Hot and humid...blek!

It's been crazy hot and humid here in central Pennsylvania, so I haven't been spending much time with the girls.  I've been changing their water multiple times through the day, to keep it cool.  Otherwise, it's just a few minutes in the evening, before bed time.  After removing the night's waste from the coop, and fluffing their run back up, I did manage to catch a few pictures of them.  They only go outside the back of the barn when I'm up there.  Then they spend their time either in the upper barn or down in the lower barn (where the horses are, and which is cooler thanks to an old bank dairy barn).

Professor Snape, our lone cockerel

Effie, our only Buff Brahma

Free Ranging, Day 2 :-)

I let the girls out again this morning.  Effie and Professor Snape are sticking inside the upper barn.  The girls are venturing outside, but sticking to the front of the upper barn today.  The only time they venture farther is when I'm out walking around.

And while the kiddos are doing their own thing, I made myself a chicken pooper scooper. haha  It works pretty well, but I need to tweak it a bit. :-)

Free ranging, attempt 2, day 1

Phew!  I've been super busy but I finally had time to spend with the girls.  I let them free range yesterday (the first since SusieQ went missing, without a trace).  I was a nervous wreck!  They followed me to the house and back, so I've learned to sort of sneak away. lol  

I was very happy to find them all in the coop at dark, except Professor Snape (not sure why he sleeps UNDER the coop! lol).  

New run :-)

I finally have the run up for the chickens and let them out.  I still need more sawdust in there and a section of ash.  But at least they can stretch and move around. :-)

I have two more panels to add to the far side, but I need to put hardware cloth on them because hubby had hit them with the tractor a few years ago and bent them.  Plus his bloodhounds clawed through part on the bottom.

Their new home :-)

I checked on them a few minutes ago (it's almost 11 pm here) and this is what I saw:

Goofy girls!  So tomorrow, after I get their run done and they can go back outside, I'm going to put wire above the window sill.  I don't imagine chicken poop would be very easy to get off the hardware cloth. lol

Moved into Permanent Coop

I finally got my coop "chicken worthy" enough to move them in this evening. :-)  Most were taking dust baths and 3 were checking out the roosts.  I have their food, water, and oyster shells in there with them for tonight.  Hopefully, by tomorrow, I'll have their run down so they can be out again (and food/water will be moved back out).

The colored spiral leg bands came today, so now I'll be able to tell everyone apart.  Which means it's time to name the Buff girls.  I'm curious to find out if 2 of the Buffs are super friendly and 2 more standoffish, of if they've all been coming over to me and I just can't tell which is which. lol

Anyway, off to start taking apart the dog kennel panels.  No rest for a chicken lover, for sure! :-)