These chickens certainly have taken more time than we ever thought. As they have grown, we've had to change their living space. Today's project was to really enlarge their area. They will now have the kennel as their protected area from the weather. They have about half the circumference of the "play pen" area to run around.
We've had a little trouble with pecking. Laney came to us with most of her head feathers plucked. Seems that once someone does that, other chickens will continue the practice. Backyard Poultry (yes, we get that magazine!) says that chickens can be pretty mean to each other. They need lots of space to play so they don't beat up on each other. As of today, the little girls have much more area to occupy themselves, instead of being interested in poor Laney. The magazine also said to spray iodine on the area that is being plucked. We did that to Laney and to Honey (who got attacked by one of the bigger birds when she got into their area a couple weeks ago). Hopefully it heals their wounds and discourages the others from pecking.
I made an error at the end of this video. It is not eagles we have trouble with. It's hawks! We have a pair that return to our neighbor's yard every year. There are two babies. So, we have four hawks living within 25 yards of my chickens. We hear the hawks continually. They sit in the trees over the chicken area, just hoping to get in. Of course, we have the entire top covered. We will be so glad when the hawks fly south. The big girls like running around in the yard, but we can't risk letting them out since mama and papa hawk are trying to find things to feed their young.
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