Coop shuffle

We do a lot of odd things around here. I’ve mentioned several times that we must be an endless source of entertainment for our neighbors. One of the more fun but odd things we do is the coop shuffle. It happens periodically when we have chicks that need to move out of the brooder.

That’s the case this week. We have meat birds coming in and we have to do a major shuffle to get the Banty Mama and her 7 little chicks a new place so that the meat birds can have the brooder for a time. That’s why we’d been working on getting the coop over at the Goat Boys’ all fixed up. We gave them a secure area under the Best Nest Egg Box, put up a screen door that was no longer needed from the big coop – gave them food and water and a box to nest in until they feel comfortable. Here they are on Tuesday morning… It’s hard to see, but that’s mama and her chicks are behind and under her.

We also needed to move the other little Banty’s, the youngest Buff Manorcas, and little Frizzle which is our fluffy white silky that Sue adopted. They have had the floor of the brooder side of the coop. Sue has left the door open enough for them to get outside, but the big scary chickens wouldn’t be able to get in for them. They were too scared to go out, and actually the other black Banty Rooster would get in and fight with the other little spotted rooster. Anyway – they needed their own home, so we are putting them all out with the Goat Boys.

Monday morning we finished cutting the hole into the corrugated metal siding and put the welded wire, etc, etc. Sue attached all the roosts to the 2 x 4’s inside so they were secure. We then loaded up the chickens into the cat carrier (don’t laugh, it’s the perfect size for moving several small chickens all together). Catching them was a bit difficult, but Sue was really fast. I just had to keep them inside the carrier as we added them one by one. Here they are… all safe and happy in their new home. Today we had a huge rain and hail storm, right in the middle of chore time. The thing with hail is that it make a huge racket on the metal roof. The chickens were really scared. Mama and all the chicks were even out of their sanctuary. Everyone was frightened of the noise. This evening, I found mama and all the chicks outside, trying to bed down. Sue and I talked about removing their screen door, so they have access to their little nesting box, but can come and go outside as they please.