Chicken Reset

Normally Shade Stone Farm's chicken flock free ranges over the grounds with no restrictions.  However, the last few days we have been doing some Spring cleaning.  With the large animals out on pasture we took the opportunity to clean out the barn, Pig Palace, and Chicken Castle. 

​It seems this Spring clean-up confused out birds as they started laying eggs in various places other than the nest boxes.  While we enjoy a good Easter Egg hunt, looking for their new hiding spots each day is not optimum.   

​So, for the next few days our hens are confined to the Chicken Castle until the afternoon (after they have all laid their eggs).  Hopefully this will "reset" them and get them to lay in the nest boxes which are safely contained in the Chicken Castle.

The Chicken Castle is on the left side of this outbuilding.  The Pig Palace is on the right side.  If you look closely you can see Piggy Smalls looking out of his covered door.

This is the inside of the Chicken Castle.  Normally the automatic door at the back opens and closes based on the amount of light outside, but today the sensor is covered and the girls are staying indoors. 

Two of the ladies (they are all Red Sex Link hens) are deciding which next box they would like to use.  You can see their evening roost and watering device in this photo as well.

We can access the nest boxes from the "people side" of the outbuilding.  This allows us to gather the eggs while we are feeding the rabbits, cats and pigs and without entering the Chicken Castle.

Our ladies have multiple body guards.  Our Redbone Coonhound, Maggie, patrols outside the fenced area and does a good job of keeping raccoons at bay.  Inside the fence Piggy Smalls and Clyde, our potbellied pigs, may intimidate some predators, but as you can tell by the smile, they are really friendly guys.