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Hehe! You said "egging her on". Pun intended? It's wierd-I noticed that the four hens who I made saddles for (Jarhead's favorites) are almost always escorted into the henhouse during egglaying time. It seems like when they go in to lay their eggs, Jarhead is either in there with them, or standing just outside the door. When any of the others are laying he doesn't pay any attention at all.
Oopsy, great minds (or crazy ones) think alike! I cleaned out my coop today, too. Funny how much more frequently one has to do that when one keeps getting more chickens. I'm so sick, I swear. I had so much fun cleaning out that coop. The new girls from Steve were all up in my business, watching me and begging for treats. I had a wheelbarrow in the coop with me, scooping up shovels of goop/straw/etc. Hubby is so cool! He built me a long, 3-tiered roost that is attached to the wall on hinges. When I want to clean it out, all I have to do is lift the roost up, prop it, and do my thing. Anywho.. after I was done cleaning under the roost, I put it back down and sat on a clean spot on the lower tier. All these pretty girls came up to me to say hello and try to figure out who I was. It was just too darn cute. I love it that I have such a great variety now!
Since it was so pretty out today, we were out all day. Hubby built an adorable little house for the ducks and he also permanently screwed in the tree branches that the girls like to hang out on during the day in the enclosed portion on the outside of their coop. We put the duck house in there, along with some extra feeders/waterers. The ducks have been swimming in the sheep water trough-it's too cute. When hubby got the duck house put in, I shoo'ed them in and picked them up one by one to put them in the house. they stayed in for like a minute and came out. When we took our nightly yak walk at around 8:00, the ducks were sleeping on the ground outside their house (which is inside the outside portion of the coop, and locked in).
Sooo...I'm so sorry to hear about the problems with predators. Since I'm new, I want to make sure I'm doing things right. When we built their outside coop, we cemented the wire into the ground. We leave the door open during the day so that they can access the fenced-in area that they share with the sheep. They can either run around in the 1/4 acre grassy area that's fenced in with goat panels, or they can explore their own outdoor coop that is fenced in with both goat panels and chicken wire, or they can go in their henhouse to lay. At night, they go in their henhouse to roost, and I close the door to the outside part of their coop. The sheep usually sleep right outside the coop, even thought hey have their own stall that they have free access to (the chickens do, too, but they rarely go in there).
Now that my flock has grown, and I have these precious little ducks...I'm worried. Do you think eveyone's ok? Is there something more I should do? We don't seem to have much of a predator issue here because of the yak. They are natural-born coyote killers, and even deer won't come on our property. We have seen raccoons occasionally passing through, though. Sorry to ramble-just want to make sure my kiddo's are safe.
Have a happy Sunday!!!!
