Moving the Chicks

Monday of Holy Week, that is, March 25th, we decided to move the chicks. There were several reasons for this decision. One is that we are getting new chicks in about three weeks, and want to have the brooder cleaned out and ready for them. Another reason is that we wanted to get the manure and wood chips in the garden as part of the lasagna beds now so it has time to cook a little before seeding in early June (although this year, the soil temps are rising so quickly we may be able to seed much earlier than that.

The problem is that the two chicken houses we built last year are separated only by a 4 foot fence, which the mature chickens can fly over at will, especially the leghorns. Uncle Adam topped this with another 4 feet of deer netting, but with the wind and ice in January it has sagged pretty dramatically and the leghorns can still fly over it at will. So we had to raise the fence between the two chicken yards so that the two flocks won’t interact directly for a while. The hope is that they will get used to each other from opposite sides of the fence to minimize friction when we do merge the flocks.

The third and final reason we did this on Monday was because our friend Mr. Nicholas (also known as Big Nicholas to distinguish him from the Little Nicholas, who is 6 years old) volunteered to come over and help. He is at least 6′ 4″ and pretty handy for anything that needs to happen higher than 7 feet off the ground.

There he is, wire tying at the top of the 8 foot fence like it’s nothing (Ryan’s selfie skills are on strong display in this picture).

Winne very much objects to being locked out of the chicken yard, and is small enough to squeeze in through the gate if it is not chained tightly enough. But we don’t want her in here because this was a pig pen last year.

So she can go in the brooder and play with the pullets.

Meanwhile, the bigger people moved hay for bedding, and the feeder and waterer into the chicken house to prepare for…

Moving the chicks! (Pullets, really.)

And there they are in their new home.

Last year the pigs were living in here so it does not have a door or nesting boxes yet. We will work on getting those put on over the next few months, although we either need to get a door or a higher fence on sooner rather than later so no local predators figure out that there is a snack pack on the other side of a mere four foot fence, which is no longer protected with electricity because we had to move that out of the way of another project.

The rain is passing, and the sun is breaking through in the west. To the east, a rainbow.