Pigeon exploring the new digs
The coop is finished!!! Isn't that exciting?! It was officially opened for chicken business yesterday. We found Loudmouth and Pigeon already exploring it during the day. The husband moved their enclosure over and attached it to the front of the new coop. Last night, after they had gone to sleep in their old coop, he carried them into the new one. This morning, we let them into their enclosure and fed them.
Unfortunately within about an hour they had all flown out and were doing their usual thing. They spent all day outside of the enclosure, with the door open so they could come back in for water and shelter if needed. Of course tonight they all chose to go back into the old coop which is clear across the yard. So we're going to carry them back over and this time replace the netting over the top of the enclosure to prevent them from flying out. (Clipping wings makes me super nervous. I don't want to accidentally take off too much and hurt them. I imagine it's like how you have to be careful clipping a dog's nails.)
Here are pics of the new coop and the ladies in their enclosure...before they all said, "Fuck this!" and broke free.
We found an egg in one of the nest boxes this morning as well! Eggciting!
Nest boxes
The roost is made of a piece of deck railing we discarded while building the house. I knew it would come in handy some day! Premade roost!
Once the ladies are all settled and are using the new coop with ease, we will let them free range again. By that time the older, smaller coop will be out of their sight and have new residents: Bantams. Our youngest daughter will have her own little flock of Bantam chickens to raise and show.
Eventually, we will fence off a good portion of the area around the new coop for the chickens to have as their own. We are also planning on adding some meat chickens to our flock as we have began butchering our own and feel okay with it.
So that's what we've been up to! I'm actually going to go help the husband carry the chickens back to the new coop since they decided they were still going to sleep in the old one. That's why we have to replace the netting.
Thanks for stopping by!!!
