We had an enormous tidy-out at the weekend. Five hours spent sorting stuff in our shared home office, mainly, and the results were well worth it. The desks from which we tap out our freelance and write Blagger are now clear and clutter-free, and there’s plenty of space on top of them both to put down a cup of tea without standing it on top of some bills.

The main beneficiaries, though, have been the chickens. The most obvious visible residue from our tidy-up is five carrier bags full of shredded paper, which it turns out a perfect chicken bedding material. We stacked up the nesting box with about a third of a bag-full on Sunday afternoon and wondered first whether the chickens would ever be able to get in through the pop hole, and second whether we’d be able to find their eggs among it all.

The answer on both counts turned out to be ‘yes’.

The chooks have been revelling in their new bedding, which is probably lovely and warm right now (this morning was the first for a fortnight that we’ve not had a frost and I’ve not had to melt the ice in their water with the kettle before letting them out). One or all of them has pulled some of it into the roosting area, and this morning Barbara dragged some out with her into the run.

Best of all, though, they’ve flattened down one end entirely – the end they always seem to use for laying – and use that as the space to deposit their eggs.

It feels good to be recycling not only their waste into the vegetable plot, but also our waste into their bedroom.

Related posts:

1. The new chickens are settling in
2. The chickens' progress
3. The chickens dig for victory