandering far afield (like onto the road), so we felt a second paddock would be the go for them.

I got 1.8 metre chicken fencing as these girls can jump, despite wing clipping.  So to make sure there aren't any unhappy meetings with our dogs when we're not expecting it, we went with the high fencing.  So I opened the gate to their new enclosure and was expecting to be swamped.  The girls normally come screaming over to the other gate when its time for their afternoon free range, but this time, no-one came near the new gate.  Typical.  In the end, I had to pick a few up and put them in there, and even then the others wouldn't follow.  And it wasn't until we put a ramp up that they felt comfortable.  The next day they were all over it though.  I took this picture after three days of grazing and digging and its amazing what 20 little girls will do.

Next, we wanted to stop the girls getting on the road when they free range, that and devastating the citrus swale, so we decided to fence them off on the other side of the dam as well.  They have a massive area to stroll around in the afternoon but I'll be interested to see how it changes with time.  At least we won't have to mow there.

When I let them out after finishing the fence, about four of them bolted for the swale only to encounter the fence.  They were horrified and spent the new hour looking for a way around.  The vulnerable point is where it drops into the dam, but as I'd hoped, they didn't seem interested in getting their feet wet.  Later I spotted this girl though.  Fortunately, she was headed back the other way!

I got two other jobs done, but I'll show you those in the next post....