About three weeks ago, I moved six hens into the backyard coop.  You’ve met the hens before…in previous posts… but in a different setting.  Now, they reside with me and I can sit on my back step with my tea and commune with them in the morning.  A dear friend helped me with the move, which required some planning.  First, we had to pick a night we were both available and then find two pet carriers.  A flashlight and headlamp completed the equipment list.

Hens should be moved at night – they are sleepy and so it is less traumatic for them.  We avoided lights, wondering if at any moment we might be questioned by law enforcement about why we were slinking about with flashlights hen-napping.  But, with a few squawks we managed to get all six hens transferred from their roost in the old coop and into the two carriers and loaded in my van.  A short drive to my house and the carriers were moved into position. I had planned on putting the carriers in the run and then opening the doors to let the hens wander out.  But, alas and alack … the door to the run was too narrow!

Therefore, after positioning each carrier at the door, I reached in and plucked each hen out, then placed her on the shelf above the watering/feeding station.  The shelf was the spot of choice because the coop framed out in the shed was not quite complete.  But, with a tarp over the end of the run, it was snug and cozy and the hens slept there for a few nights quite happily.

In the morning, I went out the back door, to find the hens clucking, scratching and pecking in their normal manner.  At least five of them….the sixth, Mavriki the black Australorp, was squawking and pacing about the run, checking the perimeter and otherwise fussing.  She seemed to be saying, “Doesn’t anyone else notice that this place is different?  Doesn’t anyone know we’re not where we were?!”  No one else seemed to care.  By the next morning they had convinced her it was okay, even if it was different.

The hens are now settled in and, with molting nearly complete two of the hens are laying again.  But wait eagerly for the green, blue and pink eggs to be gifted again by Winnie, Aurie and Rosie, the three Ameraucanas.