Pirates, arrrrr! Oh, and my homemade chicken feeder.

We had pirates in the backyard yesterday

They had a treasure map and all

They came wielding light sabers

They didn't always agree with each other

Or with me....

They kept a look out

And spotted something for dinner

(Hmm, photographing a black chook and a white one in the same photo gives my camera conniptions)

But the dinner was eating her dinner

And do you like my home made chicken feeder? 

I saw this on the web somewhere and thought I'd give it a go, I wanted some way to stop the chooks from flicking their pallets everywhere as they don't seem inclined to ever clean up the stuff they've flicked around and I think it was starting to attract rats. And pigeons.

I took a large yoghurt container (free brand advertising there, I never bother to remove labels), cut four holes around the bottom (you can see one of them in the picture), hot glued the container on to a largish, deepish dish (I used a thingy that is meant to go under a plant pot, bought it from a large hardware store), filled up the container, put the lid on and there you have it.

I also put any other (small) kitchen scraps I give them in the dish too. The chooks free range our small backyard and really only go in their coop at night, so now I pick up the whole dish and put it in there with them when they go to bed. Their coop is rat proof, so we've seen no more evidence of any critters in the backyard since I've started doing that. 

It's deep enough they don't flick food every where and they have yet to tip it over.

And, they are all now confidently using the ramp!

 Dangermouse (that's the black silkie) eventually figured it out and now trips up and down there several times a day, easy as you please.

The wyandottes are being less annoying too, so they have a reprieve for now, though I really would like a small flock of silkies, they're such silly fluffies.

A happy and safe Easter to all!