My plan this morning was to update you on the chicken house. I hadn’t planned specifically to discuss the dimensions of their house (20 square feet) or the expected high temperature today (100 degrees), but if I do I’ll surely add their metric conversions (1.86 meters squared and 37.8 C). Before I wrote though, I popped over to Bushboys blog to read a few (the man posts a dozen a day, I swear!!) and he’s highlighting the Far Eastern Curlew. He wrote that as part of their migration, they travel from Russia to Australia, which “is 9,955 km or 6,186 miles.”
It suddenly popped into my head that our blogs are helping us learn and appreciate each other.
Because of my blog, I now always keep in mind that Brian (Bushboy) is in Australia, and Andrew is in England. Bama is in Indonesia, Jolandi is in Portugal, Marlene is in Arizona and Curt is in Virginia. These friends of mine don’t use all the same references or systems of measurement that I use, and that’s just fine. I respect this about them, and when I remember, I do a quick conversion just to make it easier for them to follow my post, if they happen to read it that day. No big deal.
The chickens and the curlews are birds that bring us together. Each day we are practicing the learned skill of thinking of others as well as ourselves. Each day when we write, we are imagining the differently lived world of someone somewhere else, who we think is a decent human being, but who has outward characteristics that don’t match our own.
Realizing that we bloggers are practicing respect for others is a beautiful thing to learn about us this morning. You all are a great bunch. Special thanks to Brian and his love of birds today ❤
Pedro took Friday off to catch up on his schoolwork for his NLP (Natural Language Processing) class. It’s a term for teaching AI to read, understand, and recreate human languages. His work as a Data Scientist has been busy, and his schoolwork had been neglected. After completing some modules and homework, he came outside in the warm Friday night to work.
There was a predicted heat wave for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and we began fretting about the health of our birds. We worked hard all day long Saturday, and had to stop digging post holes and painting Saturday night when we couldn’t see any more in the dark. Sunday we were up early and busting our butts again. By early afternoon, we opened up the chicken tunnel and coaxed the girls over to the new space.
I tried to tempt the girls into the shade over and over, but they wanted no part of it. Mostly they have a deep suspicion that if I want them to go somewhere, it must be dangerous. Also, the few that did go take a look realized it looks different. In a chicken’s small mind, different is bad. The day grew hotter and hotter, but the chooks would not go into the shady place we had built for them.
Sunday night we waited till 8:30 pm and they began putting themselves to bed, which I believe all chickens do. Is this true? We waited till they got up on their perches in the dark, then two by two, we nabbed them off their perches and carried them over to the new house and set them down on the new perches. When all the girls were moved, and they were clucking and murmuring their unease, but rendered helpless in the dark, we latched the door closed.
We had placed a piece of plywood to block the chicken tunnel to keep them in the new place till they got used to it. Mathilda tried to climb it and crashed it down. I put it back. Mathilda knocked it down twice more, getting free the third time. She went all the way back to her old home where I had not closed the gate, and she came out through the open gate and went directly to my vegetable garden and began digging it up.
Since Mathilda apparently wasn’t giving up, I gave up and took away the plywood. Four hens went directly back to their old home. To discourage them, I disassembled everything. Took out their nesting boxes and their food (I left water because I’m not a monster). I assumed they would realize the shade under the trees is better. I assumed wrong. The day reached 101 degrees (38.3 C) and the ladies refused to leave the baking strip of pen beside the house. Maya crawled under the old house to lay her egg. Chick Nhat Hanh went into her empty house, flew up to a perch, and laid an egg from there. SPLAT!
The others returned to the new pen except for the two Lavender Wyandotts, who remained in the old pen in the shade of the single Asian Pear tree and panted, beaks open, and held their wings out to their sides in the unbearable heat. I ran around trying to capture them, but could not. I told multiple people that chickens behave like humans, only amplified. They would rather be miserable than try something new.
Finally Pedro and I kidnapped the holdouts, and put them in the new place, then more successfully blocked their tunnel.
In the image above, you can see the trunks of our fig tree. It is loaded with figs right now; too many to eat. We have already discovered that the hens love figs. So any that drop off will be appreciated. I hope that in return, the girls fertilize the fig tree.
I spent hours yesterday fixing little things. Piling rocks against the fence where they were about to dig an escape route, painting the part I missed on the cream trim, snatching escapees, reorganizing watering and feeding stations, counting them over and over – are there still 8 hens? Yes, still 8. Pedro finished work and came outside and returned to building the walls – this time extending the existing wooden fence higher.
This morning, Chick Nhat Hanh escaped somehow. I’m not sure how, but it was clear she was trying to go splat another egg. I nabbed her easily from the vegetable garden (why always the vegetable garden and not, literally, ANYWHERE else?) and took her back to the pen, where she resignedly walked right to the new house and went inside. I hope I know what she went to do.
Each day will be a little smoother, as I fix more little things and the girls realize they have to accept the new place. (Or, since they are chickens, their small minds forget that they used to live in a different place) Once they are truly in a routine at the new pen, I’ll open the chicken tunnel for good, and allow them back and forth at their leisure.
Conscious Engagement 
I love these connections as much as you, Crystal. I told a friend just the other day how blogging friends are truly special.
I hope the ladies are now starting to enjoy and appreciate their gorgeous space that you and Pedro worked so hard on. My goodness, I never realised that chickens can be so scared of change. Josephine seems to have been the only one with some sense and appreciation. You must be so pleased with all your hard work. It really looks like an inviting space.
Thank you, Jolandi, for your encouragement on our hard work. Yes, chickens are scared of change to a degree that makes it hard to work with them sometimes. My neighbor spends an hour or two bonding with her chickens every single day, and they have a different relationship. She can walk up to them and pick them up. Mine used to be like that – in their first two years when I used to pick them up every single day. But if you stop investing all that time, they default back to suspicion.
At this point, everybody has laid at least one egg in the new boxes, and that makes me feel good. They are warm and dry and safe in there.
This is much more about chickens than I ever knew!
I am glad to have shared something new with you, Lou! The best thing for me is that when the sky grows dark, they all gather around the little door to their house, and take turns flying up to their perch. One by one, they all settle in for the night. The timing is purely based on daylight, so if it’s clear skies, they stay up later. If it’s a dark and rainy evening, they’ll go to bed much earlier. Same thing in the morning. If the sun doesn’t come up till 9am, then they stay in their house till 9am.
I wish I could do that.
Chickens have a mind of their own and are quite persistent. Their new spot look so good. It won’t be long before they convert it to a chicken wasteland, devouring and scratching out everything.
The Fig tree will enjoy them as long as they can’t fly up and perch, then make their escape to the best part of the yard, the vege garden 😋
Their house look perfect. The only thing I thought of was round perches won’t hurt their feet as much. Over time the square one will be rounded by wear.
I placed boards around the bottom of the chicken fence dug into the ground to discourage them digging escape routes as well as stopping animals from tunnelling in to eat my chooks. Rocks are good but too much hard work 😁
Thanks for the shout out as well Crystal 🥰
You are so right! I keep telling myself to take photos and enjoy the way their new place looks, because in a few months, all the green will be completely gone. I do appreciate how they level and clear the ground though. We live near a busy street, so there are decades of random trash that has blown in from the street. The girls have unearthed most of it, then I can dispose of it. They keep the weeds down, and the spiders down.
The fig tree has pretty invitingly sloped branches, so I worry they will use those perches to get out, but maybe they won’t think of it for a while. The wire fence is pretty high there, so we might be ok.
To ease your concern, the perches have rounded corners, so their little soft feet won’t be hurt. We did a lot of reading about what is best, and more reviews said they like the square shape better, as long as there are no sharp edges. Good catch on the boards around the base of the fence. That is Pedro’s plan. The previous owners left a pile of round fence posts in the back. They are too old to use for fencing, but we thought they would be perfect for the bottom. We’ve got a young skunk here who makes the rounds each night, checking the bottom of the fence. We’d like to keep girls in and troublemakers out!
Thanks for letting me know about the perches, the photo didn’t really show the edges were off. Lucky for being able to use the leftover timber for the fence bottom.
Where we lived in Sydney, we had a big back yard and the chooks had a huge area to run in. They were always scratching up things. My Dad told me that there used to be a bit of a rubbish dump, many years before grandfather bought the place, down the back. Luckily in those days there wasn’t many toxic things dumped, just a few tin cans, bottles and bits of glass were dug up by the chooks..
They had a Mulberry tree in the yard, but was away from fences, they used to sit in during the hot days. Lots of purple poo when the mulberries were in season 😂
Purple poo! Hilarious!
😁
The Ongoing Adventures of Well-Named Chickens. You are becoming a chicken whisperer. (Also, I am awaiting the installation of the Sistine ceiling! Don’t disappoint me!)
The Sistine Chickens Ceiling! Ok, I’ll make sure I don’t lose my inspiration and I’ll put up photos for sure, when it’s done. Glad you like the chicken names. I get a kick out of naming them. The other two I like are Cyndi Lauper (she’s a Polish, and her poof feathers on her head swoop over to the side) and Two of Three (like Seven of Nine in Star Trek). Those two names were not my idea, but they’re so funny.
I find that chickens seem to bring out the comedic impulse in their keepers.
I never thought of that, but it’s TRUE!!
That wallpaper. How appropriate! Those ladies were crazy not to appreciate their new home, initially. I’m sure they probably do now, though, yes? Great post! I read this entire post with a grin on my face, your descriptions pulled me right in. You’re an ambitious gal to go to that much work and effort. Thanks for the update!
Lenore, that is the best compliment. Thank you for saying so. ❤ I think they are doing much better now. Everyone has laid at least one egg in the new boxes, and last night they all went to bed in their new home promptly. All the previous nights they were reluctant to go to bed there, because they remembered they used to go to bed in a different place. We have left the old pen blocked, but I think we could open it up again soon, and they will choose to return to the new space on their own.
I do hope the chooks settle. I wonder what they make of the wallpaper. The word chook links you linguistically with Bushboy – and now me with each of you – rather making your point.
It’s busy wallpaper, that’s for sure! My hope is that it will eventually blend into a non-impactful pattern in the background and they’ll ignore it. So far, I see no evidence that they have been pecking it. That is good!
What a great example of linking bloggers together! Yes, I began calling them chooks because Brian taught me.
Oh, if only they could speak! I think it looks fabulous but how cool would it be to get their YELP reviews? Such hard work from you both, such a labor of love. Do keep us posted as they settle in. I’m curious if there is any light introduced in the area?
We have no plans to light up their house. Some people put in heat lamps and some people put in daylight lamps. The benefit of light is that it tricks the hens into thinking days are longer, and they lay more eggs. Without the artificial light, hens cut way back on egg production during the winter. Whereas now, from 8 hens, I’m getting about 6 eggs a day…in the winter, same 8 hens, I get one or two eggs a day.
We might be disappointed in the Yelp reviews, but they would be fun to read. “Couldn’t remember which nesting box I used yesterday. Stressful. ~Chief Jo” and “Ate a spider from the corner by the door. Please have more spiders. ~Maya” and “Need better access to vegetable garden. ~Mathilda” and “Where’s that lady I like to jump on? ~Mathilda” and “Barking sounds nearby. Stressful. ~Two” and “No AC in sleeping area. AC in pen is only in one spot. ~Cyndi” and “Dirt bath area beside fence is preferable to former home. ~Serena” and “Prefer treats of mealworms and cracked corn and barley to our healthy vitamin food pellets with calcium. Tell management to feed us treats all day. ~Yang” “Also blueberries are good. More blueberries please. And Strawberries. ~Chick” “And watermelon! ~Serena” “And pumpkin, pumpkin please! ~Two” “She’s taking requests? I want tomatoes! ~Mathilda” “And apples. ~Mathilda” “APPLES! ~everyone” “Apples! Apples! Apples!”
(Ok, sorry, I got carried away there)
Omg, hysterical! Those are brilliant observations for sure!
Glad I made you smile. 🙂