The Chickens Have left the Brooder

The Chicken Coop/Bunny Barn, or as my son calls it, CCU (Chicken Coop University) still needs it's finishing touches, a few inside wall coverings in the rabbit colonies, soffits and paint but the chicken area is functional and so we moved the chickens in yesterday.

There was some debate on how to move the chickens; I have 33 of the little suckers. We considered putting a bunch in a box at a time thus reducing the travel time. But I was worried they might get hurt and I have been warned over and over about what happens if a chicken bleeds - the others will kill it. So in the end, I picked up each one and transported it to its new digs. 33 trips up and down the stairs and across the yard in less than an hour. Why people willingly go on stairmasters, I'll never understand, my legs are sending about 100 watts of pain up to my brain with every heartbeat. Yet I'm glad I did it that way. First of all, I believe it was much safer for the chickens and secondly, it added a real personal touch. It was nice to hold each one and see it's individual reaction to the outside.

Catching the first few was pretty easy, small brooder, lots of chickens. Then the chickens started crowding into corners, out of reach. I tried putting some feed down to get them within arms reach. That worked a couple of times then the chickens figured it out and decided to go hungry instead of getting picked up. In the end, my son entered the brooder to hand them to me. The chickens made an awful fuss all the way up the stairs and through the kitchen. Some squawked, some squeaked, and I'm pretty sure a lot swore in chicken lingo. But as soon as we hit the outside, each one got quiet and started looking around interestedly. I couldn't resist the temptation to tell them, 'I told you so'. I always thought the buffs and chanteclers were pretty birds - well, as far as chickens go. But the chantecler's feathers just shone in the sunlight and they were stunning.

The CCU is 16 ft square; the two rabbit colonies in it are 5 x 8 ft each. They are in the northeast and southwest corners; the space between them is my storage area. So the chicken area is about 11 x 11, plenty of room for 33 chooks. We made a roosting area for them, simply a wide ladder-like contraption with three rungs on it to roost. A couple of the not so bright ones went to the end of the roost and used it as a slide. I hope they smarten up soon, dealing with splinters in chicken butts is something I'd like to pass on.

Anyhow, they're in and seem to be content. Tomorrow we're going to fence in a little area as a run for them and introduce them to the great outdoors; something I think every chicken should have a chance to explore.

Yummy Strawberries

The first year I put strawberries in, I bought a package containing strawberry roots from my local nursery. I followed the directions impeccably, not much to it really; soak the roots, stick 'em in the ground. Not so much as one plant appeared. I did something wrong but I have no idea what. Not wanting a repeat of the first year, the second year I bought little strawberry plants. The kind you find in the herb section of any gardening place. They grew and bore tiny little strawberries that were actually more effort than they were worth. You could actually hold twenty in your hand and still have room for more. Well no matter, they were hybrids and I was told they would not survive the winter anyhow. So live and learn and go without strawberries for another year.

Last year, those miserable little strawberry plants survived. They don't have runners like real strawberry plants so they kind of look like clumpy thwarted bushes and as such tend to be sullen. They grudgingly flower here and there and throw a berry out now and then just because they have to. In addition to those grumps, I bought twenty strawberry roots and made sure there was at least one or two green leaves attached to each root. The package said twenty but I separated close to thirty roots. Now these are strawberry plants! They flowered abundantly and we got large berries. Runners appeared, zooming in straight lines as far as they go, dropping the occasional new plantlet into the ground.

This year, those silly little herb strawberry plants survived yet another winter. Funny though, the berries seem to be getting bigger. May-be the plants are just maturing or may-be they figure they better adjust their attitude since their replacements are sitting in the next patch over. But I'm wondering if perhaps there is some cross pollination going on. The other real strawberry plants are just doing beautifully, setting large, tasty berries and surviving the winters without blinking a leaf.

The berries are just about done now, I'll probably go through the patch a couple more times just to catch any stragglers. I'd say the strawberry plant population has at least tripled and they are growing down into the garden. That's fine,it's always easy to make the garden a bit bigger to accommodate willing plants. And you know what they say - the more strawberries, the more shortcake!