Briefly boxed, en route to new digs
When frosts threaten our area of the world, the water supply we use for the summer – graciously shared by the Botanical Garden nursery – has to be shut off. This means that both the Bovans and Lohmanns, who were living on the east side of the farm, needed a new place to live that was closer to one of our own water sources.
After a bit of deliberation over where to put them, we made the big move yesterday. Couldn’t have picked a nicer day, either. I actually worked in a t-shirt for much of the afternoon. Moving a hundred chickens across a few fields may not sound like much, but it’s a full day’s work. The fences, feed and water stations and houses all need to be moved and set up before letting the ladies free on their new turf. Then come the tasks like reconfiguring all the hoses to supply water both indoors and outdoors, and hooking up the electrical fence.
The chickens are now sharing one house, just inside the front gates. By the end of the day we were all a little stinky, but the ladies were happily pecking away in the fresh grass. Although they didn’t ever thank us directly, I think the sentiment was there.
