The new coop was ready for
chickens and the day arrived for moving the flock from the woodshed,
where they’d spent their whole lives to this strange new place.
I put all the
chicken equipment in the truck late in the afternoon & moved it to the new
coop. We didn't move the chickens until after it was dark—sleeping chickens are
calmer chickens.
I nabbed them one by one
from their roost and put them in a cat carrier--they got transported three or
four at a time. We decided a cat carrier would work better than hand-carrying
them individually since it would hopefully keep them from freaking out or
escaping. Still they weren’t happy
birds. Here Sam and Charlie ask, "What are you DOING to us???"
First trip to the new coop -
Paul is the first one out.
Rhoda jumps into her new home
First batch: Confused &
frightened.
Eventually there were more
in the new coop than the old coop. Frightened chickens at both ends - in the new
coop they huddled together in one spot & didn't move from that spot.
Finally they started to
explore & discovered their huge new roost.
Amazingly, not only did Paul
manage to get on the roost, he managed to flap his little frizzled wings hard
enough to get to the very top. Even Courtney managed to roost - though in her
case, getting on the roost was more a matter of some heavy-duty jumping rather
than flying. When they had all settled down, I turned off the lights—that
caused about fifteen minute’s worth of really forlorn clucks and peeps, but
they eventually went to sleep.
The next morning I threw
open the door to their new run. They all cautiously went out except for
Jennifer who could not figure out that the giant hole in the wall was a door.
It took major vocal encouragement and arm flapping from me to finally coax her
outside.
They love the new run—fresh
dirt to scratch in! This is more fun than an amusement park on the 4th
of July!!
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