Chooknosis via YouTube

Today was spent upholding all our chook maintenance duties. When we bought the new chooks, the man at Brookfield Produce offered to clip their wings. We declined, having no idea what this involved and thinking that it could only be a bad thing to do to the girls.

However since they have been spotted CROSSING  the road ( don't even start on the Why would they jokes) and flapping their way into several neighbouring properties, we decided it was time to curtail these extreme free range forays. With a little wing clipping, courtesy of a YouTube tutorial.

After being side tracked by a whole series of crazy animal  footage including a cat that uses the toilet, and toilet paper, we set to work. How on earth did novices get anything done in the days before YouTube I ask you?

The above photo is courtesy of Roboboy as I was holding the poor bird by the ankles while Legoman did the wing trim. It doesn't hurt the chooks at all (just the indignity of it all), more like a haircut really. We trimmed the ends of about 8 front wing section feathers and this should stop them being able to fly over fences.

Catching the wretched birds was more the issue and resulted in  a comedy sketch involving 2 grown men, 5 boys and a toddler all haring around the yard with nets for about 40 minutes. Liongirl then set out to collect all those gorgeous feathers.

This was part of a bigger plan to curtail our girls general free ranging, partly from a safety issue and partly for the preservation of our grass. Our gorgeous lush lawn has large sections where it has been pecked down to bare dirt and so we decided to create a large chook run for the girls during the day, and we will let them out to free range after school pick up only. This way our garden gets a weed, our grass gets a rest, we should not be stepping on chook poo with every trip to the washing line and the girls still get to roam for a few hours every day.

So, we headed off on a shopping trip for all the essentials and Legoman set to work at record speed. This is the prairie near our back fence that will become the day time hangout for the girls.

Nothing like watching a man thumping in star pickets with purpose designed tool.

And that smirk of all round satisfaction. At this stage it is all progressing so rapidly he is feeling like a regular genuine handman type of which he is generally not affiliated.

Look at this- an almost complete chicken run. I won't labour the point but the chooks did escape underneath the wire less than 30 seconds after they were popped into the run. Details, Details according to Legoman who will be tweaking this design flaw in the morning.

And with all the work completed, surely it was time for a little fun courtesy of YouTube. Ever wanted to hypnotise  a chook ? Legoman is now the Yoda of chook hypnosis. There is the chook lying on it's tummy following your finger technique.

One hypnotised chook.

But for extra impact, the hypnotised chook on it's back, legs in the air, is sure to draw a crowd.

The neighbourhood boys are desperate to come back and take MasterClass from Yoda. Lucky there is a whole second week of the school holidays left. Expect the whole set, in a row, legs in the air before the week is out.