I'm having a very frustrating week chicken-wise, and none of my non-chicken friends can really relate, so I'm venting here. I'm in the throes of having 45 EAB-afflicted ash trees removed; mostly from my yard and near the driveway (a tragedy of its own). I hired the tree removal company before Christmas and they said it would take 10 days. They also said there would also be a point when I would have to move some of the chickens.
Well, I didn't know it was going to be 10 days spread out over the course of a year (a decade..., a century.....), and back in December I had a good plan for moving what was then two social groups of chickens. Now, things are different; roosters have grown up. The tree people told me Wednesday was the day, so Tuesday night I scrambled to come up with a plan. I now have 4 non-compatible groups with separate coops and electronet fencing. Two of the coops are on wheels, but with the cut trees all over the yard, I have nowhere to move them. I ended up completely dismantling one of these and stashing those chickens in a coop that has a young solitary rooster (another long story). He went into a dog crate on my porch. There's a tree that needs to be cut in the run for the stationary coop, so I moved the fencing so the tree is now on the outside, but as long as it stands, it is a perfect route for raccoons to get in. Naturally, with all the storms, nothing was done with the trees yesterday and now I'm in a holding pattern until who knows when. I took a personal day from work and have spent it critter-proofing my coops to the best of my ability.
Moral of my story? Planning in advance gets you nowhere, and always have twice as much housing as you think you need! Thanks for listening.....
Kirsten
