The new henhouse from Butcher Building – just the ticket.Well, after living in our house for 22 years we have moved and what a task it has been. One has no idea how much stuff one accumulates over the years until it has to be shifted or thrown out.
Unfortunately, in this day and age we live in a throw-away society so many of our treasured items such as DVD, videos and even some old tapes just had to be dumped.
I was able to dispose of many of our multitude of books but with some conditions.
Most second hand bookshops wanted good paperbacks but there is no market for autobiographies, reference books, encyclopaedias or do it yourself books.
In fact, it took one large and one small skip to dump all our unwanted items.
However, we were able to sell our remaining nine sheep to the people who purchased our property and we had sold the steers prior to that. Our broodmare Willowbrook is currently residing at Alabar stud and we are hoping our yearling sells at the sales.
I had decided to give our six hens to the new property owners but in the end I couldn’t part with them as they are really quite special. As chicks, three of them were given to us as Christmas presents in 2015 so I just couldn’t leave them behind.
However, we had a small problem – no hen house at the new property!
Fortunately, a week or so prior, we had been visiting Pam and Lindsay Turner and saw their new henhouse which looked to be just what we wanted. It had be built by Paul Butcher from Butcher Building in Pukekohe.
A quick visit to Paul and, despite being busy, his team came to the party and had it built and delivered within three or four days – great service, as is so often the case among Pukekohe people.
Some months ago I wrote in my column about my broodmare Willowbrook chewing the rails on the gates and posts in her paddocks. As mentioned, I had a lot of helpful replies from readers and one in particular suggested I try salt licks, I think that helped the problem but, unfortunately, it didn’t solve it. Willow kept trying it but still had a good chew.
Following that article I had a call from a nice young lady named, Stacey Hart who is studying animal psychology and was very interested in Willow’s antics. She was keen to use this as a case study. Stacey has now visited Alabar Stud to study Willowbrook and has also visited us to examine the mess made of our rails and gates.
Because of the move, I haven’t had a chance to catch up with Stacey but hopefully will have some results for next month.
Go the Chiefs!
Brian Neben publishes Rural Living and is also an avid lifestyle farmer