It is an interesting roost design. A cross between a flat shelf and roosting bars. Does it get very poopy at night?After watching them eat the very sad, trampled, pooey dead grass in front of their run, I started some sprouts and offered it from my hand yesterday. It had just gotten nice little green seed leaves. They took an interest and everybody tried them, then came back picking at it for seconds and thirds, but didn't go to town on it. Consistent interest but not craving. It was new. Today they went at it with more enthusiasm. I might try it in soil in a pan and with a cover so they can pick and rip and tear at it, more natural for them?
It's a sprouts mix that I bought in the beginning of the pandemic when we hunkered down and didn't go out at all and figured out ways to get fresh green things to eat and cook (i.e., we grew more celery from the root of the store-bought stuff, dug and brought in outside chives, garlic and parsley). I was going to buy wheat grass to sprout for the chickens and remembered this. It's broccoli, crimson clover, red radish, & alfalfa seeds. Eat your vegetables!
I got some pictures of their roosting arrangement the other night. The coop light has come on, in a few minutes the autodoor will close. Of course they were taken aback to find me creeping all bent over up to their pop door at that time of day (the coop run is I think 38 inches high) , and it made them a little unsure what was going to happen next.
So the two in back stood up. That's Queenie of course in front and to the right, facing out. I can't tell who is who here with the Buckeyes, but I think the "sentinel" here besides Queenie, the one always standing and watching, might be Popcorn. View attachment 2555135
Somebody is also in the front, facing in. She never looked up during this photo shoot. Can't a girl get some rest!
The one in the very back took a look for a while, then went back to facing left, she's parallel to the back wall.
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On the right middle back is another, here preening a bit, she did look up when I tried to get a closer shot, and they all got nervous and unsettled so I backed off. In this shot you can just make out on the right the edge of the doorway to the nestbox area. That's a removeable panel divider with a sliding door in it. There is outside access from the side into the nestbox for collecting eggs. The coop light (and the round handle mechanism on the back panel) is roughly in the middle of the whole coop box.
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It was a still, cold night (5F, 0.3F in the morning after) and they are not using the whole area available to them, they are more or less snuggled up.
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