Thursday, June 26, 2008

There are Chickens in the Coop

Hal and I put them in today, the guineas and the barred rocks. He came home early today and fixed the doors which had swollen a bit with the humidity. I finished priming the outer surfaces. Then I got to clean their old brooder in the garage and move the Muscovy ducks into it. They have remained skittish and easily panicked since I brought them home 3-4 weeks ago. The escaped the crate and tried to dive between the straw bales. We managed to finally corner them and plop them into the brooder.

Hal also brought a large humane trap from his dad's farm to try and catch whatever is killing my ducklings. They've been spending the last few nights in the garage again because the WBKs keep chasing them back into the garage every time I let them out. They haven't been able to swim in the pond for over 24 hours because of the big white Pekin male.

Tomorrow we will start digging post holes for the fence outside the coop. We've got 65 feet of used chain link fence and a lot of aviary netting to go over the top. I know this set up isn't predator proof for night time, but the intention is only using the run during daylight when I am grocery shopping or kayaking. It will be for keeping stray dogs and haws and eagles out. At night everyone gets put back in their tightly made coop. Hopefully, the guineas will agree to this arrangement as well, but I have heard they are notoriously stubborn. Three more weeks and the meat chickens will go to the Amish for processing and then my next batch of chickens will be arriving. This is turning into a very busy summer.

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