Last night at “Bedtime for Birdies” I noticed that Rover now had two chicks.  They were so darned cute!  I was concerned, though.  She had not left the nesting box for a couple of days, as far as I could tell, to eat or drink.  This was not good seeing as we are reaching 100F everyday right now.  I needed to do something.

I am a member of a Poultry group on FB.  I posted the question to them and also turned to my friend, Google.  Fortunately, they gave the same advice:  A Brooder Box.

After a bit of thought, I remembered that we still had Loki’s (the rabbit) first bunny box.  It is a metal cage with a fold down door on one side.  I thought that it would make an ideal brooder box.  I went about making preparations.

I had a nice sized shoe box from my newest pair of running shoes.  I took off the lid and filled the box with wood shavings.  I then lined the rest of Loki’s old cage with some more shavings.  A dish of food and a dish of water and we were good to go.

Now, Google warned me that Rover was not going to take kindly to being disturbed and advised that I wear glove.  So, I did.

Google was right.  Rover was not happy about being relocated. She really was not happy about me moving her eggs to the shoe box.  She made herself very busy with re-arranging the eggs after I had placed them into the shoe box.

After I had Rover and the eggs moved, I moved the two baby chicks into the cage as well.

The next part was fun.  Not.  I had to move the bunny box/brooder box into the chicken tractor.  That rabbit cage was not predator proof.  They needed to be inside the tractor to be safe.  The cage fit snugly into the tractor.  The other chickens were very put out about this entire operation.

Fortunately, it was “Bedtime for Birdies” and the other chickens were very tired.  They eventually gave up and went upstairs to the roosting area to sleep.

Rover gave me the evil eye and concerned herself with covering her chicks and eggs and settling down for the night as well.

This morning, the shoe box is tipped over.  I am just going to leave it alone.  I think the more I meddle, the worse it will be.  I don’t know if any more chicks will hatch or not.

This is a learning thing for me.  Have never done this before.  For that matter, neither has Rover!  I guess the two of us are learning together.

Let’s hope for the best.