I have been wanting to clean the coups since last week, but my local feed store has been waiting on their supplier to get them a load of shavings. With no shavings I just kept putting it off.
Well I called Mom today and she picked up 5 bales at a feed store in town on her way home. I cleaned out the Main Coup(layer house) and Dot's house. Mom helped me get the Teens' house, Bantam Cochin house, Standar Cochin house, and the small house for the Free-Rangering bantams. I also emptied the small house that Lacy and her 5 month olds sleep in.
The 5 'babies' are 5 months old and she is still with them. She is a bantam and 4 of the babies are standard Cochins from my Show stock. The 2 Cockerels are HUGE and their momma is a 1.5 lb cochin. She is not mothering them, but instead has joined them as leader of the flock. The few times she has tried to go back to the bantam cochin house it just doesn't work. She wants to be boss and starts picking fights. That doesn't work when there are 3 dominant ladies in that house and lot.
Anyways, Each house was scraped of poo and all shavings replaced. Last week all nests were cleaned out and fresh hay put in. It took some extra time getting everyone to bed this evening. They are afraid of new shavings and need encouragement to go in. One good thing with having to push them into the houses is that it is easier to do health and bug checks. Some even had to be carried over those nasty clean shavings. We even checked the ones that were already on perches. Everyone looked good. The only problem I found was that a few of the lazy gals in the layer house are WAYYYY over weight. At least now I know who has been picking the corn out of the feed mix. I think all of them were 3+ years old and are what I call my retirees.
Now that everything is nice and clean I expect EGGS!!!
I will go through tomorrow and mix some 7-dust in the shavings just in case.
Matt
Well I called Mom today and she picked up 5 bales at a feed store in town on her way home. I cleaned out the Main Coup(layer house) and Dot's house. Mom helped me get the Teens' house, Bantam Cochin house, Standar Cochin house, and the small house for the Free-Rangering bantams. I also emptied the small house that Lacy and her 5 month olds sleep in.
The 5 'babies' are 5 months old and she is still with them. She is a bantam and 4 of the babies are standard Cochins from my Show stock. The 2 Cockerels are HUGE and their momma is a 1.5 lb cochin. She is not mothering them, but instead has joined them as leader of the flock. The few times she has tried to go back to the bantam cochin house it just doesn't work. She wants to be boss and starts picking fights. That doesn't work when there are 3 dominant ladies in that house and lot.
Anyways, Each house was scraped of poo and all shavings replaced. Last week all nests were cleaned out and fresh hay put in. It took some extra time getting everyone to bed this evening. They are afraid of new shavings and need encouragement to go in. One good thing with having to push them into the houses is that it is easier to do health and bug checks. Some even had to be carried over those nasty clean shavings. We even checked the ones that were already on perches. Everyone looked good. The only problem I found was that a few of the lazy gals in the layer house are WAYYYY over weight. At least now I know who has been picking the corn out of the feed mix. I think all of them were 3+ years old and are what I call my retirees.
Now that everything is nice and clean I expect EGGS!!!
I will go through tomorrow and mix some 7-dust in the shavings just in case.
Matt
