The Big Coop & Run Box Move.

After all the rain we've had over the course of November, December and throughout January, we decided we were way overdue to move the chicken coop from it's location... It has been sitting there since early November when we erected the temporary steel wire panels next to it to form a "chicken run box" (or a.k.a. "prison yard") for the chickens to have room to move around and scratch. The ground was just plain disgusting, a mixture of mud, chicken poop, old/new wet wheat straw, scratch feed, etc. We could hardly open the door to the run box because the built-up mud just bogged it up and it would not swing open much more than a human could side-step in or out of.

The good news is Hubby had already constructed the chickens a new much bigger permanent run box back in November. It just needed to be stained/painted and moved to it's new location (with the coop of course). Since I had a three day weekend later in January, we decided to do the big coop/run box move then. I would have to say looking back it was a huge day all in all... I just wish the event could have ended on a better note.

First, Hubby sprayed the new coat of stain all over the run box.

While I drove to the feed and seed supply store to pick up new bedding materials for the coop.

Next, we disassembled the temporary steel panels from the old makeshift run box.

Then we hooked up the coop to the tractor and moved her out of the mud.

The chickens just did not know what to think about their house moving around.

Moving it to a nice new clean flat location!

And here it will sit.

Few adjustments had to be made to the coop so the run box would slide up to it snugly.

And then we hooked up the tractor to the new run box to move it next to the coop.

All new wheat straw and dry bedding in the coop for the 2-legged babies!

And then Hubby went and tilled all of the fertilizer (a.k.a. recycled chicken poop from the coop!) into our main garden area... All the while he was tilling, I was trying to coax the chickens one-by-one into the coop. However, my wooing the chickens only managed to attract 3 out of the 12 to the coop. I blamed the very pungent smelling coat of stain on the run box... it was not very inviting to the chickens on top of relocating the coop so far away from it's original spot. The chickens were confused and once Hubby finished tilling, we spent the next two hours trying to catch the other 9 chickens and lock them in the run box. What a nightmare! The chickens kept going back to the old coop spot (where there was 2 inches of freshly tilled chicken poop mind you) and us two 40-something year olds chasing chickens was probably a sight to see... It was awful. And I was impatient... VERY impatient. By the time we got to the last one (#11) we could still actually see in the dark w/ one flashlight, we realized one was MIA (#12). She was no where to be found... We chased the next to the last one (#11) for over 30 minutes and just could not catch her. And then thankfully we finally lured her into the door of the run box... And in a last ditch effort we then tried to find #12 with a flashlight all around the farm - no such luck... Not exactly how I wanted the night to end I tell ya.

I went to work the next day thinking that if the hen made it through the night without get eaten by a predator, MAYBE she would come back out around the barn at sunlight. No such luck... Hubby said she never showed up even with the rooster crowing all morning. I came home that evening and looked for her again. And at that point we knew she was a goner and gave up hope.

We drove home that evening to one very riled up bird dog who was going nuts in her crate inside the house... Thought she was acting bizarre as soon as I heard her cries from the driveway. Only to find out why shortly after that... turns out the MIA hen had somehow made it to our house and the dog had seen her sometime during the day thru the window from her crate. Unfortunately, being a tried and true bird dog she hunted the hen down and managed to get ahold of her before I could (you know since I had NO IDEA the chicken road the axle home the night before under our truck!)... As shocked as we were, the bird was injured and we moved her into isolation at the barn back at the farm... just hoping her injuries were not so bad that she wouldn't bounce back. What a crazy wild roller coaster two days experience! This farm life is wearing me out.