{Saying hello from the coop. And Bracken making a silly face for the picture, he’s really into that lately!}
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We’ve been waiting for a sunny day so we could clean out the chicken coop. We needed the chickens out in their lower yard so we could work freely and they wouldn’t have enjoyed that very much on a rainy day. They like to hang out in the coop when it’s really rainy out. We saw there was sun in the forecast for today and then when we greeted the day- Yes! Sunshine! So we deemed today the official chicken coop cleaning day. We let the chickens into the lower yard and then shut the door to keep them from being in the upper yard or the coop, so we could get to work. It started out with Jeff filling up the wheelbarrow and me hauling it to the compost and dumping it. Once the pile in the compost got high enough, he started doing that. He dug down to the dirt floor. I worked on cutting some old chicken wire to use to do a bit more varmint-proofing in the coop and then I started hauling out all the feed, supplements, and bedding we were storing indoors for the chicks and ducklings. (I forgot to mention in last week’s post that I found a wonderful trick for cleaning out the chicks and ducklings’ water while they were in the house. I used the diaper sprayer attached to the side of our toilet! So those little poops could go in the toilet where they belong. I was pretty happy about figuring that out. Thought I’d share it in case some of you found it helpful as well.) It was fun having them indoors for awhile, but I was really ready to move them out to their new coop home.
Load after load from the chicken coop to the compost pile.
I told Jeff that you know you’re a farmer or a gardener when manure is a beautiful sight to you!
Filling up buckets with weeds for the chickens.
Bracken picking flowers, as always.
Our chicken, Sassy, got out of the lower yard and came up to be with us. She went over and made a nest in some ivy, so we let her be. When she came back out to be with us, Bracken gently picked her up (she didn’t even make a peep!) and brought her back to her yard. (We didn’t want her eating our garden!) Jeff and I were amazed that she let Bracken come over and pick her up like that. She didn’t seem to mind at all. We knew if she didn’t like it she would have made noise to let us know.
Mr. blueberry lips (as usual) and Sassy. After he brought her back in her yard, we went to check the little nest she had made and there was an egg waiting for us. Bracken loved that.
I turned around for a moment and then discovered that Bracken had stepped into his rain-filled pool with his rain boots and got the bottom of his pants soaked. It was warm out, but not swimming weather yet! (So I asked him to come out.)
Bracken brought in another chicken that escaped.
And another!
Every time a chicken got out of their yard (we let them into a new yard area that was full of greens to eat, but had temporary fencing on one side which they were getting through.) Jeff and I were amazed. We started calling him ‘The Chicken Whisperer’, saying that he has a magic way with our chickens. He does. They love him. I don’t think they would let Jeff or I pick them up or hold them so easily as they do with Bracken.
Jeff had cleaned out the coop and was nearly finished setting up an area to put the chicks and ducklings. It was so warm outside (we were sweating in t-shirts) and Bracken and I brought them out from inside the house to let them have a little sunshine and some fresh greens. (Just like last year.) I put up a temporary fence. They explored and the chicks flapped their wings, enjoying the extra space, but then they got so hot in the sun apparently, they went in the shade.
It was their first time being outside.
Bracken (blueberry lips) took the bottom of his shirt and wrapped up a little chick in it when he was holding it.
I’m afraid I have some sad news to report. We came home from market on Saturday to see that we lost a duckling. We weren’t very surprised though. In the very beginning, all the ducklings seemed fine. But pretty quickly we noticed that two weren’t growing like the others. One of our ducklings was getting huge fast and another one was growing quickly too, but the other two were tiny. One would just lay and close it’s eyes, barely eat or drink, and we knew it wasn’t going to make it. Both of the small ones seemed to have neurological problems. Sometimes they didn’t seem to be able to walk very well. The little one that Bracken is holding in the picture above is the other one that is small. We don’t know if it will make it either. Today, as I watched it, I realized that it was having seizures! I got a book on ducks at the library last week and have a lot of research to do online. We’ve raised ducklings before and never had a problem, so this has been surprising. It’s all new to us. I mentioned it to my mom on the phone and she searched online. Apparently ducklings with seizures is pretty common. (Do any of you have experience raising ducks? Have you experienced this? We’d appreciate hearing from you if you have anything to share!)
The two larger ducks have some feathers missing around their face.
Jeff wondered if they were starting to molt?
And then Jeff talked me into something. He wanted to let the ducks swim in Bracken’s pool. (Bracken had been putting some sand in it- that stuff along the bottom, and picking dandelion flowers to float on the surface.) I was nervous, wondering if they would get too cold. Jeff said that ducks in the wild start swimming right away. They belong in the water. He made a good point. So we put the two biggest ducklings in there and they started swimming around right away. To say they loved it would be an understatement. I’d never seen them so happy before. They were in their element. We watched them go round and round.
Enjoying a picnic.
I brought the ducklings back out of the water, they dried off in the warm sun right away and then we brought them in their new home. Their outdoor home was much enjoyed for that short while.
Bracken told me he needed some socks for his hands (to use as gloves, when he saw me wearing gloves.) He then “washed” them in some water and showed me that he hung them up to dry in the sun (on the wood slats on the grape arbor.) Seeing it made me smile.
Jeff also finished another project today, while he was busy in the chicken coop. We were in need of more nesting boxes. The ladies have been fighting over our three nesting boxes lately. I had some ideas for some wooden ones and wondered about finding something used somewhere that we could re-purpose. But then we wanted to make them today and Jeff had an idea of how to make some with things we already had on hand and that wouldn’t cost us any money. He had three plastic tubs that were the perfect size. (Not as pretty, but functional and free!) We put two down on the ground so that the ducks can use them when they get bigger. The third one went on top, like a pyramid. He secured them and put wood slats along the front.
“Are you guys done in here yet, I’ve been wanting to lay an egg already!”
Inside he put straw, wool, and cedar shavings.
This is a temporary section of the coop reserved for the babies. Mostly made up of recycled windows.
The coop is a bit cramped right now. On the left- the area for the babies. (When they get bigger and can live with the full sized chickens, there will be more space.) Behind that, the roosts. To the right, the nesting boxes. And then their food, hanging in the middle. The garbage can- with food and grit and oyster shell and the supplements for the babies. Then the straw. We spread that over the top of the coop regularly to keep it “fresh.” We found some un-sprayed straw at The Eugene Backyard Farmer. It’s not that easy to find. This bedding will be turned into compost the next time we clean the coop out. We also wanted to find a source for the future when we start growing mushrooms in it.
We spent most of the day outside today. We all needed it. And so many good things were accomplished in one day- a freshly cleaned coop, new nesting boxes for the girls, and the babies moved to their new home in the coop. I’m happy to not have part of our bathroom for a storage space anymore or the indoor mess (or just a tad of the stink that started happening), but I do miss the constant sound of peep peep peep just a bit. I’m sure we’ll be making plenty of visits to the coop to enjoy that regularly. Bracken will see to that.
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