Project Weekend, Chicks New Condo & Integrating To The Flock

Project Weekend-
It's been an interesting week weather-wise and finally the rain seems to be behind us. It was 93 today! Dave was out of town all last week for some business training so I was taking care of the garden, the chicks, the cat, the house by myself for 5 days. I must say I did enjoy some down time. There's always watering to do since the weather seems to have warmed up and dried out. This weekend was a LOT of projects to do, luckily none of them were too involved. Lot of watering the garden since it was in the mid-eighties, very dry and windy. Then there was weeding, deadheading, pruning, spreading compost, cleaning the coop, and some indoor projects. The veggie garden is dong great including 3 totes of potatoes full with vines! We have large giant Marconi Peppers already on the vine. They're are really great Italian pepper I grew for the first time last summer that turn dark red and have a wonderful mild Smoky flavor-

They're great for grilling or adding to any kind of Italian food. We have lots of green tomatoes, flowers on the lemon cucumbers and slicing cucumber, flowers on the zucchini, and tiny hot
peppers-

Raspberries

Thorn less Blackberries 

Blackberries

Peppers mixed in flower bed

Shade area for the hens

Cool on a hot day

Love our huge maple tree!

Chicks New Condo & Integrating To The Flock-
This weekend the weather finally cooperated enough to move the chicks outside during the day. With crazy weather, rain and colder temperatures than usual they were inside longer than I had anticipated. I did take them out in the evenings, putting them into an old outdoor playpen on top of a tarp on the deck-

Nice view!

From L- Annie White Plymouth, Pru Black Australorp, Sarah New Hampshire Red

They got some fresh air and got used to being outside. Saturday Dave notched a little area of the garden and it became the temporary chick condo for one week-

He added a little roof for shade from scrap wood, covered gaps

I added a towel for more shade late in the day

Pine shavings in back for a nice nap area

Nice view of garden with hen and chicks

Rosie looking for bugs

  

Happy chicks

Previously we had some small chicks I integrated into to the flock New Chick Housing I did find out that system works pretty well. The idea is that you have the chicks in an adjacent area to the full-size hens. They can all see each other, but not get to each other. You have a separate space with food/water and we did put bird netting on the top.  The little chicks have figured out how to fly! It's also to keep out any possible hawks. We made sure there were no gaps in the fencing and tightened down the bird netting with some leftover pavers. The chicks really enjoy being out during the day and the first two evenings we brought them back inside. They're just getting too big for the box so the last night they spent their first night outside. We moved their box into the coop on the floor and covered it with scrap chicken wire so the two larger hens could not get to them. It's better to be safe and make sure everything is okay than wind up with two dead or injured chicks in the morning. We brought them out this morning and they had a great day and we'll keep them in the coop separated until Saturday. The plan man is to double-check the whole chicken run area for gaps, and then release the chicks and sit back and watch. I did this last time and there was no drama and everything went well! In the the evening it's just a matter of making sure they all get into the coop. After some time goes by they'll all be the same size!