Today is Day Three of the mostly-completed poultry habitat, and the girls seem to be enjoying it.  They aren’t particularly enjoying the weather, with a high of around 90 degrees yesterday.  They spend a fair bit of time laying down in the shade.

Yesterday I built a pop door for them, and I think it turned out pretty well.  I rigged a bit of line with some tiny half-inch pulleys so that I can open and close the door from outside the run.  It works great!

They are still a bit timid about the ramp.  I clamped a 2×4 near the top so that they have a spot to stand when entering and exiting the coop, and that seems to have helped a little.  I think the slope is a bit too steep for them to get sure footing.

I had to put them in the coop by hand again last night, except for the Ameraucana who is a week older.  I hand carried the three younger girls inside, and once the big girl figured out that she was all alone in the run she managed to find her way to her broodmates without my intervention.  So there’s some progress in that department.  I noticed an interesting behavior regarding evening roosting: Out in the run, at evening time the girls will look for something to roost on the way chickens are supposed to do.  Once they are up in the coop however they don’t have any interest in the roost which I installed for them and they instead try to all pile up on top of one another in the corner of the coop.  So far I’m at a loss to figure out what is motivating that activity.