And Finally They Arrive!

The chickens are here!  Over the last couple of days we managed to get the last touches on the coop done. At the advise of a long-time chicken raising friend I put down an inexpensive plastic tarp before I put the wood chips in.  The idea is that when it comes time to clean up you can either clean down to the tarp, which protects the floor, or just take the tarp with all the chips up and start fresh with a new one.  We actually nailed it up at selected points about 4 inches up the sides to make sure we 'caught' all the chips when they went down.

 After the tarp was down we brought in the wood chips.  We spread it at a depth of about 4 inches all the way around.  I suspect it will 'mat' down some as the weeks go on.

One of the things I didn't get a good picture of was the 8 inch tall "threshold" we put on the on the inner door.  The door is seen in the pic with the roost.  That helps keep the chips in place when we go in and out.  You can see the door is hung high enough to clear the chips.

The "People" Side of the Door.

The "Chicken" Side of the Door.

I thought I would throw in a couple pictures of the inner door.  The latch material is pretty standard, but the handles are a little unique.  They are essentially muffler clamps.  There is one on each side of the door.  The latch is only on the outside of the door.  The handles are an example of using something I had in the shop rather than buying some just for that purpose.

The feeder and waterer went in next.  The long term plan is to use the nipple waterers instead of the tank type, but I needed to get water in sooner rather than later.

 Finally we went to my nieces house and picked up the chickens!  Full feathered, although a little thin in some areas.  It didn't take them long to find the feeder and the waterer.  I was a little worried about that.  They are scratching, enjoying the sun coming in the window, and just acting like chickens.

The Golden Polish pair (Fred and Wilma) are getting their crests.  The others are looking good too!

I'm so happy to have all the "kids" home, and I'm VERY grateful to my niece for raising them up for me.

Time to call it a day, but I wanted to get these pictures up and let everyone know the birds are home.

Lots more good stuff today.  But it will wait until tomorrow's post.

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark