Due to the geese deciding they needed to start breeding before the yard dried out enough for me to do all the work I wanted to on the barn, I spent the last two afternoons/nights (12:30 AM on Sunday and 10:30 PM last night) working with a flashlight in my mouth to get this done with no help until last night.
Early morning, drizzly photos of the barn. Obviously I still need to cover the additional open areas on the front of the barn with wire, and I'm going to spray/apply some sealant in the back corner seams to keep out unwanted friends (snakes). At the end of the month I'll extend the runs off the front of the barn an additional 20 feet, so the pens will be just over 10 feet wide and 50 feet long. I don't think that's too terrible. I also need to install some netting from the back pole to the center pole and to the lowest support (rafter) in order to keep pen hoppers on the right side. The roosts are just high enough that the smaller hens could visit old boyfriends. Doing the front will have to wait for the ground to dry out some more. I don't feel like dying on a ladder trying to mount a strip of the plastic I used as visual barriers on the roost ends of the dividing walls and then staple wire across there. Obviously the gates need a little bit of work, but after hammering, nailing, screwing, sawing, wiring, cutting, and all the other things I've done over the last two days, my hands are just done.
The Silver-laced Orpington Breeding pen:
Hollywood, Sterling II, Mel, Sue, Victoria, and Duchess (pacing the wire because Anne is two pens over and she can hear Caspian crowing)
The Blue, Black, and Splash Orpington Breeding pen with Chocolate and Lavender pullets for the time being until a Black cockerel is produced to cover them. Suede will reign supreme here when he's feeling better. He's currently in my bathroom recovering from a very sudden and severe attack by a hormonal gander.
Dahlia - Black hen
Agatha - Blue pullet
Prudence - Chocolate pullet
Dorcas - Lavender pullet
White Orpington pen:
Derek, Odette, and Anne are living here with the turkey who is not mean to them, but absolutely has decided after a week of the geese being locked up (to keep them from injuring anyone else) that he should absolutely start fights where there are no clear winners as I have to break the two of them up.
Obviously it is a work in progress. I'd like to have matching feeders and 5 gallon waterers for them eventually. I'm trying dropping boards under the BBS and Whites to see how I like that. I need about two more loads of wood chips but it's too wet for them to dump by the barn right now. :/ Any suggestions or glaring mistakes I've made? Everything looks good by the light a flashlight when you desperately want to be done. lol
I don't love the roosts or the nest boxes. But it works for right now and at least they are away from the geese. I also don't plan on using hay from the dropping boards, but it's literally the only thing I had on hand. None of the feed stores had pine shavings, and honestly I'd rather use sand than PDZ so I'll just have to pick some up at the end of the month when I grab the extra roll of welded wire and the netting.
