Our First Night Out

Well, it has been a busy day for the chicks. They love being outside in their pen so much better than the brooder that I decided today that I'd try putting them out for the night. It is warm enough out there during the day for them, but as they still may need some extra heat at night, the first step was to put an outlet where I could plug in the brooder lamp at night.

So... off to Lowe's for conduit, outlets and some Romex for a new weather-proof outlet. I had planned to run a whole new circuit just for the outside lights, but I ran out of energy and time and stamina so ended up just piggy-backing off one of the inside outlets for the circuit. I ran the romex out and down through the conduit, then into the new outlet box on the post. Just the perfect place for running a drop cord to the coop!

I did finish the predator-proofing also today so I feel pretty confident that the chicks will be safe tonight from any roaming 'coons or 'possums. I also moved their brooder pen pan into the coop for now, and added pine shavings so they would feel more at home.

We left for a late dinner and back-to-school-supply shopping and did not get home until after 11pm. I checked on them, and half of them figured out that the coop is the place to spend the night. The other four needed a bit of help to join their coop-mates in the chick-n-barn, but as of this writing, they are all settled in for the night. It's so cute that some of them have already figured out how to use the roosts - they are growing up SO fast and are starting to think they are big girls already.

From the road it looks like we have some weird Halloween house in the back yard with the red glow of the brooder lamp. The pics are a bit hazy because of the long shutter time, but I wanted to have the flash off to show how the coop really looks in the dark. You can see the chicks here inside the coop - two of them are on the roost, and the rest are hanging out together for the night.