Hen House Makes A Break For Freedom.....Again

I was out at portraiture class all morning and as it was so cold and windy up here I hadn't let the chooks out before I left. Came home and had lunch and decided I'd give them a quick run about before I fed them. Well imagine my surprise when I went outside and heard them by the back gate! When I went out into the paddock the front of the hen shed had lifted one foot up and they were going in and out underneath. As there is a bar running along the bottom in the doorway this meant I couldn't get inside to see what was wrong and although I pulled and shoved nothing would move. I came inside and rang Jeff down the road (he of the wayward cow incident) but his wife said she didn't know where he was but she'd ring the main office at Smedley and ask them to contact him on his walkie talkie. I went back outside again but when I came in there was a message saying there was no answer from Smedley but she'd continue ringing.

Two hours later I had a brainwave (I'd eaten a chocolate biscuit so I think this was what caused it) and went out, propped a concrete block by the door to keep it open and lowered a camping chair inside the shed. I transferred into this and wriggled it along the dirt until I was in the corner and could see a piece of metal had ripped and was holding the shed up on top of the warratah (metal stake) the shed had been wired to. I levered a spade inbetween this and the whole shed fell back to the ground. I wired the warratah back in and was able to come inside and ring Jeff's wife to tell her I'd fixed the problem.

An hour later I heard banging from the back of the hedge. When I went out Jeff was there repairing the shed and knocking more warratahs into the ground at either side and attaching thick wire to these from the roof to hold it down. He said it had been a something or other of a week for wind and it was going to get worse. He went back to the farm for something and when I came out later he'd finished the shed and gone home.

Just as well those chickens have nerves of steel considering how many times that shed has attempted to escape. They even kept their cool while the wind jet propelled them around the paddock and managed to lay a couple of eggs in the process.