The Great Chicken Adventure: Week 7

In two weeks, so much has gone on and been developed in the chicken house! This week we accomplished lots of things that should have been done a while ago - but alas they are finally done. We spent a whole day building the outdoor chicken pen. Now they can go outside as they please and rip and tear as much as they like. We made the chicken run 10'x15'. We dug holes and used cedar posts every 5 feet. Then we made a frame at the top to affix the chicken wire to. We used 2"x4" corn crib fencing around the bottom 4 feet of the chicken run and 1" chicken wire on the remaining area above. We used chicken wire across the top of the run making it completely fenced in, so no turkey vultures can snatch up one of my birdies. Last we put cedar posts split in half along the bottom of the entire chicken run, so nothing can really dig in or out. When we let the chickens out the first time, they were entirely thrilled! The second structural improvement we did was install roosts for the birds. We notched lengths of a tree that we took down - cut in the width of the building, and braced them with a block of wood to the coop wall. We did one at 5ft high, 3 1/2 ft high and 1 ft high, staggered like steps. At first the birds were hesitant to go near the roosts but that night, here they were all lined up on the highest roost! And a very exciting development with the birds is that Bernie the rooster is proudly crowing from 6:30AM to 11:30AM in the mornings. And the last addition we made was putting cage wire (1"x1") over the windows. The birds were starting to fly up to the window sills to perch up there.
Heres some pictures of the rapidly growing birds!