chickens!

We FINALLY finished our chicken "hoop" house!! We've been noodling over several different chicken "tractor" ideas over the last several weeks, knowing that our 32 fluff balls were going to mature into sleek chickens who would need more space than the 4X8 brooder house. The "tractor" idea is that you can put the chickens in a mobile pen that can be moved around on your pasture and the chickens can always have fresh greens, while being contained and protected.

Two weeks into the chicken project, it became obvious that three of the chickens were not like the others. They were white and they were twice the size of the rest of the flock. Some of you will realize that somehow we had recieved three fryers (chickens that are raised for meat) along with our 30 laying chickens. And it became apparent that they could not have food in front of them 24 hours a day, the gluttons. So we set up a dog crate for them under the stairs, complete with a heat lamp. So every night, we transfered three white chickens into the cabin and every morning we transfered three white chickens back out to the brooder house. And contemplated the irony that the three most tame birds would be eaten in 6 weeks.....

They eventually graduated to a bigger crate on the front porch and we eventually just left them in the crate as it became apparent that they lived to eat and sit. They really didn't care if they were with all the others or not. We tried putting them out in a temporary pen with grass and sun and a good life, but no dice, they sat in a corner and ate the food out of their dish.

We also tried to put out the laying hens in the tempory pen, but Jetta, Mom's black cat decided they'd make a tasty treat and actually got two paws on one of them! Thankfully Mom was right there and there was no harm done, but obviously the chickens needed protection from the home grown animals as well as the local wildlife.

Sooo......after much noodling, Mom decided to ask a neighbor (down the road, around the corner) if he was using his metal hoop shed anymore, as the tarps had all ripped off and it pretty much looked abandoned. After thinking about it for a day or so he decided if we cleaned all the excess hay, wood, tarps etc... up we could have the hoop frame. So last Friday Brent and Mom spent the day taking it down and cleaning up after it. Brent also got it back together on Friday. So we spent Saturday solidifying it with boards and adding chicken wire to it. Brent worked on it until 11:30pm as he was leaving the next morning and we really, really needed to move the babies.

Brent left it at the point where the boys and I could finish putting on the chicken wire and put on the tarps. So on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we worked on that. We still didn't manage to get it all done as we didn't work on it steadily, just here and there. So when Brent got home from NY he finished the last three tarps, as we'd gotten the chicken wire done and one tarp on and put the whole thing where we wanted it.

So Thursday after work Brent did the tarps and Friday he put up the electric net fence to keep out predators, including Jetta and we moved the babies in!!

They are very happy now.