Well, my chickens have learned that they can get under the house if they go into the backyard.
That can't be good.
Spazz (the slw) seems to be fitting in great with George and his girls. She still stays a bit to herself, but she is out free ranging and coming up for treats and she does hang with them some. Had a hard time convincing her to go back inside last night - she was the last chicken out. She finally did go in, but I was getting worried she'd be sleeping in a tree or something. I don't think I'll have as much trouble tonight now that she knows she'll get to come out again in the morning.
I ended up putting Nana back into the banty coop. She still seems a bit overwhelmed at the other cochins. Maybe once I get some babies and they are larger they can all go in at the same time. I'll just let Nana "take care of them" til they are bigger.
I might be getting some standard cochin eggs to try hatching. That'll be cool having them all waddling around the yard next spring. Do you think I can put the standards and the bantam cochins in the same cell? or would it be better to keep em seperate? They probably won't be that big until spring, anyway, and that is when I get to shuffle birds again - the oeg banties go into the breeding cells, and the bigger chickens go into the main coop. I am planning to put the cochins in the main coop next spring, so I can let them out to free range up top (rather than have them go straight out into the dirt and mud in the pasture - at least I'll have a slim chance of keeping them from being covered in muck).
I only have the banties up top now because it is easier to heat the main coop and they are smaller. Hubby likes them up there, because they aren't as loud as the bigger ones - but with all the extra roos gone, it isn't that loud anymore, anyway. George will get going some, and Hoss is starting to crow a lot, LOL, the banties crow more than any of them - but it's that higher pitched thing.
Hubby doesn't know it yet, but once he gets power to the tack barn, it might be turned into my brooder barn
It is always warm and dry in there, so it'd be perfect. All I'll need is enough space for the play pen, the rest can still be used for storage.
We're doing pretty good on the corral so far - we've got the hard part done, just need to set some more posts and finish the fencing, then put that roof on the back. We ended up building an 8 foot gate on the side, so we can move animals from pasture to pasture to corral if necesary. They'll all be inter-connected. We're practically doubling the size of the corral - we're going out another 10 foot out the back of the barn and all across to the other side of the corral. If I knew what hubby did with the calculator I could tell ya how much we're actually adding on.
I expect to hear about the cow any day early this week. We asked them to hang her for 10 days rather than the standard 7. I'm looking forward to seeing how she will taste once we get some meat from her. Oh, reminds me, I'd better turn on the other freezer today, in case we have overflow from the big freezer.
I really have to get that room in order, too - or we'll have a hard time climbing over all my books piled on the floor to get the meat in.
Well, hungry - gonna see if I can find something for breakfast.
Back in a bit -
Meri
