My Guineas Got Out So I built a Mobile Coop (in a Day)

You guys notice something? Donald's back. Donald's back where he belongs, out in the pasture with the sea monsters, protecting these guys at night. Although I did wonder, how are these guys doing at night? How are they adjusting? This is like— last night was like day— last night 2. I came out here, this is what I saw. The sea monsters are perfect. They're all huddled in the middle underneath that chickshaw. Donald's out there guarding them. That was perfect. They're all cuddled up in the very center of that.

It is Sunday morning.

Hey guys! How are you?

I've got Gideon with me and I'm just getting my boots on and then we are gonna head out into this very, very foggy morning. You look really nice in your outfit today. You look like a real cowboy. I am making my way to the sheep, then I will see if Justin needs any help with any of his stuff. Hey guys, good morning! And we're gonna go that way for a little bit. Then we're gonna go that way for a little bit, and then we think that they will be done. Hey guys! They kind of, they were kind of stopped and looking at me.

Okay, come on.

Let's go inside. Oh, let's let you get poop out. Everybody needs to poop.

Do you ever feel like your day is putting out fires, reacting to things, just solving problems? Kind of being on the defense. Well, that's not right. 5 guineas out. Today is sort of one of those days. I'd hoped the guineas— I was going to keep them in this chicken tractor until I could build them a turkey shaw, which would give them aerial protection and side protection because they could put a net around it, and then you could free-range. We went to get this water out and one jumped out. What, that was Friday?

Just like that, but one jumped out.

So I'm gonna sprinkle food around here just to keep them attracted to this. And by the way, the lambs aren't in here anymore. The lambs are over there. You ever wonder what they do at night? Lambs are just chilling out here. They like it outside, don't you guys? Yeah, that's what they do. A lot of like what they do during the day. They don't seem to care that it's dark. Morning, Jonah.

Good morning. Papa, some night that it's a full moon, can we work all night?

Maybe sometimes. He's asking me to work all night. Full moon.

It's like, it's like it's half day off.

We're gonna give your chick shell hauler another chance.

Braces on it, and then that should do it.

So one got out and Jonah and I could not put it back in. So I had this bright idea that— I can say that now, smart aleck, because it didn't work— that I should open the chicken tractor door at dusk and they've been living in there so long they'll go back in. Well, they didn't go in. They all got out.

Papa, did you change the battery in my flashlight?

You need some help with that?

What did you do last night?

I had to change the battery. Can you get that battery charging?

Yeah, where did you put it?

I had to go turn the well off to the water to the pigs, horse pigs, and I checked on everybody last night, including the guineas. I knew they would be perched on the chicken tractor, which is a problem because they're just a target for owls. So I said, can I just catch them? The guineas are all perched And I was able to catch 2, surprisingly, but the other 5 flew away. Thankfully they're here this morning.

All right, I'm taking over. I told Justin yesterday, I said, before you know it, you'll just be able to say, hey, can you do this? And I'll be able to do it. They're so cute. Okay, let's lock ourselves in here.

Hey guys, how you feeling?

They're getting some minerals, getting some hay. Look, that's, that's really disgusting. There's cave crickets in there. I don't know if cave cricket is the correct term, but that is the term that we use. These are these crickets that like come out at night. They're so gross.

Do you want to work on the lane? Because today is our work day, Jonah.

Shoot, I totally wish we could. I totally wish we could work on the lane or the sheep shaw, but we're gonna have to build a turkey shaw instead.

Okay.

Yeah, because I'm thinking if we put a turkey shaw by the guinea house. This was our long-term plan. They'll perch on it, get protected with the covering, and maybe we could put a net around it. If you think they'll even go to it— what do you think?

Go to what?

The turkey shaw.

Maybe.

I don't know. Is it worth a shot? I mean, worst case, we'll have a turkey shaw next year. Good morning, everybody! Up and at 'em this morning. I like the belt buckle look. All right, let's do our chores and then we'll get on that turkey shot, hopefully. Look what y'all uncovered. That's a king snake.

Pick it up.

That's a good one. Good boy.

What's wrong? It got in a fight.

Is it injured?

Yeah, it's on its side.

See all the mulch It is kind of acting like it's crippled, isn't it? Oh yeah, shoot. Wow, it got clipped.

I think I know what happened.

What?

He got in a fight with a raccoon or a possum and it bit him.

It's possible. He's got skin missing on that one side. Yeah, he might be all right though. Just let him be. Is everybody breathing all right?

It seems like it.

They were panting a little yesterday, but I think it was not as hot.

I wouldn't say it was panting, I would say that it was just more fast breathing.

Yeah, they're not breathing fast at all right now. Yeah, scare us to death. Any little thing they do is gonna scare us. We didn't have a great first run with sheep, and so just a nervous, nervous wreck around these guys, but I should Say this. I heard a quote on a podcast the other day, a Tim Ferriss podcast, David Allen. Two words: let go. Let go. That could be used in a lot of different areas. Didn't necessarily get to do what I want to today. Let go. Sheep got a runny nose. Let go. Not saying we're not going to do anything about it, but Just, ah, just let go. Look at that. Hey, Gideon, look. Mom just put her hand out. She didn't move. That's crazy. It's paying off, Beck.

She's gonna bolt any moment, I think.

And that's a good thing because we have about 1 week of grazing in our backyard before we're gonna have to get them out to pasture.

The weathers are very unhandled, so when they—

I know.

Well, they're very fearful, so when they leave, I think that it's gonna calm the girls down. Yes, a ton. And I mean, I'm wondering Could we put them out with the lych doors, or would that not work? We drenched them yesterday, so they're not like completely wild. Yeah, at least get to them.

Yeah, they're rubbing off on the ewes. That's crazy.

It's Belle and this is Ryder.

Look at that.

What you doing, buddy?

Greasing it.

Good for you.

The one that moves the deck up and down, they don't need it.

How do you know?

Well, I put it on there and did one squeeze and stuff came off.

Okay, that's fine. We'll do at least do one squeeze.

So yesterday when I was doing my training, I felt like they had a little bit of a snot nose, a snotty nose. Um, nothing too concerning. There was one that had a cough. I didn't know if it was because I was trying to catch her and like she was eating, and I didn't know if like it got weird in there, you know, like because I, you know, catch them on their necks. Not that I pressed too hard, but I didn't I don't know. I texted with my mentor, my sheep mentor Claire. She said, you know, with the move, things could have gotten a little bit— their immune system could be a little bit down, and they're dealing with, you know, new pollens, new, um, new— a new environment. She said let's just give them some vitamin C and just boost their immune system. Pat Colby's Natural Sheep Care book also suggested vitamin C, so I, um, I had it on hand. This is what I use, and I use this for all the animals, not just the sheep. Like, I use this for the cows when they have mastitis as well. I drenched them twice yesterday. I'm gonna drench them again today. And this is something that if they don't need it, they'll just pee it out. It's not going to hurt them. We got like close to them, they came up to us. It was really great, it was really, really great. And I drenched everybody. I'm monitoring everybody's temperature just to kind of make sure that, you know, things aren't going south. Um, and they tolerated all of that. They tolerated the trench drenching and they tolerated the temperatures, the temperature being taken, and they tolerated all of us being in here, which was amazing. Now I'm gonna go and move their paddock. Alone, or maybe with children, but like not without Justin. So that's pretty— that's a new thing. Justin, I'm like 6 feet between.

Do I just take up the fence Joni, you got that ready to hook up the strap? Okay, you guys do that. Get the Energizer and the waterer in there. Mom's calling me. She's coming around the chicken tractor, coming for you later, guys. Oh, huge bummer. I hate when that happens when you are 6 feet away. You don't want to get a whole nother fence for 6 feet.

No. So I have 2 options. There's enough fence over there. Yeah, I could take it down from this one. Yeah, this one.

Yeah.

Or I could just do me a line right here.

Yep. I would not do that because why not eat the scrap? So look, this is your power source, Rebecca, right?

Right.

So you always run your power source and then you build off of it. Oh, and then the overlap can go down that streak.

Okay, I'm learning.

You're learning. You're doing a great job. Because you always have to be connected to the power source. So it's just best to build from that. And basically you got to take the fence down every day and then just put it back up. But once you get good at it—

oh yeah, sometimes it does, most time it doesn't. I did it!

I just need the, the post that you guys are standing on to finish right here. But y'all, sheep fence is a little bit easier than, uh, chicken. So some people commented on my Instagram post yesterday about how the fence is so hard to move and this, that, and other, which it is. I'm not saying it's not, but sheep fence is a little easier. So yeah, Don't feel bad if you have a hard time. Uh, chicken fence is on my list.

Rocks.

Okay, how's it going over here? All right, you got your device hooked up? All right, we got that on there. I think that's gonna be lifted off the ground high enough, Jonah.

Yeah, you want to do— would you like to maybe do it?

Go get a bigger pin. Our pin's not big enough. No, because then it's lower. You got to keep it higher off the ground. I'm thinking he's going to have to put a brace here too, but we can try it. He's got this wooden device that goes under. He's got an O-hook ratchet strap across. It hooks back on it here. See, this is brilliant, absolutely brilliant. And an elevated hitch so that the front legs get off the ground. And it can be pulled. This is actually working great. It's our wheel, our axle spinning, and it's spinning our nut, and it's about to bust this. It's actually pulling on the frame underneath there. See that? Mommy, see how the nut has separated in there? It's about to explode off and breaking the chick shawl with it. So there are speed bumps and then there are detours. This is a speed bump. Having to build a turkey shawl today when we're maybe going to build a sheep shawl is a detour. Both are stressful, and then on top of each other. Let go, right? Let go. All right, Jonah, I need your help quick. Oh boy, I should have got something for this to stick on. I guess it'll go on the ground. Hope that doesn't break your thing. But I need to put a washer, a lock washer, between these two nuts, because what happens is it gets spinning on this and it pinches the wheel, and then the wheel turns the nuts. I think it won't do that if I put a lock washer between these two.

Oh my gosh.

All right, we got the wheels on. We're ready to go. Jonah, how's it feel? You did it! You invented a way to easily move the Chickshaw with a mower. That's gonna help when we want to take it way up there, isn't it? Thanks for bringing that stuff down.

You are welcome.

Um, Saves me a little bit of time. We milked Flossie. You got Moose? You did that all by yourself. Good job, buddy. How you doing, Moose? You still scared of us? You still scared? Don't be scared yet. We're gonna take good care of you.

Yeah, you can be done with it.

Jonah, can you go roll it down the fence for them so they can get in the new grass? Josiah and I'll take care of the luchadors, the sea monsters. Wow, they might have already gone through their daily ration. They should eat anywhere between 14 and 20 pounds of feed at this time. Some are out. Yeah, y'all need more feed already. I gave them 16, so we'll We'll give them 4 more pounds. Look at all these chickens out. Yeah, the fence was left off. All right, last but not least chore this morning, my favorite, moving the luchadors. Mr. Escalito has had some diarrhea. I said, Greg, Beauty, what can we do? Uh, he's probably eating too rich. Of a grass. It's transitioned from his grass to our grass. Too rich for you, huh? Nacho's doing fine. He's still pooping pebbles. So Greg just suggested to stop alfalfa, so rich, and then to get them hay. High fiber dry hay to offset the all the rich greens. I think they have to just adjust. I'm going to hope for the best here. Now, you think we can put two other withers in here, Josiah? I have to supplement with hay at that point. We can only move this twice a day in order to give our very first spot enough rest. We got to give it at least 60 days rest, so you can't move it more than twice a day. All right, man, sun is coming up. We're quitting just in time to escape the heat. That was a nice morning with the overcast. This looks delicious. What are you making?

Sausage, spinach, egg. I'm gonna put some cheese on it.

I like to sprinkle our raw onions on top of it.

A fairy pond?

He's really—

a fairy—

You really got something to say, don't you, Mr. Brown? Okay, it's after lunch. Let's move this out of the way. And let's build this pricklyshaw. An idea in my head, it's going to be a 4-foot cube, probably something like that. There you go, the end of the day. Shade cloth on top. All right, this is it upside down. That's my base, my standard Chickshaw axle system. Flip this over, this is how tall it's going to be. This is going to be the leg and the height of the The shawl, it's not— it's probably not going to be the prettiest looking shawl, but it's going to be a cube on wheels, basically. Feeding right along here. The 4 corner posts up, the lid. I need y'all's help though.

No, this part.

Okay, now hang on right there. I don't know about the guineas, but Gideon likes it. We're running into some issues, but I don't think they're fixed. I think we're just gonna make it as smooth as possible. Like we could put the, the carry bar— I don't know what to call it— for hauling it. This could have been 2 feet longer and extended out, and that would be our bar instead of adding another one here. Let's just extend that out. So it's gonna be a pain to replace it. You gotta undo it here, here, here, the axle wheel, and over there. But I think it'll be worth it in the long run. Well, you know what, that's going to be too much. It's almost supper time and we have a webinar tonight for our premium Do-It-Yourself Abundance area, so we need to quit here. We can get it out like this, guys, and we can just worry about the arm later. Let's put the, uh, let's get the shade cloth on though, right? Hey, you didn't eat your hay! Well, that's a change. Maybe that's a good sign. They have been eating their hay, but now they haven't, so Maybe they don't need it. Well, we did it. We got the shade cloth on. We got it nice and tight. So legit. There's the shade right there right now, this time of day. Don't get on that. No, no, it's not made for that. All right, we got the shade cloth on, guys. Let's get it out. We lack handles, but I think that's legit, huh? You guys open the garage door and let's go.

All right, there it is.

I'm gonna put it by the chicken tractor. I'm gonna keep the two guineas in there, guys, so that these others will keep over here. Hopefully these guys will train to this, get on this. I don't care if they get on the bottom, it's fine if they want to get on the bottom. The whole idea would be then to surround this with an electric fence to protect them at night. Aerial protection. And then fence for land protection. All right, let's, let's go. We'll check in on them later to see if they have perched. Well, we did make it in. We made it on time for our webinar. 8:30 now, it's over. Jonah, you ready to go? You think this guinea's got up? No, no, he's already been out there doing his chores. They didn't go to the The turkey shaw. They're on top of the chicken tractor.

Uh, yeah.

All right, let's go catch them. They haven't gotten in the turkey shaw. That doesn't necessarily surprise me. It's first night. Hold on, Jonah. Do you want— you want me to shine the light on them and you grab one?

Yeah.

Can you grab two or just grab one at a time? No, you gotta do it quick, quick before they all fly off. There you go. Good, good. Good, you got one. Put it in here. All right, we've got 3 of the 7 guineas up. Hopefully the others will survive.