all things chicken

we are being inundated with chickens around here- over 100 at last count! along with that shocking number comes a need to house them, and we've been working at managing that well. the last batch of chickens (our layers) were still in the utility room as of yesterday morning, in anna and betsy's little swimming pool. that was not working too well. the breed that dave bought is buff orpington, and ours seem to be a bit flighty. with all the work going on underneath them, i was afraid that they would jump out, and fall down into the basement! ( in case i forgot to tell you, there is a large section of the floor missing in the utility room. large- as in 3 feet by 16 feet.) it makes it hard to carry out the wet laundry, too.

dave decided that it was time to build another chicken tractor. we both like this one better- it's not as heavy, and it only takes one person to move it. also, it cost under $100, and only took him one morning to build. and of course, anna was there every step of the way, lending her help and encouragement! just in case you don't know, the purpose of a chicken tractor is to have the animals be able to have access to fresh grass on a regular basis. we move them just about every day, and it's funny to see them scurry around and scratch in the grass, to see what they can find and eat, before another chicken comes along and snatches it away!

i took a couple chickens over for A to play with while dave was finishing up.

now all the chickens have plenty of light and fresh air. they are all happily clucking around.