(yes that's a bear roaming our yard in suburban Connecticut) and also so that we can go wrangle them back to our yard when our neighbors from the abutting condo complex come to warn us that our chickens are wandering in the streets. For the first few months they would be sleeping soundly in their nesting boxes within the coop when we went out to check on them around 9pm. The last few weeks they have been roosting/sleeping on the top of their coop (they like to roost on the highest point...no idea why) so my husband goes out around 9, picks them up one by one and "scoots" them into the coop. Tonight he's is working the night shift which happens pretty often and usually without much warning, so for the first time I had to go out and "scoot" the ladies into their coop. It was a scene. For starters they weren't sleeping peacefully like my husband said they would be, they were awake and they were looking at me. They were also laying right next to each other almost overlapping their wings so it was very difficult to grab one without disturbing the others. After about 2 minutes of hemming and hawing and poking at them just enough to really rile them up; I grabbed one. Not a tight enough grip, she flapped her wings right out of my hands almost immediately and landed on the ground right in front of the coop door. Then I really did just have to scoot her in and she went pretty peacefully. The next three were increasingly difficult and the last one kept turning around in a circle following my movements so that I couldn't grab her from behind and it's pretty hard to grab a hen that's staring straight at you...I couldn't even figure out where to grab her! Finally I nabbed her from behind and after she flapped out and around the coop for a minute, she wandered in the door on her own. This entire endeavor probably lasted 15 minutes and was enough for me to break a serious sweat and get a foot cramp from the stress of it all...I hope Joe is off the night shift soon or else our hens might not be free ranging at all for a while!
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Free Range(ish) Chickens
Our chickens are free range...ish. We keep them cooped up (get it, GET IT?!) during the day when we're at work and then my husband, Joe let's them out around 4 when he gets home and they come back to the coop on their own around dusk. We keep them in their coop mainly to protect them from things like this:
(yes that's a bear roaming our yard in suburban Connecticut) and also so that we can go wrangle them back to our yard when our neighbors from the abutting condo complex come to warn us that our chickens are wandering in the streets. For the first few months they would be sleeping soundly in their nesting boxes within the coop when we went out to check on them around 9pm. The last few weeks they have been roosting/sleeping on the top of their coop (they like to roost on the highest point...no idea why) so my husband goes out around 9, picks them up one by one and "scoots" them into the coop. Tonight he's is working the night shift which happens pretty often and usually without much warning, so for the first time I had to go out and "scoot" the ladies into their coop. It was a scene. For starters they weren't sleeping peacefully like my husband said they would be, they were awake and they were looking at me. They were also laying right next to each other almost overlapping their wings so it was very difficult to grab one without disturbing the others. After about 2 minutes of hemming and hawing and poking at them just enough to really rile them up; I grabbed one. Not a tight enough grip, she flapped her wings right out of my hands almost immediately and landed on the ground right in front of the coop door. Then I really did just have to scoot her in and she went pretty peacefully. The next three were increasingly difficult and the last one kept turning around in a circle following my movements so that I couldn't grab her from behind and it's pretty hard to grab a hen that's staring straight at you...I couldn't even figure out where to grab her! Finally I nabbed her from behind and after she flapped out and around the coop for a minute, she wandered in the door on her own. This entire endeavor probably lasted 15 minutes and was enough for me to break a serious sweat and get a foot cramp from the stress of it all...I hope Joe is off the night shift soon or else our hens might not be free ranging at all for a while!
(yes that's a bear roaming our yard in suburban Connecticut) and also so that we can go wrangle them back to our yard when our neighbors from the abutting condo complex come to warn us that our chickens are wandering in the streets. For the first few months they would be sleeping soundly in their nesting boxes within the coop when we went out to check on them around 9pm. The last few weeks they have been roosting/sleeping on the top of their coop (they like to roost on the highest point...no idea why) so my husband goes out around 9, picks them up one by one and "scoots" them into the coop. Tonight he's is working the night shift which happens pretty often and usually without much warning, so for the first time I had to go out and "scoot" the ladies into their coop. It was a scene. For starters they weren't sleeping peacefully like my husband said they would be, they were awake and they were looking at me. They were also laying right next to each other almost overlapping their wings so it was very difficult to grab one without disturbing the others. After about 2 minutes of hemming and hawing and poking at them just enough to really rile them up; I grabbed one. Not a tight enough grip, she flapped her wings right out of my hands almost immediately and landed on the ground right in front of the coop door. Then I really did just have to scoot her in and she went pretty peacefully. The next three were increasingly difficult and the last one kept turning around in a circle following my movements so that I couldn't grab her from behind and it's pretty hard to grab a hen that's staring straight at you...I couldn't even figure out where to grab her! Finally I nabbed her from behind and after she flapped out and around the coop for a minute, she wandered in the door on her own. This entire endeavor probably lasted 15 minutes and was enough for me to break a serious sweat and get a foot cramp from the stress of it all...I hope Joe is off the night shift soon or else our hens might not be free ranging at all for a while!
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