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The Life of Ferndale Chickens #2 – Field Trip! (video)JudyPalmer01

(Jillian Bogater, orig. Chicken Scratch Fever, April 9, 2014)
BACKGROUND: Jillian Bogater and Matt Greenberg are cooped up in Ferndale, which in 2012 legalized backyard chickens. This is their first time urban farming with hens. Jillian, a professional journalist, and Matt, a brownfield redevelopment consultant, added three chicks to their household in Spring 2014. On March 17 they picked up a Black French Copper Marans, a Dominique and an Olive Egger from a seed012_francine_hachemhatchery in Ohio. They have built a Detroit-style Wichita Cabin Coop, which passed inspection in January. Their full journey is chronicled on chickenscratchfever.com. Selected posts will be here on oc115!

With temperatures above 50 degrees today, we decided to take the chicks on a field trip to see their chicken coop!
I packed all three into a cat carrier, and walked them out into the yard. At first they were scared to come out of the carrier, but the bold Olive Egger led the way. Before we knew it, all three were chirping, and picking at grit for the first time.
At one point Matt had all three balanced on his arm. This marked a major milestone in terms of the chickens trusting us humans. Most often they will run from our pesky hands. But today they seemed to open up, welcoming us into their world.
We were outside maybe 10 minutes, but it was enough to show them their news digs, and to experience sand for the first time. I know they loved it. Each one christened the coop, if ya know what I mean.
The Olive Egger checks out the recently installed ramp in the run.

Coop maintenanceBTLWeddingExpo_144x360

Earlier this afternoon, Matt and I took care of a few loose ends with the coop. We added sliding latches to the two coop windows, and we put the ramp back into the run. (We had locked it in the hen house during winter.)
We also readjusted a pesky sliding latch on the hen house door that was almost impossible to open. Now it slides back and forth, like butter.
The highlight of the day was installing a pulley system to make the guillotine chicken door operable. The little door will allow the chicken to move from the hen house, down a ramp and into the run. Matt installed a series of eyehooks in the ceiling of the hen house, then ran a thin rope from the guillotine door, through the eyehooks out to the front of the coop. All I will have to do is pull on the rope, attach it to a hook … and voila! The door will stay open.
To mark the occasion, here’s a very short video showing how it works!

Read Part #1 here – http://oaklandcounty115.com/2014/04/01/the-life-of-ferndale-chickens-1-the-babies-are-home-2/.