My Easter Eggs!

[3KillerBs]

I went out to check on them after dark and *thought* they were all fine -- though I wasn't happy to see them perching on their feeder.

Then I went to put a hen saddle on a barebacked lady and, when I went to pick her up, I saw a chick on the perch pretty much under her!I will have to double-check everything to find where the little one managed to get out of the integration pen (I've used this pen many times and no one ever has before).

Until I felt the band on her leg I wondered if one of my girls had managed to hatch chicks on me while I was so sick!

A bad picture of the chicks perching on the feeder:

And the little Houdini after I picked her off the perch. I don't know which one it is since I couldn't see the band color in the red light from my headlamp.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

I went out to check on them after dark and *thought* they were all fine -- though I wasn't happy to see them perching on their feeder.

Then I went to put a hen saddle on a barebacked lady and, when I went to pick her up, I saw a chick on the perch pretty much under her!I will have to double-check everything to find where the little one managed to get out of the integration pen (I've used this pen many times and no one ever has before).

Until I felt the band on her leg I wondered if one of my girls had managed to hatch chicks on me while I was so sick!

A bad picture of the chicks perching on the feeder:

View attachment 3115314

And the little Houdini after I picked her off the perch. I don't know which one it is since I couldn't see the band color in the red light from my headlamp.

View attachment 3115325

It isnt one of the chicks who hatched?

 

[3KillerBs]

It isnt one of the chicks who hatched?

It's one of my Easter chicks.

Since I haven't been out at the coop much for the past 6 weeks on account of having been ill (the 16yo did most of the chicken care) I thought for a moment that a broody had snuck in a nest in a corner somewhere.

But I felt the leg and found the band so I know it's one of the chicks I'd put into the integration pen that afternoon. No clue how she got out and very much surprised that the adults let her up onto the roost without pecking her.

 

[3KillerBs]

I found a couple more of the chicks out of the integration pen again.

In the daylight this time I was able to figure out exactly how they were achieving it and close it up more firmly.

I actually considered just letting them be but they couldn't seem to find their way back in and the adults were chasing them around and around the integration pen without the chicks able to get home.

So give them some more time in the pen.

 

[3KillerBs]

Well, the chicks have had an adventure and keeping them in the integration pen seems quite impossible.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/early-integration.1528356/

 

[3KillerBs]

The little escape artists are 6 1/2 weeks old and doing some unauthorized free ranging.

They have learned to jump up and scoot through the larger squares of the electric net.

 

[MadGardener]

The little escape artists are 6 1/2 weeks old and doing some unauthorized free ranging.

They have learned to jump up and scoot through the larger squares of the electric net.

View attachment 3133339View attachment 3133343View attachment 3133345View attachment 3133349View attachment 3133353

I used zip ties to secure deer netting to my electric poultry fence. No escapees, and only $20. I'm considering a second net though because it's much harder to hold on to when moving.

 

[3KillerBs]

I used zip ties to secure deer netting to my electric poultry fence. No escapees, and only $20. I'm considering a second net though because it's much harder to hold on to when moving.

We thought of adding plastic netting to it but when we tried it rapidly got too heavy and awkward and used a lot more zipties than we were willing to use.

In the past I've put out an inner curtain of that netting but I'm using the U-posts in the garden and haven't bought the step-in posts I wanted to use instead.

 

[MadGardener]

We thought of adding plastic netting to it but when we tried it rapidly got too heavy and awkward and used a lot more zipties than we were willing to use.

In the past I've put out an inner curtain of that netting but I'm using the U-posts in the garden and haven't bought the step-in posts I wanted to use instead.

I deal with sagging a lot due to slopey land. It seemed like the "wildlife netting" was light enough to not make it worse, and small zip ties prob helped. But I can't say for sure. Everything is askew on the mountain lol.

 

[3KillerBs]

I deal with sagging a lot due to slopey land. It seemed like the "wildlife netting" was light enough to not make it worse, and small zip ties prob helped. But I can't say for sure. Everything is askew on the mountain lol.

I've already had to add extra step-in posts to my netting and need some more just to deal with the sag. I am planning on a separate set of step-in posts to put up the 2" plastic mesh a few inches inside the electric.

It worked last year with the metal u-posts, but I need those for other purposes.