11 is enough

Cindy was worn out by the time I got home by chicken chores.  She said she spent roughly two and a half hours cleaning the baby chickens coop, trying to get it as clean as possible.  Of course this is like an egg timer with no bottom, in no time at all the chicks will make their coop a big mess again, it’s just what they do.  Once we are able to at least get the chicken tractor moved outside with them in it the daily cleaning will get a little easier since we can simply pick it up and move it to a clean patch of grass daily.

I told Cindy I would go out and let SOME of the baby chicks out to roam freely under my supervision, something we have done before, mostly with the 5 younger birds.  Well I decided all 11 would appreciate a few minutes of total freedom so I opened the end of the chicken run, giving them an opportunity to stretch their wings, which is exactly what most of them did.  They took turns running, jumping and flapping around the yard.  It was contagious, once one chick started running another 4 or 5 had to join in.

Now of course I was conscious of keeping all the chicks somewhat together and close enough that if there were any predators around I could cut them off.  For the most part they just buzzed around maybe a 50 square foot area and loved every minute of it.  Cindy was not very happy with me for letting all 11 out at once because of safety reasons.  She was afraid some of the chicks, especially the older black ones would try to run away.  None of them did and collecting all 11 to put them back into the main coop wasn’t nearly as challenging as we feared.

This weekend I have a lot to do, as usual.  The list includes the usual suspects but also includes some unusual projects like working on the new timing gear, working on a worm composter, and a few other oddball items.   The main entertainment for the weekend will be catching the Tarpons in their exciting championship game (sarcasm mode).  It very well may be the last time we see them take the field based on the financial realities of minor league arena football.  If so hopefully they can go out with a bang.