Chickens on the run

Well, you've never seen anything funnier than 5 chickens chasing one lucky chick around the pen with a worm. The chick being chased is of course frantically squawking and the rest are racing around trying to steal the tasty treat. The only other treats that cause this much excitement so far have been zucchini and cucumber. Everyday is more fun than the one before. Some one asked me how much time it takes to care for chickens every day. Well the answer is not much except I can never seem to leave them once I get out there because they are so entertaining. They know us since we have been hand feeding them for 9 weeks and they gather around as soon as we go out. This evening we were out doing some more work on the coop & run and each one of the chicks was trying to help in her own way. Some were picking up the screws out of the box, one was trying to grab the wrench and the others were up on the step trying to help Glen. What a fun time we all had.

The Yardbirds

The girls are out!!!! Saturday we got the run put together. We bought a dog pen from Bowens and one extra 6x6 panel at Home Depot. It all went together easily, the most time consuming part was the roof. We made that out of the ripple plastic roofing material that comes in 2' x 8' pieces. Only thing left to do is put up some screen on the one walk gate and up near the coop. Until then they can only be out when we are around to keep an eye on KitKat. Unlike two weeks ago, they love being able to go out and run around in the pen. I hope next weekend to get them out to free range. This weekend was a chance to catch their own worms & bugs and play. We found a four foot long log in the woods and put it in the run area. They play on it (Queen of the mountain?) and peck at it for bugs. Last night when I went to close up the coop, they were all in the coop piled in a heap on top of the dog crate that used to be their home. I don't know what they will do when we take it out. Here are some pics of chickens the first day in the run. The first pic is of a very hesitant girl making her way down the walkway for the first time. Glen has named the flock "The Yardbirds" Next I suppose we will be making a sign to put up.

More pics of the chicken coop build

We were able to use the backwall of the barn to build on to. All walls are insulated since they will need the warmth in the winter. We bought new windows and the kids kid us about installing Pella windows in the chicken coop. Well, they were the size we needed and they are double paned with screens. We will also put wire mesh over the screens to deter any determined predators. The chicks were move in on Sunday night and they really like it. I guess it is similar to their crate they have been in for 7 weeks and they are very happy now.

Building the Coop

We did a quick build and got the major work on the coop done in two days. We were lucky that the weather cooperated and we had some help form Ncole, Stephen, Nathan and Jonathan. We put the chickens in the temp pen on Saturday but it was still too much for them to take in at one time. Sunday we decided to leave them in our house with the door open and the crate uncovered so they could get a little used to the great outdoors. We were able to finish in time to move them by Sunday night around 7:30. Everything went pretty smoothly except we had a few measuring problems but it all worked out fine.

6 Weeks and More

We have quickly gone from babies one day old to 6 weeks. The girls are ready to make the move out to the coop but we've been busy and have had to postpone the move for another week. Until then, we let them out in the room to run around and stretch their wings. As we move into week seven, we made a makeshift pen outside and took the chicks out for some air and fun in the grass. To our surprise they were a bit overwhelmed at all that was going on such a s the outdoor birds, dogs barking, horses sneezing! Hopefully our next adventure out will be less scary........