OMG! I feel like such an idiot.... I have 14 pullets running around in the coop/run, but I'm an instant gratification kinda gal....so waiting another month and a half or two months til the magic of egg production was killing me! So - I bought two laying hens from a nice family in the area. Two Speckled Sussex - one is a little under a year and one is two years so I know she's close to spent, but they were $10 a piece and they'll give us something to see while all the others are growing.
I was hoping one or both of them would lay once after coming home before they stressed and I'd have to play the waiting game, but no such luck. So as a newbie, it took me a few days to realize that I hadn't thought it through and they need layer ration - duh - and different grit options, etc. They weren't pecking at the smaller gals, which is good, but definitely gave them the stinkeye and laid claim to every fun part of the run and coop (grass area, treats, veggies, the cool roost, the best corner, etc). So I figured I needed to seperate them somehow, mostly for feeding purposes, and for only the next month or so.
The coop has two pop doors to the run, at opposite ends of the wall facing the run. I've had one closed off because they're still little and I ran out of energy after fixing the first one. So I grabbed the huge doghouse that neither of my dogs have ever used, and dragged it inside the coop. I put the door facing the second pop door, put their food inside, some straw, and then used some extra welded wire to make a seperate run area inside the already built run.
SO - this morning I went out to open pop doors. We've all been on "egg lookout" this week to see who'll find the first egg these gals lay for us. I check the doghouse and no luck. I throw scratch out for everybody to play in and I sit outside the run to watch playday while I have a cigarette. Bad habit I know.... I look in the run of the 'big gals' and I see two sloppy white things with poop all over them. I was so excited!!! They were huge! I figured they were messy and mishapen as a result of their systems kicking back into gear. I ran into the run and over to the section penned off for them....... (drum roll please.....) and saw two of the biggest piles of chicken poop I've ever seen!!!!!!!!!!!! Not having ever had full grown chickens before I had no idea how huge it could get. It got stirred around before I saw it whole when they were all together. Some one should have told me they poop bigger than my Boxer! LOL
I'm such a dunce. I refuse to get excited until I crack one open in the bowl now.... LOL
