Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Extreme Makeover: Coop Edition



Ok, it's not all that extreme, but I got your attention, didn't I? A wee reference to one of my fav TV shows. The Christmas tree lot is finished and Farmer Man has a bit more time, so a rather over-due cleaning and tidying of the chicken coop has been accomplished. He's trying something new: we've been using all wood shavings and we've gone to wood shavings under the roosts and straw in the rest. Straw in the laying boxes, too. The clean-up, and the addition of straw made it smell so clean and sweet! The chickens love scratching through the straw, although the first problem presenting itself seems to be that they are scratching straw right into the waterers and clogging things up! We'll have to raise them up a bit more. Next on Farmer Man's list: he's taking out the roosts made of willow branches from our shelterbelt and replacing them with some wooden ladders such as he has seen in Backyard Poultry Magazine (our fav chicken magazine). I got out shopping (I think that's my official job here) and found a great high-sided kitty litter box! Got a bag of potting soil without fertilizer or water retaining gel and voila - chicken bath! Peat moss, as recommended by Cynthia in a previous post, was harder to find than I might have imagined. I've been hanging around with the video camera a bit, but the girls are too shy to bath in front of me, it seems. Farmer Man also spread a little straw around the coop door, and some of The Hens ventured out for a while today; it was a balmy minus 12 Celsius, so a rather nice day!

5 comments:

  1. looks like farmer man could use a little quad'n time...

    ReplyDelete
  2. He doesn't have a helmet - no quad'n time 'til he has a helmet.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love your post title- very funny pun! I bet the girls are enjoying the results of the coop makeover. I enjoyed the post. Have a great Christmas! Jennifer

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks, Jennifer! The Hens and Rocky seem quite comfortable now - we just have to make a new hanger for the chicken pinata, as the second heat lamp is taking up that space. Happiest of Holidays to you and yours!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your title was a cutie. I like your idea of the chicken bath. It is a Christmas present for the chickens. I wish you could have gotten the video, but I understand the girls being a bit shy.

    ReplyDelete