Happy Spring!

The girls are happy to be out of the coop! They perched upon this rustic fence I built to secure them. Jay and I have installed a three foot high fence around the coop. The large open space should be enough for them to free-range about. We now are on bird alert as they easily fly over the short fence and wind up in the yard and gardens and sometimes walking down the road! Yikes! We decided to limit their free ranging on the property (they used to range on ~ 1.4 acres). They nearly destroyed the small vegetable garden we put in last year. When the girls forage and scratch for food they really make a mess. They are ardent lovers of Digging!! These older girls are much more independent and willing to take risks- they still do a good job staying together as a flock; which is a blessing as it is getting more challenging to get them inside when they DON'T want to. We are getting back into the routine of letting them out late morning~ 9am and then letting then range until late afternoon ~4-5pm.Then they are lured into the aviary with cracked corn (which is given as a treat-not a stapple!). Once in the aviary the girls are safe from predators; namely fox and hawks.