The Crooked Coop, A Journal of 3 Hens And Their World

[Whitewater]

17 June 2010

Well, today was a big day at the Crooked Coop! The girls were getting nice and used to their hen house and I decided that it was too nice a day (albeit quite windy) -- and too warm in the hen house -- for them to spend all their time in it. So I caught each girl one by one (and only got 3 scratches total, not bad, eh?) and set her gently down in the run. As soon as all three were down there together they calmed down.

Oh, my, it's a brand new world! They muttered and murmured suspiciously for about 10 minutes and then calmed down and got to the important business -- FOOD. Scratching, pecking, eating the various green things that were out there, until HEY, Cassandra noticed the feeder with all that yummy Flock Raiser in it. In short order the other two discovered the feeder and man, it was on like Donkey Kong.

Then the dogs noticed the chickens. It wasn't bad, I did some short, sharp intensive training with them, then we had a ball break to play fetch, then we all flopped down in the shade of the coop/run -- dogs included -- and I was SO pleased, the dogs totally ignored the chickens. Yay! So proud of my Standard Poodles, they received lots of praise for ignoring the birds. One of them even took a short nap. Then it was more fetch, and some more intensive but short training time, then another break in the shade, and then the chickens started to get interested in the dogs and we had a brief meet-n-greet through the hardware cloth, which was broken up by Cassandra's shouting that short, loud alarm noise, at which all three chickens backed off.

I called the dogs and they once again ignored the chickens pretty much. The chickens, however, discovered that they can see the alley from the back side of their coop and they were quite intently watching the cars go by, and the people, and so on, until they learned that none of that activity was a threat. Then it was time to go back inside (it's hot today!) for the dogs and myself . . . and here we all are. I will shortly go back outside without the dogs to observe the chickens in their run and make sure that there's no wierdness or trouble.

So far, the pullets are having trouble understanding what the ramp is for and are just not using it. I have no idea how to teach chickens to walk up and down a ramp. Ideas? This is kind of an issue, they don't like being messed with by humans and I don't want to have to go out there every day, 2x a day, to take them in and out of their coop. It will cause unnecessary stress and the whole point of this coop/run design was that they could go in and out of their hen house and run whenever they wanted. I would like to give them that freedom.

I cleaned out and refilled their water today (they appreciated the cool water) and discovered that they REALLY like radishes, LOL, everything I gave them yesterday is gone. They also enjoy bread and corn!


Whitewater

 

[VelvetDragon]

Huzzah poodles.

 

[Whitewater]

17 June 2010


Well, we have made some progress with the ramp. The chickens have learned they can go up the ramp from their run into their coop. Yay! (Note to self, the ramp needs more rungs). Unfortunately, they chickens have not learned the opposite -- that they can also go *down* the ramp into the run.

We'll work on that next, I think!


Whitewater

 

[Whitewater]

19 June 2010

We have discovered that we can jump down from our open access door instead of using that long wooden thing that's attached to the hole in our floor. We have no idea what that long wood thing is, but it's nice when we're lazy at night to get back up home. It's not so nice to try to jump through the hole in the floor! But getting down from the big hatch, we can at least use our wings.

We are getting along in our new run as best we can. We have tried (and failed) to get through the metal stuff so we can get to the outside world, but it's just not working. The Giant Chicken Grabbing Predator says that we need it for protection, but we say, we can protect ourselves! Anyway, 2 out of the 3 of us like staying in the metal box, our food and water is there, and we made a hollow for dust baths (we like the cool, damp dirt), and there's even some good green stuff to eat. So we're happy for now, I guess. We still miss our old home, but this one is ok.

The GCGP sometimes sits and watches us from outside our home. We don't think she's a threat anymore, but when she comes inside the run we still don't like it -- what if she grabs us? The male GCGP today looked like he wanted to catch us but we fooled him and jumped out of the door as soon as he moved out of the way. Ha ha! Foiled again!

Cassandra wants to be the leader, we think we're going to let that happen. Antigone is the boldest, but the smallest, and Hestia just doesn't have any leadership qualities. The only thing about Cassandra is that she's always over-reacting at the slightest little thing. We hope she figures out what's a real threat soon, otherwise we're just going to stop paying any attention at all.

Our house roof is broken, it's been really windy, we don't like the noise it makes. We hope somebody will come and fix it soon.


Antigone, Cassandra, and Hestia