Chicken 5K

 Y'all sometimes I think I live in a sitcom and thankfully I can laugh at myself.  In fact I find myself and my predicaments to be quite funny....

So my chicken ownership is growing...  I have my three old girls.  

Then in March I bought these 4 at Tractor Supply  Supposedly they are sexed but I'm pretty sure the  brown one facing away is a Roo

Then Tuesday I got these 6 (5 pullets and a roo) from an animal rescue First Ladies Farm and Sanctuary.  They even got someone to deliver them to me since our caregiver is out with family illness (which means I'm home 24/7)

  

So 13  chicks in all.  Two of my old girls do not lay anymore on a regular bases and I'm suspecting

 2 Roos  but soon I'll have  9 laying hens!  

This is our set up  The pen on the left was given to me and I recently bought the pen on the right.  Same pen!  The old one is 10 plus years old and in great shape.  I use Holloway's Feed Store in Lutz.  I figured if the old one is in such great shape let me buy from the same folks!

I put concrete blocks around the coops so nothing can dig under.  Shad and I actually put the animal mesh on the bottom of the old coop but did feel like we needed it on the new one.  We also screened the old one since we have awful mosquitoes.  I paid for the company to do it with the new one!  It was a bit of a job.  

During the day the three older girls free range in the our yard that is fenced in.  The teen girls free range inside the chicken fence area.  

Well that brings me to yesterday....

After getting the new chicks Tuesday night I put them in a big dog kennel on our porch.  My plan was to introduce them yesterday morning... Oh I did but it didn't go well!  As expected there was some clucking & chasing but what was NOT expected was the little ones could get out of the openings of the secondary fence (as well as our chain link fence!)  Unfortunately all the cats (10 of them) and the dog were all outside the fence because there was so much squawking.  Dear Lord.... My animals never mess with the chickens but these tiny little things were irresistible.  They were all 6 running in different directions.  I'm yelling and running around like a crazy person  IN MY PJ's.  I literally ran a 5K according to my Fitbit!  Three of them I caught right away, after all I've been catching chickens since I could walk LOL I caught another by sheer luck and another one by stealth.  The last three ones ran into the woods outside our fence.  That last one was wily.  Our house is surround by woods on three sides and across the road is woods too.  That little one ran in and out of the fence and into both sides of the woods.  I finally called Jon and told him to come home because I could not catch that last one by myself.  At that point I was not thinking too kindly of that little $#%!  But the folks who run the rescue told me the story about theses chick's mama and how they rescued and loved her.  So I felt obligated to keep on trying to get the little idiot.  Jon came home and put his hunting clothes on and tried to chase it out of the woods towards me.  Tha didn't work.  Then I thought to get the crate with the other chicks in it and put it out.  That worked!  It came up and we were eventually able to corner it and it ran inside the chicken yard and into the old coop!  I slammed the door on it!  I added the other five and they've remained locked in and will remain locked in till they grow too big to get out the fence.  Chickens grow at an incredible pace.  

Last night the old chickens were quite confused and angry at having to go in the new pen.  But they all slept together and no one looked injured this morning!  

We are in the process of putting up security cameras, my boys were too sad that they missed out on the spectacle of me chasing all those chicks in my PJs! It was funny even to me a little bit although I may have to do some repenting LOL

If you are local and have a coop to give away or sell let me know!  I need another one!

It's so funny I grew up on a small farm and we also had a "family farm" outside of town.    I was determined to got to college so I never had to live like that....now I'm headed back that way!  I just need to get some pigs and grow a bigger garden.  At our old house I had a small side field that got great sun and I could grow anything there.  Here we have so much shade and the ground gets and stays wet in the summer.  But I have started back at trying to get one going. 

I did get this one planted.  I put chicken wire over it 

Because of this!

Finally I have to brag on Shad.  He was hired as a correctional officer and has been going through the training in which he has excelled.  He recently qualified for all his firearm training.  It was very intense and he scored high.  He goes out to the range with his friends on the weekends to practice.  We are so proud of him.  He's only 18 years old & one of the youngest hires ever.  He has accomplished so much for being only 18!  Who knows he may end up a warden one day.  It's great to see your adult kids do well.  Steve is doing wonderful as well.  Jon and I were talking the other night at how thankful we are that both of them have seem to find their "niche" and find their work satisfying.