chicken problems

Remember when I just had four chickens, and I went on about how easy it was? Then last week on Thursday, I picked up four more chickens to add to our brood, and ever since I've been dealing with chicken problems. The new pullets are Rhode Island Reds, and I specifically wanted that breed due to their winter hardiness and prolific egg laying capability. What I didn't count on was how sneaky and crazy curious these new birds are!

the newbies hiding in a tree while the others inspect them 

caught in the act

They spent the first day they were here escaping as many times as possible. Luckily they are very friendly and I could walk right up to them, scoop them up and put them back. But they also watched me like a hawk and wanted to follow me everywhere I went, including in the house. So they'd fly right out of their coop, hop along the edge of the fence and then hop down and stare in the back door looking for me. Sounds pretty cute right? Well it was, the first time or two. Then it was just maddening.

You can understand why I made them spend the next day in the coop. I went to get netting right away to cover the chicken yard so they couldn't fly out, a 30 minute drive one way to get to Lowes. But I only found metal mesh stuff and trying to put that up all the way across the yard by myself (with Riggs in the Ergo on my back) was so idiotic that it was actually comical. I worked on it for nearly two hours, kneeling down under the four foot height to connect all the 'mesh' together, which felt horrible by the way (and Riggs hated it too). Oh man it was quite the afternoon and I'll admit I may have cursed the new chickens and promised horrible methods of death during those two hours of agony. And then guess what? I didn't even have enough to cover the whole yard. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just gave up and went inside. Pretty dang perturbed, but I assume that goes without saying. Poor Steve, he came home to a frazzled, fuming wife that night. Saturday we had a class at church first thing in the morning, so we couldn't go right away to get more mesh stuff. We didn't make it to Lowes (again ugh) until about 12:30, right around Riggs' nap time. Not a good time to wander around a big department store (remember this? not pretty). The good news? Steve found actual netting and so we purchased enough to cover the entire yard with the plan to tear down the sagging metal mesh I had worked so hard to put up. Bad news? Riggs was on the verge of a major melt down the entire time and I had to take him out to the car while Steve checked out because he had started crying and screaming.

Luckily everything calmed down once we got home - Riggs went down peacefully for his nap, I went out and got all the netting up and was finally able to free the newbies from being 'cooped up' (I guess that's where that saying comes from lol).

finished up the netting just before the sun went down

Sunday I was able to go out into the yard and spend some time with all the girls and I was happy to see they were all getting along AND that nobody was trying to escape. Let's just say the new girls better start laying asap to make this whole fiasco worth it...