A New Dream Home for the Marans

Dear Friends and Family,

You know how when you are little people always say “wow! You grew so fast!” but since you are the little one, you don’t actually know what they mean? I have never had a baby, so I haven’t really had the experience of someone ‘growing up too fast.’ But now I can say with some certianty that babies grow up fast. Certainly chick babies.
    
Our Marans, once cute, cuddly (?) balls of fluff are now awkward-pubescent dinosaurs. And like human teenagers they are stinky and they want their SPACE! We agreed, they were looking quite crowded in their brooder - even once it had doubled in size with an addition and the dusty smell was too much for us as well.

But where to put them?! Needham has a 1 livestock quota per household (aka 1 cow, or 2 sheep, or 4 chickens — as if 4 chickens equal one cow! but I digress), so we would have to be sneaky if we were to move them outside. After much ho-ing and hum-ing we decided that the shed would be the perfect location (perfect being the operative word). But there was a lot of work to be done to make their new home the dream they were looking for (cue generic home improvement reality TV show voiceover).

First there was the issue of the stuff that currently resided in the shed … well that could just go to the wood shed or the basement! Outta sight outta mind. Cue montage of Babette and me running back and forth with wheelbarrows full of  miscellaneous shed-stuff.
 
Then the issue of the lack of light - there only being a smallll, dingy window in the shed as it was. Well! Mark and I would make a beautiful Dutch door! Not quite to Babette’s design (which we thought was not proportional, though it did have the benefit of having a step-over-able bottom half). Due to a hardware cloth shortage we created the lovely Mondrian-esque design for the top. Ooo la la!

Mark in the shed with the new door. Don't be fooled by his pitiful look, we were quite proud of our handiwork! Or at least I was.

Then, one final sweep before barrows full of leaves, harvested from the Ladies’ coop were shoveled in. A couple of roosts were installed overhead for our more ‘mature’ teens to hangout on and a new wooly hen for our ‘late bloomers. And then … the dream-house was ready.
Now to catch the occupants ... 

​Like toddlers, baby chickens are slippery, like eels and quick like … something that is quick. What originally just seemed like a fun mother-daughters activity, quickly became a ‘yup, three people are necessary for this’-activity. Josephine and I herded chicks towards one another and Babette put them in a cardboard box - guarding the top to prevent any chick-escapees. Then, with the box held closed, we traversed the perilous perilous  three stories. Next, crossing the yard — nothing to see here neighbors! Certainly not three crazy women transporting illegal chicks! We did this THREE times! The last chick to be caught was ‘Big Grey,’ one of our two Blue Marans, whose no-bullshit behavior (and slick, steely feathers) make her quite the heartthrob.

But each time we got to the shed and put the chicks in their new (temporary) dream home, it was clear how worth it it all was. They immediately ran around, exploring their new surroundings. They did their chicken scratch, pecked for little bugs and gave themselves nice long dust baths. Such happy little chicks!

We know we will have to move them again soon because ‘they grow up soooo fast’ but for now we will cherish having our babies so happy in our illegal chicken dream house.
​
Chow for now Arizona,

Charlotte