A week of fireworks and other concerns

Darned Fireworks!  Not actually on our property, but, all around us for the past week (plus), we've been hearing and seeing fireworks literally every night. This totally stresses out the chicklets!  They are way more hesitant in the mornings to leave their coop, but they eventually do ramp down for the sunshine and fresh air. They do love their dust bath area. They do love their mealworm treat at the end of each day. They definitely are ramp trained to go into the coop each evening now as soon as they see their people.  Even when it is not evening, and I'm just working on finishing up a few things on the coop, Red or Blue marches up the ramp to check out what is going on up there. Red has become considerably more trusting, at least with me. And gradually is settling into her routine with the others.  She and Green seem to be best buddies.

Little peep and Green are getting their face feathers now, and it is becoming more difficult to tell them apart from one another.  There are a few distinguishing factors, but very minor.  I may pick up some ankle "bracelets" to help keep them identified. Or not.  I'm kind of torn on this idea.

It is interesting to see more predators on our property.  I don't know if we are just "noticing" them more because we are worried about the chicklets or if it is because there are more predators on our property and interested in our chicklets. In the middle of the night, the coyotes definitely sound like they are crossing "on" our property more this summer rather than off in a distance.  I'm torn on the idea about putting a monitor in their coop.... do I want to be listening in on chicken talk all night?

Speaking of Chicken Talk.... D asked a good question that I have yet to see in any of the backyard chicken books.... when do chickenettes start sounding like real "brack bracks"?  They are going into 11 weeks of age now and still they sound more like little peepers than the real deal. Granted, they are still young pullets, but they don't look all that young anymore.

A Groupon Kind of Day

It's hot and windy today.  I don't know if it is actually as hot as yesterday, but it is pretty warm and the wind offers no relief, even in the shade.  Yet, the chickens seem to want to group together, I'm assuming to try to shelter each other from the wind? Red and Green were first to settle down next to the pan then Blue and Orange nuzzled in to the middle. 

Rub-a-dub-dub Four Hens In the Tub

It's the first day of July and it is another sweltering day for our region. Humidity was especially heavy today, and the chickens were feeling the HOT!  Even in the shade, the poor girls were walking around with their beaks open and their tongues bopping up and down.

L suggested that I find a squirt bottle with some cool water.  Spent about five minutes shooting a mist of water into their cage.  They actually seemed to appreciate this cool down.

In the meantime, I was drying out some sand that I had purchased from the hardware store to put into their dust pan.  Since we are continually moving their housing over pasture, they really don't get an opportunity to create a dirt patch for dust bathing.  I noted this morning that Red was doing a lot of scratching with her toes around her neck and chest.  I read up on how a large kitty litter pan can be used as an alternative dust bathing area.  The sand in the bag was moist so we had to spread it out on a flat surface (cardboard) in the sun to get it dried first.  Then I poured about an inch of sand into the pan (about 12" by 26" by 4"). I added about two cups of DE over the sand and we slipped the pan into the cage.

D expressed concern that there was no Momma hen available to teach them how to use it. We decided to just watch and try to coax them over to the pan, at least to reassure them that it was "OK."  At first they stayed a long way away.  After about five minutes of us sitting near the end of the cage with the new pan in place, the girls decided that it was time to investigate.  Green was actually quite cute.  She approached one end, wrapped one set of toes over the edge of the pan to seemingly test to see if it would support her weight. She leaned inwards over the pan bringing her other foot up and then jumped in to the pan and quickly jumped right back out.  Blue walked all the way around the pan several times after that and seemed to verify that it wasn't going anywhere. Red and Orange stood back to watch the whole scenario. After Blue finished her inspection, Green came back and hopped in.  Blue attempted to walk on the edge of the pan, but realizing that it was too narrow, opted to hop in and out of the pan before deciding that the sand in the pan might contain some food. Then all four chickens were in the pan pecking at the sand and investigating the possibility of some food.

Eventually, Green laid on her stomach/chest and started kicking and scratching at the sand, then stretching out her wings and flapping them until she was covered with dust, head to tail.  The other three were still busy pecking at the sand when Green hopped out, totally bathed in dust. But, eventually, the other three took turns taking a dust bath, and hopefully, feeling so much better, afterwards.

I realize now that they will need at least another inch of sand in the box to make it easier for them to create a bit of a valley in the box to make it easier for them to coat themselves.  I had read online, that it is best to have their dust bath far away from their food, and now I can see why that's important!

Update - These photos were taken the next day and it was a bit too hot for them to really get into rolling in the dust.  Some of them did play in the sand, though.

1. The Box with two inches of sand plus DE. 
2. Finished checking on the contents of the box.
3. Feeling sand between her toes.
4. Blue and Red competing in the sand.
5. Blue Wins.
6. Green burrowing into the sand.
7. Shifting positions before getting out. 
8. Orange taking her turn in the sand
9. Stretching out for a preen.
10. A full out preen of the tail feathers.

How We Move The Girls' Coop

If you thought my last photos were blurry, well, these are even more blurry! Sorry 'bout that. Nonetheless, I think you can make out how we move the coop based on this series of photos. We currently have a power cord running to the coop for the 75 watt red lamp to help keep it warm at night while our evening temps are still kinda cool and two of the chickens are not fully feathered.

Before moving the coop, we brought the wheel barrow up to one side and dropped a lower flap onto the wheel barrow.  Ultimately, after a variety of different styles of brooms and shovels, we decided to just use a hand broom and dust bin to clean out the shavings and pooh.  The pooh really isn't too bad with the shavings in the coop and since we also use food-grade DE (diatomaceous earth) in their shavings and food.  We sprinkle a tablespoon of DE in 2 cups of food, and liberally sprinkle DE over their coop shavings.  There are several benefits that we noted right away when we started doing this.  It was suggested by a vet, and after trying it, I believe in it!  It helps minimize mites/lice in their feathers when they have an opportunity to lay in it (or even dust bathe in it) and in their food, it helps with their digestive system, cuts down on intestinal worms and firms up their pooh, making it easier to clean up.

1. Placed the round pole under the front end of the coop base.
2. From the back, lift the coop by the nesting box and start pushing forward.
3. Have a second person in the waiting to move things out of the way.
4. Have that second person balance the front once the pole is near the half-way point.
5. The pole pops out the back after moving the coop the full length (8 feet).
6. The coop in its new location and the chickens can now rest for the night.

The advantages at this point of using this method to move the coop is that it involves very little lifting, the wheels can't get stuck in the mud (which we tend to have a bunch of that during the rainy seasons) and it doesn't involve a whole lot of muscle to move it the full distance. When we are done moving the coop, we can lay the pole along the side that has the most "dips and valleys" and fill in other low spots with cement pavers and heavy bricks.

End of the Month Update on the Little Miss Orloffs

The chickens are close to 2 months old now.  Blue and Red are still larger than Green and Orange. Blue and Red's faces are now filled with feathers and looking more mature, but Green and Orange are not too far behind now. Based on the lack of saddle feathers on any of them, I am assuming that they are all young ladies.

Earlier in the week we had torrential rains and 60 degree (F) weather making for a miserable muggy start to the week. By Thursday, things were drying out and warming up. Now the temps are in the 90s (F) and we were a bit worried with the extreme weather changes so quickly that the peeps would be having problems.  Yet, they seemed fine today.

With the design of the coop, the girls have plenty of shade all day long. The young un's are feasting on all types of ants, spiders and flies that haphazard into the pen/run.

Here are some pictures from today showing the way that we finished the ramp up into the coop as well as where we ultimately hung the feeder to keep it dry during the rain storms.

I apologize for the blurries.  A few turned out well enough that you can see the feathering on the faces of Blue and Red. The first two photos are of Green.  She tends to be the least camera shy. And, by the way, that "second eye" on the second picture is actually the ear hole to the right and slightly below her eye... LOL.  It is the way her feathers are coming in that makes her ear look almost like an eye :)  (My apologies for not cleaning the ramp before the photos.... But, it is a chicken coop, after all!)

Hawkeyed, Ramp Trained & Solsticed

We had three hawks (two full grown Red Tailed Hawks and one smaller [about half the size]) circling over the coop today!  We were out on our deck trying to rig up a portable greenhouse for the poor tomatoes when I spotted the first hawk with a wing span of about four feet across circling just above the tree line of the nursery trees (about 15 - 20 feet tall). One by one, the hawks circled for about three minutes before moving on once they realized that they had no easy access into the run and humans were nearby. The chickens were totally in view of the hawks, so I'm guessing that the peeps could also see those big soaring chicken eaters in the sky!

The chickadees have finally figured out the ramp.  After my "training" the other day, and then D did some additional training yesterday, they have it all figured out. When the rain storm hit us today, they wasted no time scurrying up the ramp and skooting into their nice warm nesting box to snuggle together.

There has been almost a half inch of intermittent rain early this morning and today. I noted a few saturation points in the coop along the base of the doors.  So I picked up some more rubber weatherization to add to the floor around the doors. Remember, the other day, the rain totally filled up the feeder with water (making a delightful soup) which wasn't too appealing to the chickens. The feeder is now hanging from the middle of the coop floor "joists" and despite the rain blowing in from a variety of different directions today, the feeder stayed dry. 

I must say, that it certainly does not feel like we are having 17 hours of daily sunlight this week. The cloud cover today has been so thick, it basically looks like the Sun already set an hour before actual sunset (in 10 minutes) and twilight is simply "no light" at this point. A very disappointing summer solstice. I just hope summer weather shows up soon!

Just Some Glitchy Chick Stuff

I don't think I remembered to mention last time that the chickies are exiting the coop via the ramp, but have not yet figured out that they can go back into the coop on the ramp. Hopefully, based on all that I have read, they will figure it out eventually.  

Also, the one thing in looking at the layout of the dual doors, we are going to have some "glitchy" issues when ever the coop is moved.  Since we are not moving the coop onto nice level ground with each move, the doors may not open well, overlap at the edges from time to time, and they can be pulled away from the frame by about two inches in the center, if there is some overlap issue going on. That's one reason why we think using cabinet magnets will help minimize some of the "gap" issues. What we are trying really hard to prevent is a rodent/weasel invasion into the coop itself. 

The ramp is glitchy too.  It rubs a bit on a support piece making it difficult to get it to rise all the way up.  D feels that he can cut the ramp off a little to get it to bypass that support piece.  

Another issue is the access opening for the run.  If a person needs to get into the run, there are no handles inside the frame of the detachable door to pull it into place from the inside to prevent a chick escape. I picked up a medium sized brass handle. L should be able to install that when it warms up.  Hoping that will do the trick. 

One of the good things that we did at the onset was to weatherize around the doors on the tops and sides plus put the "lip" on the bottom-edge of the upper door so that rain will run off over the bottom door.  It worked well during the rain storm last night. 

We cut a long branch off the oak tree for the chicks to use as a perch in the run.  They have yet to figure out how to use that.  We have not yet installed the roost in the coop.  They still huddle together under the light, so I don't think that a roosting area is needed.

At this point, instead of wheels, we are using a tall round (4" diam) wood fence post for the purpose moving the coop across the yard.  Think of it kind of like using a lever and a round fulcrum (a moving axle?). The post is placed length wise on the ground under the 2x4s of the coop's base and while the post is under the  base frame of the coop, using the nesting box to push the coop over it until the post pops out the back end of the coop. I'll try to take a photo the next time we move the coop. 

Last, but not least.  If you wonder where the inspiration came for the creation of the A-framed Coop de Run, D saw it on Ana White's blog.  She apparently built/had it built as an inexpensive temporary space until she could build the permanent structure.  The modifications that have been added to ours is a larger floor area, a very solid nesting box for two with outside access (this box can also be used to move the coop), and eight weatherized doors.  The floor space inside is about eight square feet with plenty of area for a couple of roosting bars (down the center) about four to five inches above the floor.  There is also space for feed and water inside the coop.  One other helpful feature is the ramp that can be pulled up at night. With the floor lower than the original plan, the ramp is not too steep. Instead of using dowels or rungs for traction on the ramp, we picked up some grip tape, like slip-resistant coating use for wheelchair ramps and on skateboards for a flat surface that's not slick, even in the rain.