rnh, those are some beautiful bachelors you have. I want one. I want one A LOT!
My little cochin Skeeter took all her babies out of the coop again today... Here is how this went...
I went out at 10, running a little late getting the out for the day, and Lo and Behold, Vonna is out. What!? And then I see Skeeter and one of her littles out, and she is freaking out, and her littles still in the coop are really freaking out! I put her and her little back in the coop. The coop doors were still closed! Here is what I figure happened. I have a door that opens up. Well they all open up. BUT I mean UP. I use that door to let them in and out, I think where my coop pictures are, you can see what I mean. Well, anyway, last night after I caught Skeeter and her littles, I forgot to put the ramp up against the door, and they were able to push at the door just right they were able get out. I think the little that was out fell out thru the gap that is there on the big girls side of the coop. How he got over there? Well Skeeter has been teaching the foraging trade to the littles and dug all the straw away from the partition so they and her are able to scoot under. Well, I think he fell out, and she forced herself to go out after him, Vonna saw, and she forced herself thru too.
Needless to say, today I put a block in that gap that I can take out at a later time. I have both top and bottom vents to promote circulation, and this works well for me. I also did complete clean out on the coop, and took out the partition, and before I put fresh straw, I purposely put the partition back in all the way to the floor. There is no more digging under for Skeeter. I am going to have to figure out how I can put a ramp for her littles to be able to get back in the coop. It was a royal pain in my back getting under the coop to fish them out. AND then to have Skeeter have a fit, fly over the fencing that separates the chicken and duck area, her babies being able to run through, and the ducks deciding they'd like to kill the chicks. None of the chicks were harmed, I got them. Skeeter suffered some unwanted duck tasting, but she was otherwise unharmed also. She was mad as heck at me, but I made ammends with her with some fresh bread.
But I got all the coops cleaned out today. I took the straw from the 7 wk olds coop and spread it over a muddy area at the back of the big coop. It was full of feed and corn crumbles. Needless to say, it didn't take long for them to run around the back of the coop and start digging through it for the left over goodies.
I have a pic of Skeeter and her littles out and about... But for some reason it is not getting to my computer from my phone... As soon as it does, I will post.
