Day 107

The solar panels were installed. The grading was done. We utilized an interesting and somewhat effective way of getting our feathered girls outside to their temporary yard. In order to get even more girls to enjoy our little slice of heaven, we needed to improve their outdoor yard. It was fun to have kind of a blank canvas to work with when designing our chicken yard, even if my knowledge about designing chicken yards was just as blank as that canvas. Our indoor space was ready. Four contiguous horse stalls turned coops. Plenty of roosting bars, nesting boxes, and access to food and water. Solar lights to extend the day during the shorter day season. Bedding, both from the store and donated from our local high school’s woodworking shop. The indoor space would be a great asset to our soon-to-be growing flock. 

Time to get outside and work on a project I was actually really excited to start, the creation of a chicken yard.

The first step was to put fencing around the yard. We hoped for as much of a free range flock as possible while still controlling where the girls could go. So, we built them a large space. We opted to not to not put a roof on the yard, but to help for protection from pesky predators and scorching sun, we included some other options. We were able to acquire a free small outdoor coop. We put in a small plastic swimming pool and connected it to the downspout to collect water. We threw in the old plastic playhouse our kids mostly ignored. I took some stumps and branches from a tree we took down and created a shade structure. We added a few hay bales and wood chips for them to pick around. A neighbor saw the improved area and offered a plastic picnic table. We figured it would be a fun and playful addition as well as an option for the birds to rest under and climb on. 

It started to come together. After what seemed like forever for certain projects to finish up, we were finally ready to add to the flock. 

But were they ready for us?