New railing

Learning as we go with the chickens.  Free range, they certainly are.  But that means that they are Free to range, but not that they have free range over all of our spaces.  Cleaning up after them is a bit tedious when they often seem to want to hang out where we are, on non grass or dirt areas.  So instead of penning them in, we are penning us in, or them out, or what ever.  Free range chickens and chicken free range seem to be important items to keep a home happy.  In the morning we can have our coffee at the table and the "girls can be within reach, close enough to make them happy, seemingly.

New railing to create a "chicken free" area.

 The funny thing was that this space seemed to be a bit small and not quite useful before I put up the railing.  Now it seems to add space to the rest of the house and makes it feel grand in size.  Strange.  I guess we needed a defining line between our space and the rest of the place.

By limiting the space with the new railing the space seemed to get bigger.
Weird.

I made the railing out of scrap material, some old decking.  I even reused the old stainless steel nails.  I decided to buy the hinges and latch (not in the picture) so that the hole thing would have a nice finish to it.  The dog has to be let in and out of the gate now, but that isn't to much trouble.  Every once in a while a chicken will decide she has to come over, or thru the fencing.  The funny thing is that once they get in they immediately start making noise, letting me know that they are where they are no supposed to be.  Between me and the dog we chase them out.  I usually have to open the gate, even though they didn't need it to get in.  Go figure.