Demolition Day

My original plan with the old chicken pen was to take down the old coop with a drill and a sledgehammer and build the new coop inside. That way, i wouldnt have to take the sides, roof, or buried part of the fencing down, which seemed more complicated to me. Well, that idea got poo pooed and we settled on my neighbor’s idea of taking a piece of the roof, wall, and buried part of the fencing down (its all connected). I just kept feeling dumb that i didnt understand how in the h*ll this was going to be easier but he seemed to have a vision so i guessed i’d see as it was happening. Turns out….surprise surprise, i was right. My way would have worked. I used a drill to back the screws i could reach out and put them in my pocket. They all ended up some percentage of stripped, even at 5 percent damaged i wanted good screws to work with so i tossed them rather than save them for other projects. Part of the problem is that chickens peck at silver things and though i was stripping them somewhat during removal, it was because i couldnt get a great grip on them due to the chickens pecking them for 6 years. Note to manufacturers: chickens are drawn to shiny things. Make the screws wood colored or black and the chickens wont peck the exposed part relentlessly like dumb dinosaurs when they could be out foraging for bugs. I took a sledgehammer to the door and roof because the screws were not at an accessible angle for me to get at. They came apart rather easily with an 8 lb sledgehammer. I figured i could swing that one more easily than the 10 but its weight would have more oomph than the 6 lb so 8 lb ended up being the way to go. Perfect for what i needed it for. I took a sledgehammer to the nesting boxes after backing out every screw i could reach. The nesting boxes fell off the rest of the way and i removed them. This left me a path to get to the back of the pen where i was anle to back out the rest of the screws with the drill and carry all the pieces to the unburnable brush pile (the sellers left it under some trees…it would have to be not under trees to burn it and i dont fancy purchasing or renting a tractor). I did the whole thing in the middle of a nasty cold front. It was incredibly windy and biting cold, making the process slower and less pleasant than it could have been. The whole demolition took me a whopping hour and a half and the pen is completely intact.

I should mention that the reason it has become imperative to fix up the other pen is because ive ordered 12 chocolate orpington chicks (and a free mystery chick whose eggs i just had to agree to give to the community for free upon maturity) from a hatchery in ohio and they are to arrive mid march. Now, this is a less reputable hatchery that i have never used before because the one i love is not doing chocolate orpingtons this year. They did once and they were hard for them to get with pure genetics and not as in demand as other breeds so they elected not to carry them in future years. Sometimes people breed anything brown with an orpington and call it a chocolate orpington but it looks nothing like an orpington. So, its hard to find real chocolate orpingtons but ive always wanted chocolate orpingtons ever since i saw them at powell (now permanently closed). Ive ordered twelve to account for possible losses in transit on the airplane and due to weather. I need 6 plus the mystery chick. Which ever of the remaining six survive are free chocolate orpington chicks for my coworker and her family who already have chickens (an assortment of unknown breeds). I think her boys will love them. They are known for being fluffy, huge, and friendly. I have a brooder box to put together, 11 out of 36 pavers needed (sutherlands next restocks on jan 22), and a coop that needs building. I bought a clamp and some wood glue to repair some pieces split in transit. Theres only one rectangular coop that fits the rectangular dimensions of the pens i buy and also seats 6 chickens and its maufactured in china and currently only available through wayfair due to tariffs. So, wood glue and clamp is a way quicker option than asking for another but not broken. I wanted to repair the last one in this manner as well but my neighbor said the wood glue and clamp were too far away down the road in his shop so he would just put a screw in to hold the split part together. Ive come to the conclusion that i have to be the only human on this land even if it is more work when its just me because i like everything done my way in my home and if i wanted to compromise id get married. Ive been single 12 years, so that tells you about how fond of compromise i am. I have until mid march to get the pieces repaired, the coop built, gravel put down around it, pavers on the outside, and the brooder put together. I figure ill keep 6 orpingtons and the mystery chicken if its not a tiny breed or a rooster. Since theres only 5 buff orpingtons, ill try to scoot her in with them, but if she’s a lot smaller than them she’ll have to stay with the chocolate orpingtons or go to my friend and be separate. Not of equal size, alone, the buff orpingtons will try to kill her rather than accept her into their group. Even if smaller than the chocolate orpingtons, if the mystery chick grows up with them, the orpingtons will accept her. But i wont know what she is definitively until she gets bigger. So i will probably research, see if i can guess from the fluff coloring, and if it looks like a small breed, give it to my coworker with her orpingtons, and if it doesnt, take a chance on keeping it and sort it out in the future. Either way, every time i get new chickens i say im never doing this again because its so much work to socialize them and keep them alive until they can regulate their own body temperature. Then without fail before two years old the whole new flock gets the bird pox, that mosquito born illness that they only develop immunity to via antibodies after contracting it. I will probably keep the extra mystery chicken and put it with the chocolate orpingtons because if i start with 7 inevitably after the pox ill probably have 6. Despite all the work and worry ahead, im excited because im thrilled at the thought of legit chocolate orpingtons and im excited to raise chicks again. Baby animals are so magical when you realize what had to happen to get a whole lifeform here when there wasnt one and then suddenly there was the beginning of one, and it lived to completion. Then the real work begins…training it and keeping it alive.