Christmas Eve around 12am the power went out, it was high winds conditions outside plus the rain was now all freezing. We didn't get power back until 12pm Christmas DAY. So while we could have made egg and baky on the stove because it's propane, we decided the clean up would be insane later since the pump obviously was not running we couldn't use water from the well to do any cleaning. Instead we went for a drive to Belleville to see what was open for foodsies. Nothing was open. Not even Timmies which is usually open on Christmas Day.
Then we drove west on the 401 and then back east again to a Micky D's on the highway, really horrible, but it was food regardless.
Before we left I made the chickens some treats to keep them warmy all inside, this mostly consisted of a MASSIVE tray of hot mash (Oats, Something that is either wheat, rolled oats, or barley (not sure which), frozen sweet peas, oyster shell, rice, and some honey put in a steamer pot on the stovetop) and some apples rolled in peanut butter and oats.
They left the apples until later tonight, at about 6pm they were munching away at them in the coop.
These are the apples etc. that I made...
Anddd outside eating the mash.
Funny thing about the mash, later I came out and I had added some of their egg shells to it crunched up, well I looked at it and thought to myself.. I didn't put that big a piece of egg shell in there. Then I got closer and realized one of the chickens had laid her egg in the mash LOL.
Also, Christmas Day I decided to reconfigure their coop space, get rid of the single level roost as I had noticed one of the chickens sleeping on the floor because they wouldn't let her on the roost. Instead I put in this tri-level roost, it's enough space for 12 chickens when at least 4 sleep in the window sills.
Don't worry, I have painted the pressure treated sides of it already
I just didn't have any regular 2x4s and I took this picture before painting them.
The two upper levels are from their old roost, I thought it'd be attractive to them to have their old nasty roosting pole added onto the new one.
With the three levels, now everyone has a space on the roost, even the lowest on the pecking order.
I also put in new nesting boxes. I posted earlier with my frustration about them eating their nests and finding broken eggs because they scrape out all the shavings and then lay on the bare wood. I thought at the time the plastic storage crate boxes were too close and too easy to access for them and that's why they were messing with them. So I decided to use the cleat I had for the old roost as a rest for the new boxes, and made these! I still have to add the pitched roof and one leg but essentially they hold themselves up on the cleat and "joists," that were once used to extend the roost away from the wall.
The chickens really seem to like them, and this way the chicken who is the lowest on the scale who got picked on while trying to lay, has some privacy to lay her egg. I didn't put a roost on the front of it because they are able to get in and out without it, and roost on the guard when flying up. Last night I had left the boxes open without anything there, no dividers or anything just cause it was too late to work, and when I got out there this morning one of the chickens had laid an egg in the big open box LOL, unfortunately because there was no nesting material in there it broke, but it was pretty funny.
Then we drove west on the 401 and then back east again to a Micky D's on the highway, really horrible, but it was food regardless.
Before we left I made the chickens some treats to keep them warmy all inside, this mostly consisted of a MASSIVE tray of hot mash (Oats, Something that is either wheat, rolled oats, or barley (not sure which), frozen sweet peas, oyster shell, rice, and some honey put in a steamer pot on the stovetop) and some apples rolled in peanut butter and oats.
They left the apples until later tonight, at about 6pm they were munching away at them in the coop.
These are the apples etc. that I made...
Anddd outside eating the mash.
Funny thing about the mash, later I came out and I had added some of their egg shells to it crunched up, well I looked at it and thought to myself.. I didn't put that big a piece of egg shell in there. Then I got closer and realized one of the chickens had laid her egg in the mash LOL.
Also, Christmas Day I decided to reconfigure their coop space, get rid of the single level roost as I had noticed one of the chickens sleeping on the floor because they wouldn't let her on the roost. Instead I put in this tri-level roost, it's enough space for 12 chickens when at least 4 sleep in the window sills.
Don't worry, I have painted the pressure treated sides of it already
The two upper levels are from their old roost, I thought it'd be attractive to them to have their old nasty roosting pole added onto the new one.
With the three levels, now everyone has a space on the roost, even the lowest on the pecking order.
I also put in new nesting boxes. I posted earlier with my frustration about them eating their nests and finding broken eggs because they scrape out all the shavings and then lay on the bare wood. I thought at the time the plastic storage crate boxes were too close and too easy to access for them and that's why they were messing with them. So I decided to use the cleat I had for the old roost as a rest for the new boxes, and made these! I still have to add the pitched roof and one leg but essentially they hold themselves up on the cleat and "joists," that were once used to extend the roost away from the wall.
The chickens really seem to like them, and this way the chicken who is the lowest on the scale who got picked on while trying to lay, has some privacy to lay her egg. I didn't put a roost on the front of it because they are able to get in and out without it, and roost on the guard when flying up. Last night I had left the boxes open without anything there, no dividers or anything just cause it was too late to work, and when I got out there this morning one of the chickens had laid an egg in the big open box LOL, unfortunately because there was no nesting material in there it broke, but it was pretty funny.
