MONDAYs Poop from DA COOP~~ Let me apologize for my lack of Poop lately. As you have read, I have been to the East Coast so that took my focus away from the antics of the girls. Then we had a bout of cold weather and that also took my focus away from writing. I was spending time making sure the critters were settling in for the winter.... all critters, mike and I included! Who would have thought that chickens would be such a robust bunch! Our girls sure are enjoying the cooler temps, just not the COLDER temps. At least when the wind blows so cold. They are quite irritated when the wind blows through the run. Now you may remember that a couple of weeks ago , I put some plastic up on the run to help cut down the wind so the gals would come out and play in the leaves. Yes, the leaves. We raked up much of the yard and dumped them in the run and the girls have had a blast rooting around and scratching in it. I throw in a couple of handfuls of scratch when I put a pile in and they are in heaven. A nice day of 35-40 mile an hour winds did in my hard work. I suggested to Mike, based on things I have read, that we create something to insert in the run fencing, like a make shift storm with the plastic. As I have said before, I am no chicken expert, but I do try to read up on whatever I can and make an informed decision based on what I read. He, on the other hand, often pooh-poohs my suggestions and until I can prove why I am suggesting these things and prove the credibility of the info I get, is stubborn. Go Figure! Anyway, the wind during the last cold snap, tore the plastic off the run. The temps warmed up, dried up ( at least for a couple days) so the gals were basking in the warmer temps. Mostly not what I would consider warm, but definitely better than 15 degrees. Egg production has remained about 6-9 eggs a day and only once in the last month have I had a lady lay her egg under the coop. Hard to find in the leaves, but she let us know it was there. Arvilla is quite noisy when she lays her egg. Does the happy chicken song to let everyone know she is done. I can hear her from the house. She has been really good about laying IN the boxes, but she wants the entire neighborhood to know she provided an egg. WHen she is in the coop. she not only sings her song, she pokes her head out of the hatch door and sings it loud and proud to the girls in the run. The girls chuckle (or would that be Chickle?) at her, but let her have her say. We have been blessed with several food gifts for the girls. They love the pumpkins that people have given. I just open up a section and put the entire pumpkin in a pan and then pick at it for several days. On really cold mornings, I warm up some oatmeal, and scraps of any sort, and what ever else I think they might want, and take it out with their water. They come scrambling out of the coop, tripping over each other, and scamper to the bowl with warm feed. Hey... you like something warm on a cold morning, right? The weather this passed holiday weekend proved perfect for raking and spreading sand to dry. The raking uncovered a vast selection of juicy night crawlers, which made their way to the girls. OMG... talk about funny. I tossed about 4 in to their bowl and they fought over them. Like ladies fighting over the Kmart Blue LIght Special underwear sales. 2 girls had one worm and were tugging until it broke, while one looked on trying to get in the middle. All we could do was laugh. Then with a little more digging, I found a rally BIG worm and tossed him in. Eva gobbled him up like she was slurping up a spaghetti noodle. 3 more girls came running, yelling at her, I presume, whatcha got? Sorta made the raking worth it. The sand, I have been reading, is really a better coop bedding for the girls in the winter. I know there are people that do the deep litter method, and others that clean and freshen weekly. I am neither of those people. But I DO want to keep a healthy, stink-free, coop. So I use a product called Sweet PDZ to help absorb the urine and the stink. Use it in the cat litter box too. Works great./ ( Got it at TSC) Then, through my reading, my though process decided to use sand in the coop for insulation and bedding. So I had Mike go get some sand... unfortunately it had rained for a couple of days, so it was heavy sand. fortunately because he loaded it himself and we will be getting a ton ( no.. really probably closer to 3 ton) of sand to redo the driveway, he got it for free. but we had to wait for a couple of nice days (which we were blessed to have) to spread the sand out to dry. So 2 days of having about 8 kitty litter tubs inside drying and then transporting them again to the outside my back and hips hurt. Eh, a little pain.... So on Saturday, I cleaned the coop removing the straw from the center of the coop, but leaving fresh in the boxes. I layered sand and PDZ in the center of the coop and put a layer of sand about 2.5 inches IN the boxes then straw on top. Girls seems to like the boxes.But when I clean the coop, I close the hatch and keep the girls in the run. I open the back of the coop, clean, relayered, and close the coop. Then I have to fight the girls usually to open the hatch. Didnt have too much trouble because I had put leaves in first so they were having a party in the run. When the hatch was opened, Rapunzel pushed her way through to the coop, took 2 steps in the sand, YELLED at me and jumped up on the roost. then proceeded to scold me for about 10 minutes. After she started, Clarisse, and Mabel came in, stepped in the sand, and jumped up on the roost and yelled too. One by one they came in complaining about the new flooring. Except Ida. She stayed out in the run. I tossed in my last pile of leaves for the night and she was one happy girl. She didnt have to share in the pile. That is until I tossed in some scratch grains, then it was like pushing and shoving to get out. Thuds and feathers and scolding until 2 or 3 came to the door and down the ramp. Im, telling you.. I cant make this stuff up. They are hilarious! I will try to keep up better on my girls. I dont spend as much time outside in the cold as I used to.. fingers cant handle it.. one to many close calls with Mr. Frostbite and they go numb really fast anymore. Enjoy your leftovers this week. Lots of good food... And June... Take it easy. Next time you want to read a few books, lets not make such a dramatic plan, eh?
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 05:15:48 +0000
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