all cooped up

Chicken Coop Progress

       I am moving along on the chicken coop and should be able to show you some pics if I get moving here and get out in time. Anyways I should be able to move the chickens to their new coop today, which should be like a Coop Deville to them as compared to their living arrangements now in the greenhouse, even though the greenhouse is a rather large place . I have the chickens confined to a small area and they are not allowed to roam in the plants.

    They did have full advantage yesterday to observe a possible mouse or chipmunk tear up several flats of seeded plants looking for sunflowers or pumpkin seeds that were planted. This virtually destroyed my plantings and is part of the process I guess I have to endure. Lily the cat did manage to take out a few field mice and is completely natural process of dealing with these pests. She now follows me up there and at times I have seen go on her own to search for anything she can find up there. I would lock her in the greenhouse as she can’t get out and have her deal with the pest tearing up my flats , but don’t really like that idea and doubt she would either, but it is a thought after seeing my flats tore up .

      The chicks no longer have the comfort of their warming light to keep them in the evening. They are pretty good size standing almost a foot tall and are fully feathered so this shouldn’t be a problem as they huddle together for warmth. They need to learn to roost and be without the light in the new chicken coop as I have no intention of allowing them that luxury in their new digs. They will have an area of almost 10 x11 feet and will have ample sunshine and shade provided by trees and an overhead roof. This should allow the building and the chickens to stay comfortable in the warm summer. Also I intend to place an inclined plastic greenhouse plastic roof that will allow morning sun to help warm them, but as the day goes on it will turn to shade from the trees close by. Vents on the side of the plastic roof will assure a good cross ventilation of the coop.

        In the winter the vents will be covered over by metal roofing that can be removed. The plastic roof will allow heat to come into the coop as well as light encouraging the chickens to continue their production up until the time they moat. Hopefully I can have some kind of production throughout the winter months. I will have to do some more winterization of the barn later. But for now this will get them started. A roost and placing wire is all that is needed today to get them moved and buy me some time till I need to work on the nests for egg laying. I am still debating letting them free range. There are 20 million dead chickens so far in this avian bird flu crisis, and still no idea how it is being transmitted behind closed and sometimes locked doors. I sure hope they get a handle on what is going on soon and try to contain it.

renamed the goose brucella . like bruce jenner. i would like to think she or he is a female but at times i wonder, much like bruce jenner does  just exactly what she or he is , so i think brucella is appropriate. anyhow brucella is seen here inspecting my work as she usually does. best help i ever had. always there and never says a bad word. 

     I guess until then it probably best to keep them safe in the new coop isolated from other birds. When they have a better idea if the flu is over then I may let them free range. Besides they need to learn their new coop is their new home and need to return their daily so it is just as well they acclimate to their new home for a while.