Our special project this weekend was building a new pen for our Black Australorp chicks, who had outgrown the brooder cage. We’ve had it inside of the large coop, but on “our” side, where we store all of their food and supplies. We moved it outside while we did our construction work. They were able to get some fresh air, and we didn’t have to worry about freaking them out while we operated power tools.
This is the area we cleared out to place the new pen into:
We had several pieces of lumber left over from other projects, along with the remaining roll of chicken wire fencing that we used in the coop earlier. After building the frame, we stapled the fencing to it, and voilà! A larger pen for the chicks, where they will have room to grow!
The new chicks seem much happier, with room to run around. We do still need to build them a roosting area, but that will probably happen one evening this week. We are also going to need to make an outside play area for them that is contained, so that they do not mix in with our population of larger birds, who would pick on them, and frankly, with pecking order being what it is with chickens, that could turn out to be fatal for the little babies. So we will use more of the chicken wire fencing to build a little play-yard for them, right off of their inside pen, with a small door connecting the two.
We will be getting them a larger feeder to replace their baby feeder, too. It will be similar to the waterer that you see hanging on the right. We hang the feeders and waterers on chains in order to reduce the amount of debris (bedding, poop) that gets into either and contaminates them. It also makes them much easier to access when you need to refill them!
This pen will be handy even when we do not have youngsters to put into it, because we can use it as a “hospital” for any injured birds that we need to isolate while they heal, or if one of our hens goes broody, we will be able to separate her and her chicks into this area as well.
I’d be remiss if I failed to mention that we had a great helper for this project. He insisted that he can “lift heavy things” – so he became our materials handler during this project, and was very proud (as he should be) of the fine job he did.
Our plates are full, as always, but it’s really satisfying to work on these sort of projects that improve the quality of both our animals lives, as well as our own, because it makes our day-to-day caring for them a little easier.
Do you have a project you’ve been working on for your farm or garden? Please feel free to share a link to it in the comments! It’s a great way for us to share ideas with one another. We get visitors from all over the world, so you never know who you might be inspiring.
P.S. Be sure to check out some of the new pictures in our Photo Album before you leave!
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