Week 5; Day 6 -- ESCAPE!

Mama finally decided to roost for awhile.

We finally had an escape attempt! Very short-lived, but an attempt nonetheless. One of the ISA Browns was roosting on the top of the hutch, and decided to make a break for it. She fluttered about 8 feet away before landing. One of the cats was right next to her; thankfully, one of the kids was also nearby, and grabbed her before the cat could do more than sniff.

The ISA Browns, exploring the world around the hutch.

We've also run across a slightly messy problem. When the girls roost on the top of the hutch, they sometimes sit with their heads pointed towards the hutch.... which means when they've gotta go, they go.... right on the carpet. Luckily, most of the time, they seem more interested in watching what's going on outside the hutch than in it, so it could be worse. I just have to keep a close eye on them when they're up there, so we can take care of any messes immediately. I would just put newspaper down around the hutch, but the other animals would just pull it up and play with it, thereby spreading any mess.

I've come up with a temporary change of plans for their coop. I'm a bit nervous about cutting into the wall of the garage without any real contingency plan for mistakes. Low budget means no room for error, therefore, I was thrilled when I got another inspiration. We have an old doghouse out in the yard that the dogs don't even use. The roof and floor are a little worse for wear, so yesterday I ripped the roof off so that I could spray it out and get it cleaned up. The next sunny day (supposed to be tomorrow), I'm going to replace the floor and the roof with some good plywood. We bought a roll of chicken wire, which we're going to use to enclose a section of the yard around the doghouse. I'm planning to raise and hinge the roof, give it more of a slant, build a community nesting box to attach to the wall, and replace the floor. I'm also going to made a hinged door to close off the entrance; we'll be able to leave it open during the day, and close it off at night to keep them safe. This should be more than adequate for all six chickens for a few weeks, and the three pullets until next spring, when we'll have a bit more leeway in the budget to do the garage idea.

I'm really hoping to get that project underway tomorrow, so that we can get them out of the house more often. They're old enough now, and have all their feathers, so we can start getting them accustomed to the outdoors, and soon they'll be able to stay outside for good.

Yesterday, I bought a copy of "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens", which is supposed to be one of the best sources of information out there. So far, I'm impressed. I was a little leery about spending $20 for a book (if you know me at all, you know I'm a tightwad!), but from the little bits that I've read so far, I think it's going to be well worth it. It gives all kinds of information, from specifics about different breeds, hatching and caring for new chicks, to kill methods and how to butcher them. It even gives specific information on canning the meat!