I'm back - sort of. Poultry and Gardening catch up

I've been absent for a while but hopefully back to regular postings again now.
I had trouble logging on and when I did manage to my page crashed. We then all went down with the first of the winter cold/cough bugs which laid us low, so now we are playing catch up.It's surprising how far you fall behind when for a week or two you are only managing to do the essential chores.There is no such thing as a complete rest when you have livestock and are self employed in a family construction business.

On the poultry front all is well. This year's pullets have sold well and I just have a handful remaining. It's been a good year.

Photo- Bellecross Belle pullet - an olive egg layer
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We are now preparing for the winter months and fully expect to be in lockdown again soon as a preventative measure against Avian Flu.
This year we are better prepared than last year and have covered runs and poly tunnels in place to house the poultry when required to do so.

Photo: one of the poly tunnels from last winter housing the Exchequer Leghorn flock.
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Gardening:
This winter I am re doing one of the perennial flower boarders - the butterfly and bee boarder.
Generally I tend not to do a major winter tidy up in the garden as the birds love the seed heads,the insects benefit from dried stems to hide in and the mammals enjoy the cover of the undergrowth.
However it's been a couple of years since I 'tackled' the butterfly and bee boarder and the plants will benefit from being divided and compost added to the soil.

Photos: the Butterfly and Bee Boarder
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Another job for this winter will be sorting out the wildlife pond. More about that in another post.I'm now off to do more gardening whilst the sun is shining.

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Great pictures! Love the chicken one!

Beautiful garden too! Glad to see you're back on steemit posting. Hope all your technical issues have been resolved.

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Thank you - yes hopefully all's sorted. Now I need to catch up on everyone's posts.Must make the most of this glorious weather first though. Now the clocks have gone back the evenings are longer so plenty of time then.

Oh yeah the time change is coming this weekend. YAY! For an extra hour of sleep!

Welcome back! Beautiful olive Egger. Love the little crest.

Are they expecting bird flu to do the rounds again?

Thank you. The olive eggers are super, such great characters. They are from a Welsummer cockerel Cream Legbar hen mating.
Yes I'm afraid we are fully expecting to have to go into lockdown again this winter.The risk to wild birds has already been raised from low to medium as waterfowl migration has started and Europe has already seen cases and have culled many birds

Oh, I just love Exchequer's. I have a lovely lady - she's VERY flighty - but also very pretty so I let her get away with it. :D Welcome back.

Welcome back, @bellecrosshens! I just returned to steemit as well, we have super similar posts haha. Check mine out here! https://steemit.com/gardening/@brownsgreens/the-brown-s-2017-projects-photo-dump

what a beautiful place! Fauna and Flora!
Happy Day
Melissa