Port Potager

Our new chicks aren't so little anymore. They're a month old now, and most of their feathers have come in. They are getting to that awkward phase for sure: From left to right are Rachel, Louisa Catherine (the black one pecking at the ground), and Lizzy.   Today was nice and warm, so we took the opportunity to let them have their first day outside. They are in the chicken run, and they were definitely interested in scratching, taking dust baths, and exploring every inch of their interesting new space. This kept them from pecking at each other, which has gotten a little intense over the past few days — when you hear a wrestling match and find Lizzy's feathers in Rachel's mouth, you know it's time for them to move out. You can't just throw strange chickens into and existing flock, though. That pecking order stuff is for real, and the little ones could actually be in danger from our grown chickens protecting their turf. To get everyone accustomed ...

This weekend was a classic January Thaw, and that gave us an opportunity to build a portable run for the chickens. Lots of people build all kinds of fancy-schmancy ones  like chicken tractors with wheels and nice paint jobs and stuff, but we already have a pretty chic (and ridiculously well-built) primary residence for our birds, so all we needed was a summer camp. So Kirk took a Christmas gift card to the hardware store and got us some Christmas 2x4s that he ripped in half and used to knock together this frame: As you can see, it is designed to fit right inside our raised beds (that is, just shy of four feet wide). It's two feet high, which is tall enough for chickens, but short enough to use two-foot wide chicken wire around the sides. It's eight feet long, which is the length of lumber that fits inside a Ford Focus.  After building the frame yesterday, we realized we needed a door to get the chickens in and out, so Kirk added a little bit of framing f...

Check it out! Kirk finished the run for the chicken coop yesterday morning: Now every morning we can just go out an open the chicken door so the birdies can get some fresh air and scratch around in the dirt in their safe enclosure. This is easily done with the rope handle that runs from the chicken door to the outside  of the coop, which you can see just to the right of the screen in the photo below: The rope has a loop knotted into it to hold the door open during the day (you attach it to a hook to secure it). When we are home and out working or playing in the garden, we can open the big screen door to the run to let the chickens run out into the yard: This run is in a nice, shady spot, and so far the chickens seem very happy with it. They are getting up and down their ramp with no trouble, and seem to know that when it starts to get dark, it's time to go inside — only Dolley gave us any trouble on this, but not much. She was just a little stubborn about ta...