Chickens on Parade!

After approximately eight hours over two weekends of work, the chickens have a temporary house and can finally be moved, albeit not for as long as we hoped, to their "summer cottage".









My husband had purchased this coop as a surprise for me last year and after a year in the garage, we finally put it together.. and not a moment too soon. The girls have made it quite clear that they feel that they are a little cramped in their current accommodations and would really like something a bit more roomy. I've got a few shelves from my store bought "greenhouse" covering their current home and this is a gridded shelving so needless to say, I have chicken heads peeking through the grid to look around.


Think "Whack-a-Mole"...                                        

                  It's quite humorous....

Anyway, we set this up in between two of my rows of tomatoes. As soon as I moved this chicken tractor, the quality was apparent.. as in, lack of. The frame began to separate and I had to pound the frame back in place. We bought this as a kit off of Amazon and I'm not a fan. Worse purchase I think we've made in a long time, but we had no clue, the reviews were good...

From this at 2 days old.....

To this in six weeks time! Chickens grow fast.


 

A "chicken tractor" for those not familiar with the concept, is essentially a movable coop that you can place anywhere you want. This is perfect for fertilizing various places like my raspberries, the fruit trees and the vegetable garden. I was shocked and how, in a few hours time, the girls really weeded and tore up all the small weeds that had bounded up with the rains we had. I have built in gardeners!

"I don't know Chica, do you think it's safe?"

 

After we got the coop brought up, my son and I clipped one wing from each chicken so that they cannot fly away. Yes, chickens can fly but not very far, more like a hop/fly type of thing. We got them into the coop and it was about half an hour or so before anyone was brave enough to poke their heads outside of the coop.

Why am I so captivated with these silly girls? They are so totally silly.

Then, as though someone had pushed her, one of my intrepid girls flew out of the hutch with a great amount of indignity and walked around muttering to herself. Then she hotfooted it back into the hutch. Soon, all the girls gingerly started making their way down into the yard of their new home each one making darn sure they could race into their home at a moments notice.

The first night I just didn't have the energy to move the hutch over the doubled up chicken wire I brought out so they spent the night back in their home.


Needless to say, I had some very tired but satisfied chicks.







They weren't happy about coming back inside though.





The next day we put the girls back outside and by the afternoon and it was clear from the beginning, the girls were very comfortable in the yard. They stretched out on their sides with their claws leisurely stretched out in all their chicken glory.

They even dug little divets in the dirt to lay in.

Enjoying life in the "yard"...

I think they like their new home.

Unfortunately, I tried to move their home to the doubled up chicken wire I laid on the ground so no one could dig up underneath the hutch and kill them and as soon as I did, it started separating again!

They are very used to me taking pictures of them by now.
 

Never buy a coop online, just not worth it. At least this one wasn't!














So the girls spent another night inside.












::Sigh:: Back to work on the hutch.....