Chicks in the barn

Yesterday was moving day for the chicks! At 4 weeks of age, they’d outgrown the large brooder area we’d designated in the garage for them, and are big enough to be in the barn. So with a few minor adjustments to their prospective living quarters, we loaded the pullets very unceremoniously into a large cardboard box, put them in the back of the car and drove them across the street.

Since we have two large coops inside the barn, it was easy enough to keep the existing flock in the first coop, and set the chicks up in the second. Both are more than large enough for the number of birds Runamuk currently has, though I did put up a couple more roosts, just to make sure everyone would have a spot in the rafters. It is a huge advantage to have 2 coops, and I’m happy to have a designated “hospital ward” too.

Because of the way we’ve adapted the old dairy barn, in order to reach coop 2─which is at the back end of the barn─you have to go through coop 1. And only coop 1 has direct access to the exercise yard. This set up means that coop 2 is well protected from drafts and should offer the chicks comfortable accomodations until they’re big enough to mingle with the mature birds and venture outside into the elements.

They look happy so far!