Setting up the Mobile Pen
It’s been very hot and humid here for a couple days. The broiler chicks had grown very quickly this year, and it was time to let them out into the mobile pen.
It takes 2 of us about 3 hours to assemble the Circus Tent and Mobile Pen for the first time each year. Then it’s just an hour a week to move it for the rest of the season. As it was to be hot today and my husband had a 9AM appointment, we got started around 5:30AM.
Putting the PVC together for the Circus tent
Like most jobs on the farm, they can’t be done unsupervised. Our supervisors were out bright and early, to make sure it was done right.
Once the rolls of fencing were laid out and the Circus Tent assembled and moved into position, we put the fences up. Then the pole for the tent was centered and the sections of tent pulled into position. Then he used the pigtail posts to press the chicken fence to the ground, preventing escapes by tiny birds.
Tent up, but the ropes must be set correctly the first time
Once that was done, my husband headed out and it was my job to adjust the ropes to keep the hawks out. There are over 5 dozen of them, so it takes a good long while to do the first time each year. He had let the little birds out for the first time before he left.
Barred Rocks and Buckeyes out for the first time
These supervisors didn’t do a very good job….
The humidity at 90%+ and heat were a killer for me this morning. The standing for 3 hours did not help. When I finished the pen, I got a shower and slept on the couch until nearly 1PM. I was technically watching A Midsummer’s Night Dream, the 1935 version, but I tended to do it with my eyes shut…. I thought, seeing as it’s almost the Solstice, that would be a good one to watch.
When I woke up, the wind had come up and blown the humidity away, down to 40% and it cooled down some.
Watching Shakespeare seems nicely Solstice!!!
I l9ve the pen. Is that a hotwire around it?
There's a dedicated electric netting around the coop inside the pen, at night. The pen itself is not electrified.