Hens Sally Forth
June 28th, 2013 · 2 Comments · Posted in farming
Suddenly, a whole new world opens ahead
The big day has finally arrived: time for our chicks to exit their coop.
I fastened the door open. The chicks stepped tentatively forward. They took turns looking outside for a long time, considering whether to take the big leap into our yard outside the basement door.
Some of our teen-aged hens have a lot more nerve than others. They jumped, and immediately started strutting around in the grass, pecking at things, while the others stood in the door watching. Others got closer and closer to the edge until the crowd pushed them out backwards. With a flutter of wings, they landed safely on the ground.
First tentative steps into the future
I sit in the basement doorway watching to see how the chicks react to this new development. Always in the back of my mind is the fear that a hawk will suddenly swoop down out of the sky and whisk one of my hens away. Or perhaps a stealthy fox I had not sensed will dart out of the tall grass.
Or maybe once the chicks get a taste of freedom, I won’t be able to get them back in the coop again. We definitely want them safely locked away at night to protect them from any predators that may be about. Even with an eight-strand, five-foot-tall electric fence surrounding our property, I fear that some wily chicken thief–possum, raccoon, coyote–will find a way through our fortress wall and feast on our young layers.
Finding something good to eat under the coop
Brother-in-law Steve had said the chicks would happily hop in and out of the coop if I just placed something like a block of wood to shorten the distance to the ground. But it did seem that a length of plywood placed as a ramp from the open coop door proved more tempting to the chicks. I watched them take tentative steps down the ramp, then flop over the side to join their companions already pecking around in the grass.
They easily found the spot where their feed spills through the wire mesh floor of the coop and onto the ground. Others were investigating the seed heads on long grasses, not wandering far.
Soon it will be time to hitch the coop to the pickup truck and tow the girls to a new home out in the orchard. Then they will truly be on their own.
Nice looking chickens.
If you nail some narrow strips of wood across the ramp, when the ramp is slippery from rain or dew it will be easier for them to “walk the plank”
happy farming!
Thanks, Linda. My thought exactly: strips of wood to climb up and down. Even better I think would be some Astroturf. But I’m guessing they would probably notice it missing at the local ball field.