Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Peeps are growing... expanded their home
Oh boy, the little chicks are rapidly becoming young birds. Monday they turned 2 weeks old and got the run of virtually the entire coop.
The coop is 8 x 8 and built on a concrete pad that was already here. Their outside run hasn't been fenced yet, but will extend about 32' west of the SW corner and 25' north of the NE corner and then complete the rectangle. We'll then divide the pen diagonally back to the NW corner, establishing two separate runs.
I'm finding an inward opening screen door made from 1/2 inch hardware cloth would be a perfect addition. That way I can leave the door open and also when I want to go inside the coop, it will sweep the curious birds inward.
Tomorrow we're building a "junior roost" to help the youngsters get up the the bigger roosts. I found one dropping, so someone has been working on their flying skills.
As soon as I see birds flying 4 feet or higher, it's time to clip wings. These are all heavy breeds, so don't really expect to repeat the process more than twice as they're growing. After a while, they'll learn flying isn't something they have to do.
The final home for both water and feed will most likely be below the nest boxes (which aren't completed yet).
Our plan is to hold off on a lot of the final construction until we can let the birds outside in about three weeks.
One thing we did learn, and will be correcting is that our big black lab could dig her way into the coop with not much effort. She's dug into the engineered "plywood" enough to get our attention. Now a roll of flashing is on our list. We'll be installing it around the coop base and up the corners.
Labels: Chickens
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