Tuesday, June 10, 2008

More Chickens

No no, I didn't get more chickens- more pictures of of chickens. Here they are , eating melon rinds. Below is their house. There is a ladder that connects the two levels. The first day, they could not work out the ladder. To teach them to go down, Son One put one chicken on the lower level, and left the other on top. They hate to be apart, so Lucy came down to see Sally. That night, they couldn't work out how to get up the ladder. I remembered what Temple Grandin said about animals hating to go into dark spaces, so I put a flashlight in the upstairs. The chickens climbed up the ladder towards the light, and no, I'm not making any nurse jokes. The next morning and evening, they scrambled up and down on their own. They are easy to get back into the lower level from outside, as well. I think they like it. In the upstairs, there is a roost (perch) and two nest boxes where we will hopefully have eggs. The whole front opens for cleaning purposes. The door to the downstairs is hard to see- it is open and covered with wire. It is too small to work with easily- when I get around to it I will replace it with a bigger door. The odd shadows are from the plum tree.

2 comments:

Elliott said...

That's one snazzy chicken coop.

Anonymous said...

Okay, that did it. I am now officially jealous. My plum tree is (looking at the calendar, let's see, when was Mother's Day) one month old, so maybe when it grows up I can have chickens under mine too.

And I love that you know who Temple Grandin is. And that WAS a nurse joke and you know it! Darn good one too.