Several have asked about the current setup of the chicken coop (box/crate) and the wire run so I took some pictures tonight and will try to explain. About dusk, the chickens go into the wooden crate by themselves. Then we go out and put the solid wood top on and they’re all set til daylight.
This is the wooden box with a little ‘connector hallway’ between it and the wire run.
There are pieces of wood that slip down into these slots. Then we have a board that goes over the whole thing so predators can’t get to them. We can close the chickens up in the box, which we do at night. We can block the chickens in the wire run, which I do when I want to clean out the coop because this young lady is constantly looking for a way out!
See that little tiny crack where I’ve opened the lid to get the camera down in there? She’s watching it . . deciding when’s the best time to make her move to escape!
This quarter inch wire is a lid that stays on the box. It has a screen door type hook and we open it to put in fresh food and water. Then we have a wood top that goes over this at night. The wood top has slats with less than quarter inch spaces between them so they can get a bit of air circulation. It isn’t airtight but it is secure. Last night it was so hot, we didn’t put the wood top on and that’s when we had the huge storm that soaked them all.
These Gold Stars are so friendly! I love them! They had to come in to see what I was doing.
This one lets me rub her underneath her chin. Do chickens have chins?
Look who’s perched behind the water container, thinking she’s hiding from the world. Miss Congeniality . . the little gray one!
This one . . I’m going to change her name to Smoky because I do believe she’s going to end up in the smoker (or a pot of gumbo) if she doesn’t have a serious attitude change soon. I thought Vince was going to do something with her the other night but . . she’s still here. Not sure we’ll be able to say that after this weekend if she continues being mean to the other chickens.
I’ll explain the setup with the purple coop once we get it into use but . . be sure you have internet access when you move into the retirement home . . as I don’t expect anything to happen quickly around here! 🙂
We really are having fun with them but it doesn’t take much to entertain us.
Pat says
I enjoyed the “tour”. (Please don’t tell me if Smoky ends up on the dinner table, though…okay???)
Angie says
Smoky is just the Boss. Chickens have a “pecking order”! If you get rid of her, Miss Congeniality, or one of the others will become the “bossy” one.
Sandy says
It is fun to see how much your chickens have grown. I don’t know too much about chickens and am wondering when they start laying eggs? And do they lay one egg a day? You will have fresh eggs for all your baking and meals. Vince did a nice job on the new coop and the moveable run for them.
Pat Wys says
OH MY THE DREADED SMOKER!
You are going to have to get videos of the egg production. How many eggs do chickens lay in a give period of time. My chickens lay they by the dozen in nice little containers.
Pat
Evelyn says
We went to the zoo last week and they had Silky chickens – the colors were sooo funny, light blue, light green, light yellow – they looked like dyed Easter eggs! It looks like you have more than 1 kind of chicken? Who knows – maybe you will add Silky chickens some day! Cheers!