High Tunnel, part 8, and chick update

On Tuesday, Terry and I took deep breaths and laid the first high tunnel door panel out on the driveway. We measured the distance to where the top needed to be and 3” down from there. I held the tape. Terry made the marks and drew the line. He took another deep breath and cut the top line. After that, there was no turning back or doing over. Next, we put a pipe through the pocket at the bottom. Terry put clamps on to hold the tape inside the plastic film. He attached the clamp with a Tek-screw.

Terry screws a bracket onto the pipe across the bottom of the door

I tore off lengths of Gorilla tape and handed two pieces, one at a time, to Terry so he could cover the screw.  All along, we have been taping every potentially sharp surface to prevent, or at least slow down, holes getting rubbed in the plastic.

Tape over the screws

And here it is.

The finished pipe

We rolled it up and walked to the north end of the high tunnel, where we put the ends of the door in their brackets.

The door positioned in its brackets

Leaving the pipe on the ground, we unrolled the door and lined it up so the line 3” from the top was in the middle of the beam. Terry put in Tek-screws and washers.

Attaching the door to the beam

We rolled the door up and put two braces underneath to hold it in place. We can’t leave it down until the cover is on because a wind could easily rip it off.

The rolled up door

The chicks are getting bigger every day. I am amazed how tall the broilers are getting.

My, what long legs you have!

The Silver-laced Wyandottes do not yet have their characteristic feathers. Here is a picture of one with one of the Americaunas.

The darkest Americauna (left) with a silver-laced Wyandotte (right)

The Americaunas all look different, as one can see by comparing the chick in this picture to the one above. Note also how much bigger the broilers are than the layers.

Another Americauna in front of two much larger broilers

The chicks rarely venture out in the heat of the day. They love lounging in the grass in the cool of the evening. They tend to pile up by the gate. My hypothesis was that they like to lie on the boards we put there to keep them from ducking under the fence.

Hanging by the gate, possibly because there are boards there to perch on

Terry put more 2x4s in the run yesterday. So far, I have only seen two Wyandottes on them.

Perching on the boards around the kennel, however, is a popular sport.

Broilers by the kennel

As I look back in my posts, I can’t find any mention of the broiler that had pasty butt in his early days. I dubbed him Mr. Poopypants. After five days of being taken in the house and getting his backside scrubbed, his wing feathers got bent. His own fault, really. I told him to hold still! Anyway, as the feathers have grown, they have taken on rather magnificent curls. So now I call him Curly. Curly Poopypants.

Curly Poopypants

The chicks are getting much better at going to bed. They still don’t go in by themselves, possibly because I want to shut the coops on my schedule at about 8:30 rather than at true dusk. Still, when I go into the run, they start heading for the coop door rather than trying to escape out the gate. I haven’t had any escapees since the first day. That’s a relief. It will just get easier as the days shorten. Hard to believe we are halfway through summer already!