A few weeks back, the donkeys busted through one side of the chicken yard. Steve hasn't been able to make the time to nail a new board up, so we've lived with the chickens being able to let themselves out in the morning. What we didn't realize was that Serenity is able to crawl under the wire and help herself to the corn and oats that I throw out for scratch. After a few incidences of chasing her out of the yard, we've decided that we'll just have to confine all chicken feed to the inside of their coop until we can design and build the new setup (one with real roosts, storage for food, nests, and a hover for chicks). We're getting some good ideas from How to Build Animal Housing by Carol Ekarius. If we go with a full-fledged coop, we will probably make it part of the barn/complex that is part of the Grand Plan.
We wanted chicks last spring, but I wasn't able to get my act together enough to buy an incubator and make space for the chicks. Our last attempt to expand our flock was sheer accident--I won't repeat the story here. In short, it didn't do much to improve our operation (we were hoping to have fryers by now). Once I get my raised beds going, I think I'll get that incubator, clean out the old camping bin, and raise us some more babies.
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