Internal Fencing

Dividing the Summer and Winter Pastures..

Catch up :>

Our rules are in place and everyone is in the process of signing the memberships..We have now voted in a Committee and are in the process of finishing off the building work...

The chicken coop leaked after heavy rainfall..So it was decided to paint the roof in black bitumin paint... All is fine now :) 

The foodstore .....Footings were finished off and it has been moved over from an allotment plot (it was a shed) and re-erected in its new place.

Raspberry canes were planted around the fencing...To help deter foxes and let the chooks munch on the bugs.

We contacted a local company who are in the process of arranging a course one Saturday/ Sunday morning for us..They will cover everything that we need to know about having chickens. More details later..

Things still to do..

Finish off the fencing.

Cement the coop area.

Build the internal gates.

Build the Isolation Coop.

Make the perches and internal shutter system for the chicken coop.

Lots to do...But we'll get it done ;)

Chooktopia project

Last But Not Least :>

To finish off our *Thank you's* we would like to add the important people who helped us at the very begining..They were members who stood looking at a weedy overgrown plot complete with junk and bits of broken glass...

Some of them stood in the rain on our very first carboot...holding an umbrella trying to shield our carboot stuff from ongoing torrents....Some spent time puting visions onto paper for us all to see and appreciate....Some sat during our *Fundraising Meetings* full of ideas...Some spent time helping us to get our funding....Some spent hours with the *ongoing job* of painting fence panels and digging fence pole holes....All of them contributed towards raising the funds we needed and getting us this far...

** Thank you

to all the past members and their spouses of the Chook Club **

All future posts will be technical to do justice to Jiliangs wonderful photo's and the teams wonderful building abilities ...

*Look out for our delivery from Buildbase*

Chooktopia project

Blessings Overflowing...

So many people to thank - This space isn't big enough.......So please except my apologies for now and look out for later posts !...

Not only do we have many wonderful members who are camera shy (except one!).* I hope that will change as they all deserve the credit in getting this far!*.....But also very supportive spouses...Each one contributing to the fundraising/building work in their own unique way....Sorting out things for our carboots and releasing their loved ones to spend hours on a weekend on our chook site.....I promise that they haven't been down the pub *GRIN*!!!..The proof is now in the pics ;)

HMMMMM .....Maybe Jiliang can talk them ( our wonderful spouses) into having their pics taken so that we can thank them properly on a later post!.....But in the meantime.... I would like to say a special word of "thanks" to.....

Wei an active member of the "Fundraising Team" with two carboots under her belt....She also feeds us when we are busy working and building....Her yummy courgette pancakes and runner bean dumplings have become a food legend on our allotments...

Trevor Sheldrick , a local Town Councillor who has actively supported us from the onset - as well as being a very welcome pair of hands on the "Building Team".

I know everyone won't mind me adding my lovely hubbie..Tony.. I know that he is loving this project as he adores building things...But I just wanted to say a BIG "Thank you" to him for believing in the "chook club" from the first tiny spark of what seemed like a crazy idea.

More *Thank you's* BUT this time official ones....Recently, we have received notification from our local Town Council that we have been granted £130 from the "Power Of Well Being" Grant....So on behalf of our chicken co-operative :>

** Thank you to everyone (especially all our local Councillors) at our wonderful Town Council - Special thanks to Trevor, Carol, Elaine and Phillip... **

 

And a Big *Squeezy Hug* of thanks to our wonderful spouses for their on-going support  X

Fence up

Fund raising

Newly finished shed base and the builder

Fundraising :>

So far we have donated our money, time (and lots of it!), bits and pieces for the car boots which entailed standing in the pouring rain!, timber, cement, wiring, tools etc to get to the point that we have ..Thanks Jiliang for the brilliant pics!

In the meantime....

A few months ago during our Allotment and Leisure Gardens Open Day a local County Councillor, Mr. David Grutchfield was looking around and popped over to see what we were building.

Taking notes and giving our Co-operative lots of supportive comments he promised to be in touch with us....E-mails, information (quotes, rules etc ) and a phone call later we were contacted by a lovely lady, Ann the Locality Budget Officer at Suffolk County Council for further information.

Last Saturday, Mr. Grutchfield (David) popped over for a "catch up" to see how we were doing. He spoke about other projects that he supports within our local community and gladly agreed to open our "Chooktopia" when it is finished.


Today we hold a cheque which has been kindly donated from County Councillor David Grutchfields Locality Budget. So on behalf of our "Chook Club"  we would like to say..



**Thank you David, Ann and everyone at Suffolk County Council who have helped us towards our goal of collectively keeping chickens in a large, safe and happy enclosure on our allotment **

The man behind ...

Litters

The starting point - the plot

The progress

WAHOO...We are up and running :)

Just a few lines to say "hello" and welcome to our page..

The vision for “Chooktopia” lit up like a lightbulb in my mind when two people on our allotment asked me to join them in keeping chickens. Firstly, I didn’t know who to say “yes” to and secondly there was also the problem of space on my allotment. Then, I realised that by opening up the chance to have chickens to everyone it would fulfil their dream as well and share the responsibility. With many members the rota could be changed and swapped to cover illness, holidays or any problems that might pop up.

Our nine members are all ages and from all walks of life. Some, like me *GRIN* have never picked up a chicken and others are reliving childhood memories. Despite having an allotment some members of the “Chook Club” have never met before. New friends are being made, camaraderie and laughter is in abundance.

We are an allotment Chicken Co-operative to enable all ages to meet, reminisce, enjoy the shared responsibility of chickens and to fulfill what would have been an otherwise impossible dream. So we have the idea and rules in place...Our local Town Council have kindly supported us all the way and allocated us some land......Now we need to raise the money to fund our building plans......


Jiliang will be working his magic gift of taking and down loading photo's to keep you all updated how our clearing/fencing/building work is coming along....


Trevor has volunteered to write all of our posts ....He'll be here in two weeks (when he comes back from his holls).... :)


Speak to you soon ...Sue :>