Temporary Chicken Pen

We now have an outdoor pen for the chickens so they can go outside, get some fresh air and scratch around in the grass.  Right now it is just a temporary structure.  Tom plans to build them a more permanent one when he gets the time.  But for now, here is their outside pen.

It is covered over with bird netting to keep the chickens in and hawks (that might like to have one of them for dinner) out.  As you can see there is an opening that allows them to go in and out of their "coop" which I talked about in the blog entry below.

http://windyacresnaturalfarm.blogspot.com/2012/04/chickens-have-new-home.html

Inside the coop, there is a hinged door that can be lowered and fastened.  We close this door at night after the chickens have come in to roost to keep raccoon, opossums and the like out. 


The chickens love this outdoor area (such as it is).   Every morning when we let them out of the coop, they rush outside to see what tasty insect they might find in the grass.   The other day one of them found a cricket.  It caused quite a commotion and you would have thought a gold coin had been found instead of a lowly cricket.  The one who found the cricket was chased by the others who were trying to get it.  It was all quite hilarious!

We still throw leftover lettuce and other greens in the pen for them.  They like those too and will inspect them carefully before they eat them to check for caterpillars or other bugs that might be hiding in the greens.   It amazes me how good their eyesight is and that they can spot a small green caterpillar that is exactly the same color as a piece of lettuce!   I mentioned this to a friend last week and they pointed out that chickens are, in fact, birds and that all birds have good eyesight.  Just think how an eagle or hawk can spot a small mouse in the grass from many feet in the air.  That gave me a whole different way of looking at my chickens!