Today we did some needed repair work to the chicken roosts and mucked out the straw and pine shavings that has been out there all winter. Lots of shoveling to get everything out. Two 2x2s and a few cuts allowed us to get a few much needed repairs made to the roosts. The chicken house will get some new straw this afternoon.
Forty one eggs loaded and ready to hatch! In twenty one days we should be in little chick heaven.
It’s always fun when they begin popping out. These are out of our silver laced Wyandottes .
The other day all of our birds were out free ranging in the trees by the house and enjoying bug hunting in the leaf debris. The windows in the house were open so I was able to hear all the birds were alarmed about something. I peeked out the window and spied this female coyote at a distance staring at all the birds as they fled towards the house.
Quickly I grabbed a nearby rifle, a Remington 700 chambered in 17 Remington, pushed open the back door and aimed the rifle while standing inside the house. She knew she had been busted and I could see she had turned to leave and was disappearing into the trees. When I barked like a dog she turned 180 degrees to face me. One quick shot where her neck and chest meet and she dropped in her tracks. She will not be having any more chicken dinners!
Tonight we let everyone out and brought some old hamburger buns for them to eat. They all enjoyed it!
It’s a BEAUTIFUL cool breezy evening here and the girls are outside watching the chickens forage and playing with the ducklings.
We’ve been busy getting this little enclosure together in our latest pen. It will be a multi use pen and coop that will be used for raising babies, meat chickens and a wintering spot for the ducks once the pond begins to freeze.
We used free roofing remnants from my parents latest project for the roof. It will need to be leveled and the back raised a touch. We were running out of time and called quits for the day at this point.
The barrels you see on the ground to the left of the chicken shed will be our next project; a rain barrel and automatic waterer.
I’ve been letting them out the last three days. Today they’re actually venturing out and doing a little foraging. They’re doing amazing well and getting along with the big chickens.
22 May – added a picture of the pullets taken today.
I spent some time laying in the shade next to our chicken tractor and 19 silver laced Wyandotte chicks today trying to encourage them to use their waterer. After tapping the nipple several times and getting drops of water to hang off the end the began to peck at it. Hopefully before long they’ll all be using it and I won’t need to goof with a traditional waterer.
