Chicken run upgrade

Mermaid spreading some hay in her new run

Being a bit new to home ownership and yard responsibilities, I asked around for advice on what I should do to the grass for the winter.  The advice I received was to aerate, fertilize and over seed.  So, I called a guy for yard aeration, and ran to Home Depot for grass seed and fertilizer. Once I got all the seed out, I was about to let the chickens run the yard like normal...  then I Googled "chickens + grass seed" and found out that chickens LOVE grass seeds.  The only thing they love more then the seed, is crisp green baby grass.  

So.... with that info, I realized I needed to quarantine the chickens for a while the grass comes in and get established.  I didn't want to keep them in the coop all the time, so I ran back to HomeDepot for some lumber and hatched a plan (wink wink) to open up their run a little.  I build a short fence along one side of the coop to the fence.  Then I took one of the wire walls down and built a door the same distance to the fence.  When the gate/door is opened up, it allows the chickens out of the smaller run but closes them into the larger fenced in run. 

I'm sad to have to keep the chickens from grazing the yard, but hope the it doesn't take too long for the grass to grow in.  I'll keep you updated on how they like the bigger run and how long they are kept from the yard. 

New coop/gate door opened

New coop gate/door closed

New shorter fence

Winterizing

Little man helping me get the chickens ready for the cold.

This weekends forecast had some temperatures in the teens overnight so I started getting the coop and chickens ready for winter.  The first thing I bought was a Thermocube which is an electrical outlet that turns on at 35 deg on off at 45deg for $11.  This thing is so simple but I was surprised that this was the first time I had seen it.  I'll be using this to run the deicer but you could also use this to run a heat lamp as well.

I got the De Icer for $29.99 from Amazon.  Another simple thing that I have never seen before.  Other then purchasing these two items and plugging em in, there is not much more to do to winterize the chickens.  As long as they have warm water, they are good to go in the cold.  I even got 4 eggs on Sunday!  I'm still trying to figure out how 3 chickens laid 4 eggs in one day...

The deicer in the water bucket

Fall Season

I was raking the leaves this afternoon and Ariel Mermaid thought she would helped me out.  :)