If you’d like to add a little ambiance to this post…please click on the youtube link…it will play while you scroll. If you want to relive something from your childhood…if you grew up in the…gulp…60’s & 70’s this is a cool blast from the past and fun to watch. Either way, or both ways…ENJOY!
Being squished is no fun!! It’s not fun when you’re trying to maneuver in a small space. It’s not fun (yet totally important) when you’re having a mammogram. It is certainly not fun when you are one of eight rapidly growing young chickens.
We’ve had a lot of bickering going on within the young brood. Still in the small, improvised brooder, there has been increasingly less and less space as the chicks have grown. Since it is winter, they are house-bound, and getting no relief from one another, with the exception of the two days in the 50’s without wind we had about a week ago. Since then they have been in real tight quarters…not a healthy lifestyle to sustain healthy “tween-age” chickens.
I tried allowing the young chickens into the adult chicken’s house area.
Visiting their home-to-be. once they grow up!
By closing the outside door, the young ones were protected from the incoming draft, and the incoming house-protective flock. The chicks were somewhat reserved in their enthusiasm, and the older chickens were not happy to be closed out of their house. This idea was fine for an outing, but they needed a more permanent home during their too big for this, too small for that awkward stage.
My solution…drag their outside look-I’m-a-big-chicken-now pen into the shop, and set it up as an indoor pen. The beauty of this is because it has an open bottom, all I have to do to clean them up is to lift the pen a little, move it over (corralling the chickens within it’s walls), then sweep up the old shavings. EASY!! Also, when we do have a warmer day, I can easily walk the chicks, and their pen outside for a little while.
I’m hoping this move will make our little snarky brood a little kinder to each other. I’m feelin’ the love…I hope they are too!
Looking happy in their “tween-age” brooder.
Jag enjoying her new perch.
An old TV antenna provides the support for a heat lamp.
Build Me a Dream 
Comments on: "A Little Elbow Room" (2)
Oh my how they have grown! Love your posts, photos and ingenuity. You go, girl and chickies, too!
LikeLike
Thanks Ellen!! It’s fun to try and figure all of this stuff out….city girl turned farm girl. Truth is, I’ve always been a farm girl at heart!
LikeLike