Good morning! Ducks, out of the way, please.
How’s it going, Sonata? It’s been a few days since he came back. Trumpet, who picks fights for no reason, has been put away for bullying Sonata. The hens are following you, so stand up straight!
Building the pigeon house
First, we level the ground — and right away I found a grub, which went straight to the chickens.
Here we’re building a 240 x 240 cm shed, the same size as our very first chicken coop. This size means less cutting and faster work. First we join 2×4 boards into a square. The roof gets posts to hold up the top board. Then we connect the ceiling and floor frames with 4×4 posts, lifting the roof frame up on its new legs. Dolly came to supervise.
Next come the walls. We straighten any warp in the posts to match the boards, then press them together and screw them in place. With walls up, it starts to feel like a room. Natsu came by to play. All that’s left is the door and the boards along the top of the sides — and the new pigeon house is complete!
Moving in
Happy, what do you think? It’s a pigeon house! Oh — he’s already up on the perch. No comment? Let’s call his friends.
I brought the first group over… and nobody comes out, ha! It’s raining today, so they’re all a little damp. Please use the perch, not the wall. Peep, in you go.
Then I caught the rest. These pigeons lived indoors, but in a hoarding situation where they were nearly neglected, so they aren’t tame at all and nobody wants to come out.
The perches should really be up high, but I want to put leg bands on them, so I set a low perch to keep them within reach. They don’t care at all what humans want. Happy, though, is happy anywhere.
I brought food for the poor things — will they come down to eat? Let’s just say it’s a rough start.
The plan
For now, they’ll live in here for two or three weeks, maybe a month. Once they’re used to the place, I’d like to let them out every morning and have them come home for meals. I’m also planning a whole wall of nest boxes. Happy doesn’t have a single bride yet — and has never even had a romance, ha!
They’ve started preening, so maybe they’ll be okay… oh, now they’re getting angry. So many males! What we really needed back then was some females.
Thanks for watching Chicken Paradise. See you next time!