Bird Baths and the Runs

I bathed Big Bird. She loved it.

She didn't like being picked up and brought in, and she didn't like being stood in the sink.  But when she felt the warm water on her tummy and nether regions,  she sat down and relaxed completely.


It was so successful, that I went round looking for other girls who might appreciate a bath.  Phyllis  also quite liked it, but Fleur did not appreciate it at all.     Everywhere was disinfected with Milton afterwards.


We had an evening where Phyllis, our middle aged gets-on-with-all-groups girl,  decided she wanted to sleep in with the Evacuees.  This resulted in two of the Evacuees, Annie and Katie, refusing to go to bed.  They climbed into the empty GoUp instead.     I'm not having a fourth coop in use (it's there as a potential nest box at the moment),  so I evicted Phyllis, and moved the Evacuees in to the green coop.

The next day,  DH found all the remaining run panels for me and built a tube so he could connect the two runs together.  He moved   They are separated by a guillotine style auto opener, ChickenGuard, which we used to have at the allotment.   We can keep them separate if we wish, but it's permanently open at the moment to allow and encourage the girls to go between pens as they choose.  This morning everyone chose to be in the Evacuees area. 

At some point, I want to move the Evacuees Cube into the Big Run.  We can then use the Evacuee Run as an interim/pretend  "outside" pen..... the idea being that the coops open at x oclock in the morning,  and the access to the "outside" would be  given an hour later, with the auto opener doing it's job.  

And then maybe I won't have to keep getting up at 6/6.30.

But that's in the future.