Week 6; Day 4

The chickens spent their first night outside last night! I was nervous about it: not knowing if they'd be warm enough, the knowledge that there are raccoons around, etc... but I knew it would have to start sometime. I am pleased to announce that all is well; all six chickens are accounted for, and they were happy to wander out of the coop and start exploring their pen again this morning.

Now, to move backwards with news: the pen and coop are basically done. We still have a few kinks to work out, and minor details to deal with, but I can (hopefully) finish up with most of those today.


The door on the front is hinged, and acts as a ramp when open, so the chickens don't have to step up to get through the door. I attached a section of a rubber mud-flap to the ramp; this serves to help clean debris off the chickens' feet upon entering and exiting, and will also help give them a better grip to climb the ramp. Come winter, it will help seal off the entrance, and prevent drafts at their level of the coop. Ventilation is good (yes, even in winter); drafts are not.

Inside the coop is a wooden platform for the waterer, to hopefully keep bedding in the water to a minimum [so far, it looks promising!], and a support made from a wire hanger to suspend the hanging feeder [which can be raised as needed].

The roof is hinged, to allow us access to the inside, and slanted to ensure no rainwater collects on it. The backwards slant should also ensure that the rainwater runs off the back of the coop, rather than into the pen, possibly flooding the chickens' foraging area.

I used the location of the coop to help build the pen, attaching chicken wire to the deck, the clothesline pole, and the coop itself; I only needed to add a few fence posts to complete the task. It's not exactly a work of art, but it looks pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.

Within minutes of being placed in the pen, they were busy flapping their way from one side to the other, picking up little pieces of yard debris, and happily scratching at the ground. The 'boys' [as we've taken to calling the meat birds] aren't going to be able to fly up and out of the pen; the 'girls' are another story. So I used them as my motivation to get the pen done quickly. With the predatory birds always flying overhead, I didn't dare let myself get distracted and leave them with no covering to the pen.

Using plastic garden fencing, and a length of thin wire, I attached the cover to the top of the pen. It seems to work wonderfully, and the chickens [hopefully] have no chance of finding a way out. This doesn't guarantee that a predator won't be able to find their way in, unfortunately; but that's something we'll have to watch for and try to prevent.

Immediately after finishing the cover, I moved the waterer and feeder to their places. The chickens either were too nervous about being in the coop, or simply weren't hungry or thirsty. They waited a full hour or so before they braved the inside. I'm sure it was partly the lack of bedding in the coop, too; I remedied that shortly after.

David and I had previously discussed the idea of putting up a few roosts around the pen for their use during the day; after some consideration, I decided this would not be a good idea. I don't want them to get the idea of sleeping out in the pen at night.


Just after dusk last night, we went out to get them settled in for the night. They were already in the coop, huddled together [for comfort, I'm sure, not warmth; it wasn't very cold out, and they had no problem wandering from the huddle to eat or drink]. We moved the heat-lamp out to the coop for the night, just to make sure they stayed as warm as they should be. After the first few nights, we'll see how they do without the lamp. At last check, there's a frost advisory for tonight [?!?!], so we may bring them in for tonight, but for now, they're enjoying the outdoors.

As a temporary measure, we attached 'mug hooks' to the door and the front wall, using a twist tie as a closure for the time being. We're discussing pros and cons of a couple of different permanent ideas for this, but for last night [and a few nights to come], the idea worked great.

And now, items that still need to be dealt with. These include: set up a roost inside the coop for the girls; build a nesting box [not necessary until they're ready to start laying, but good for them to be used to beforehand]; add the shingles to the roof [these are being salvaged from the old roof, so I need to dismantle them carefully]; decide on a permanent closure for the door; arrange a way to fasten the roof closed [it's highly unlikely that a predator could open the roof, but I'd rather be safe than sorry]; and the last item: correcting an idiotic problem caused by poor planning.

At the moment, the only way for anyone to get into or out of the pen is THROUGH the coop. Seeing as how I have no desire to climb into the coop and climb through the little tiny door just to get into the pen, I need to design and add a small gate to the pen. Granted, whoever enters will still have to crawl inside the pen; since the only solution to that would be putting forth the expense and effort to double the height of the walls... yeah, crawling will be just fine.

I have a few ideas in mind for the gate; the biggest part of it will be implementation. And, that being said, I should probably be working on that, rather than updating here, huh?