Yesterday was chicken moving day. We started after church by moving the chickens into the backyard so that we could demo their run and load up the chicken coop. The chickens mostly thought this was a great deal – the backyard has lots of tasty bugs and grass to eat and plenty of space to explore. The brush pile in the corner was a particular favorite!
Barred Rocks exploring the fallen leaves
While they were entertained, we emptied out the bedding in the coop, took out the feeder and waterers, and took down the run. It took about 3 hours to get it to the point we could actually move the chicken coop. One of the steps in this process was removing 2 of the cedar fence poles around the run. These are 10 foot cedar poles that are about 3 feet in the ground, so it took a lot of digging and then a LOT of pulling to get them out of the ground. I’m incredibly glad that Jeremy is part ox and can lift things that I can’t even contemplate!
Once the coop was free, we tipped it over to add some supports underneath. This being our first adventure in coop building, we had neglected to install enough floor supports and the floor had started to sag a little bit. Once those were in, we were ready to load up. Luckily, my brother arrived right as we were getting ready to lift the coop onto the trailer.
After some maneuvering, thinking and serious heavy lifting, the coop was on the trailer. The kids and I caught the chickens and put them in their temporary carriers (2 large dog kennels). 2 of the chickens are staying with us because they have been hen pecked pretty badly. They need to heal up before rejoining their friends. We may even send them to a different home – more about that a different time. Good thing we have a chicken tractor for them!
Coop resting on trailer ramp
Success! Jacob has found his calling as a supervisor. ;-)
We loaded up all the various chicken stuff – food, scratch, grit, chicken wire for the new run and other miscellany – and headed for Baldwin. We also brought the ice cream freezer and homemade ice cream mix and the remaining birthday cake from Catherine’s party this weekend. The idea was to mix it up and have a celebration dessert after we finished getting the chickens settled in their new home.
The chicken’s new run at my brother’s house is constructed of arched cattle panels – it closely resembles one of our tomato tunnels for those of you who are familiar with our garden. The coop sits at one end with only one door opening onto the run. The end of the run is hinged to make a gate and the back of the coop is easily accessible. When we had it all finished, Scott tossed some old hay (read: free bugs) into the run and we set the chickens loose to acquaint themselves with their new home. All the kids in the house were fascinated. I don’t know what it is about chickens, but kids just love them.
Kids surrounding the chickens
While building the run, we decided to have an impromptu BBQ to go with the dessert so I made a run to the grocery store for brats, dogs, beans and chips. A little bit of grilling and some hand cranking of ice cream later, we had dinner! The kids even did most of the ice cream cranking – a welcome first for us. Daisy enjoyed getting to see something new too, although she didn’t seem to understand that barking at the 150 lb dogs behind the fence was perhaps not the smartest plan. Fortunately, it’s a strong fence.
The kids and Daisy cranking ice cream
So, now that corner of our yard is much closer to being grass. We still have to dig out the dirt in the old run down to the level of the rest of the yard and remove the remaining cedar posts. Hopefully that will happen this week. A little bit of leveling later, and we’ll be ready to seed most of the side yard leaving just the area under the maple tree and the garlic and shallot beds to finish up. The end is in sight!
No more chickens... :-(
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