So, you might remember me mentioning that we had started keeping the chicks inside at night. Really is the best for now – especially since it has been so cold at night. Their CamperCoop™ just doesn’t provide enough warmth for them at this stage.
We created this contraption out of our two dog crates in order to give them quarters that weren’t too cramped.
It worked fairly well, but it did have some challenges.
- It did not have a way to easily hang the feeder and waterer, so we were constantly battling pine shavings in the trays.
- While it has a great opening in the center that can be opened to retrieve the chicks for movement outside each morning, they didn’t exactly congregate there to be scooped up. This meant I had to call upon the smallest Lee to go inside and hand chicks out. Not exactly the most efficient operation.
- Freshening the litter wasn’t exactly efficient either. (See previous point…)
So, we were on a quest for yet another home improvement project for the chicks. The general idea was to have a bigger, more-open-at-the-top space for the chicks to hang out when we needed to have them indoors.
My Mom suggested a refrigerator box. We could just put it on its side and cut the “top” off. Jerry then had the suggestion of a wardrobe moving box.
So, I got on the phone this week while waiting for the boys to get done with their Geography tutorial. I struck out at Lowe’s, Walmart was a no-go, and then I tried the local U-Haul in Springfield. While getting dimensions on the various wardrobe boxes, I happened to mention that I wasn’t using it for “traditional” purposes, and the nice man asked me what I was trying to do. It turns out that he had two shorty wardrobe boxes that someone had turned in to him after they were done with them. I asked him how much he wanted for these used boxes since they sounded like just what I needed. He said I could have them for chicken dinner. Hmmmm.
I counter-offered with a dozen eggs in the spring once the gals are all laying, and we struck a deal!
So, after getting the kids, we came home and they got busy on schoolwork while I got busy remodeling the chick housing. It’s really more of a demolition job with reconstruction since the previous housing has since been completely disassembled and disinfected.
I put the boxes end-to-end and taped them together. I ended up punching holes in the top for wire to mount the feeder and waterer. This way they both hang a couple inches off the floor and should not have so many pine shavings in them. I got them a nice layer of newspapers and pine shavings, and I found a scrap of our fence material that bent to fit nicely over the opening. It is easily removed to enable much more efficient cleaning, restocking of water/feed, and chick retrieval
The chicks are right at 10 weeks old, so in the next few weeks, we should be able to start giving them visitation in the big hen yard. My hope is to have them all happily in the big coop by Thanksgiving.