Chicken Run

The smallest bird got out of the box today while I was there to witness it.  I’m glad, because its neurotic running back and forth against the wall and frantic cheeping was a little sad.   He/she was just so sure he was missing something.   When he finally launched himself to the wall and over, hoo boy, what a party.  Hilarious-  zipping around, screeching, SO excited.  So now they can all come and go from the box.  Even though he’s a fraction of the size of all the others, he has no problem keeping up.I made them a daytime play area, caging it with wire fence.  It looks like I was going for a stint on Canada’s Worst Handyman, but that’s because I hate wire fencing with such a fiery passion.  After those days last month fencing and battling with so many scraps of tangled fence to clean out the “wire shed”, it is officially my least favorite building material, handily surpassing black death/Acoustiseal.   I did the bare minimum of draping and wrapping and patching so that it may look like a disaster, but it does the job.  It’s only meant to protect them from birds of prey at this point, so that they can get a taste of being outside.  I can open their hatch in the morning while I work outside, and I shut them in safe at night.  I’m counting on no coyote or bear attacks in broad daylight.  Hopefully by the time they tire of their porch, they will be big and tough enough to become more free ranging.It took hours for one to make the step out, and it was because he was pushed.  Cautious beasts.  But they were all out by the end of the day, I think. I saw different groupings of them on the outside, and they seem to like sitting in the grass.I also finally got fed up with not having windows, and on the way to make some I hung my door, the old front door of a store.