Either way, I will close in the front side of my coop today. I can take it back down on Monday, if needed. Of course, I found two young rats in the coop yesterday. I already suspected, because I saw a few droppings near the water bucket. For the most part, I have them under control now, and only see one or two when the weather gets really cold, or there is another phase of major construction across the street. I need to go buy more baits. They are actually working far better than I expected.
I have a trio to bathe, and groom today. I was expecting my daughter to help, but she's working, so I'll go it alone. Dh will help hold them for me to trim their toenails later this evening when he wakes up, I use a dremel, so it's fairly quick, and easy.
I have them all on layer feed now, and to increase the protein, I treat them with Calf-Manna. Calf-Manna is a great product, however, it has given me two scares, since it's a very deep pink, sort of maroon type color. The day after the first time I fed it to them, I noticed the poop boards had this reddish pooh on it. My mind was racing with all the things that could have caused them to have a sort of bloody looking stool overnight. It finally dawned on me that it was the coloring in the Calf-Manna. I felt so dumb! I had noticed a few times that the chickens' feet were looking a little raw in places, but their scales weren't lifted up any, so it didn't exactly look like scaly mite. I put my glasses on, picked up one of the cockerels to examine more closely. The raw place brushed right off. Bits of the Calf-Manna were on their feet. Silly me.
