Chicken Adventures

It's been quiet an evening! I have finally finished the new chicken coop couple of days ago. OK, it still needs a proper roof, but at least it has plywood all set there and everything else is done. OK, well, still need to paint the trim, and attach it. But it IS functional and ready for our chicks. Or pullets? They are 6 weeks now. So, Sunday afternoon, after finishing up, I set up our fancy electric fence for them and transported all of them into the coop. They seemed a bit traumatized by the transport, but not too bad. Since it was still daytime, and it looked like they could not wait to get out of their previous acomodations, I kind of expected that they will hop out of the coop and start exploring the outdoors right away. Nope! They just huddled in the coop. Later on they started exploring the coop, but still would not come out. Oh well.

Today, Monday, was a beautiful day! Sunny, warm, felt like summer. The chicks continued to stay in the coop! Their food and water is there, but I thought their curiousity will take over and they'll check out outside. Well, later in the afternoon, I decided to try to entice them with food. I started sprinkling some over their fence and calling them. They were rather curious, and one even hopped out onto their ramp. After looking at me for a bit, and I ran out of food, it went back in without actually coming down the ramp. I give up! They'll come out when they are ready.

Well, as it was getting later and the sun was coming down, I went out to close their little hatch door. As I approach the coop, I see a bunch of them outside, huddled by their ramp. Aw, so cute, they are finally out!, I think. And, how am I going to get them back in now? And then, as I get closer, I realize that one of them is actually stuck in the fence! And a bunch of them are just hopping through the fence openings! Oh boy! I run back to the house to get my husband, as there is no way I can herd the chicks back in by myself! There are 12 of them after all.

While my husband was coming over, I get back to the coop and start to catch the chicks closer to me. I got four and stuck them back in a coop. As my husband is ready to help me, one of the chicks I already caught, comes out through their little hatch door. Apparently, now they really know how to use it! OK, close the hatch door and we need to catch 9 chicks. My husband herded few that were outside the fence and they just went through our human door, no problem. Except for one chick that decided to get away and get into the thicket nearby. Great!

I decide it's time to get the chick that is stuck in the fence. I get stung, not too bad, and I got the chick. We turned the fence off after that. I don't know why we didn't do it right away, it's not like it was stopping them anyway. Then the chicks that were still inside the fence, huddled by the ramp, were next. I don't think they knew how to get back up the ramp! So, I removed one of the fence posts and my husband herded them towards me and up through the human door they went, back into the coop.

Now it was just the one chick in the thicket left. My husband had to go find it with a flashlight and then a stick, as, of course, it just went deeper into the thicket and he could not get to it without a stick. But once it was out of there, it pretty much just went to the coop. I closed the door, and we were done!

It was so much easier closer the big chickens in after that one! They were already in their little coop, tucking in for the night.