Washingtonians

[Stumpfarmer]

Spent an hour working on my doghouse/brooder. The chicks are still too cute to put outside but I figured it will probably be raining by then. At least, I hope it will be raiining by then.

Very mixed feelings, isn't it? I've been stalled out on the new Hamburg housing since July, when things started going sideways in a big way, and obviously am not going to get it all done tomorrow, since so far I've moved two pieces of lumber around to the right yard so far. So tomorrow afternoon I have to replace some of the greenhouse plastic on the old run so they can sleep dry, instead of maybe getting two or three pieces of chicken coop around to where it belongs.

Oh, well, we will persevere, right? Because rain is necessary, a blessing, and will settle the dust even if it's probably too late for the pasture to come back before winter.

 

[Sudsy Chick]

Bah, my BF says my two Leghorns went way up in the tree as soon as they figured out he was trying to catch them and put them in the coop. They are so freakin' FAST!!! I knew I shouldn't have trusted that one person could herd them all into the coop alone. I feel sooooooooo awful right now. Worried the coon will come back and get them tonight. Since he couldn't get them down he at least was able to harass them up into a much higher spot than they ever roosted in before, so hopefully if the coon does come around tonight, it won't see them. If they make it through tonight I'm going to be tempted to lock those stupid birds in the coop for a whole month. Who knows if they will EVER start putting themselves to bed in the coop?

I have to get my birds out of the tree every night. I have a long, eight to ten foot board that I use to get them out of the trees.

It's about 8" x 4" x 1/2", and I stick the edge under their feet and they roost on it then I pull them down.

In fact - that's what I have to go do now =) The ameracauna hens have always done it.

The brabanter, spitz, blue copper marans, and bantam pullets as well as EE cockerels all feel the need to get in the trees rather than their coops.

It's sort of funny - when I go out there they seem to protest and many of them fly down on their own and go to their respective coops

It takes about 10 minutes each night - a bit of a pain. I think when some of them get bigger they'll have to stop!

 

[UrbanEnthusiast]

I have to get my birds out of the tree every night. I have a long, eight to ten foot board that I use to get them out of the trees.

It's about 8" x 4" x 1/2", and I stick the edge under their feet and they roost on it then I pull them down.

In fact - that's what I have to go do now =) The ameracauna hens have always done it.

The brabanter, spitz, blue copper marans, and bantam pullets as well as EE cockerels all feel the need to get in the trees rather than their coops.

It's sort of funny - when I go out there they seem to protest and many of them fly down on their own and go to their respective coops

It takes about 10 minutes each night - a bit of a pain. I think when some of them get bigger they'll have to stop!

Wow, that is a giant pain the butt. Have you tried putting them away before they go up there? Ours are going to have to learn eventually to put themselves to bed in the coop, or risk being picked off one by one from the tree. We are busy. My BF spends about half his time at my apartment, and none of the roommates at his house are very interested in caring for the chickens (and we can't live together for a variety of reasons). That's why we're going to build an automatic door onto the chicken mansion when we finally get it built. How big is your tree? The pine tree ours like to roost in is probably at least 100' tall, so once they decide to go up, there's nothing we can do about it. There are several other tall trees in the yard, too. Now I'm starting to feel pretty hopeless about it. I just wish that an adequate coop had been built for them from the start, then we wouldn't be having any of these problems, but that was all before I had any involvement. I feel pretty hopeless about it right now.

 

[Hinotori]

Well we got the new pen up and a doghouse in it for the silkies. They aren't moved yet. I still need to put the mesh around the bottom few feet of the chainlink. I'll get that done tomorrow. I need to get some fencing for the ground. I put what chickenwire and hardware cloth I have down and put some straw on it, but I'll need more hardware cloth. Plenty of straw going down so they don't flood to bad if the rain is as bad as the forcast over the weekend.

I'm glad I don't have any trees near the pens to have an issue with birds roosting in them. Sounds like everyone with THAT issue has such fun.

 

[itsren]

Quote:
Shyla, you're not the only newbie wondering how the whole winter thing will go. I'd feel better if I knew I had all the wind/rain proofing done. But, I don't. We finally bought the roof panels for the coop, but haven't gotten it on yet, and I have to figure out a way to wind proof 2 sides of the run. It's a massive wind tunnel where my coop sits.

Quote:
My friends who are YOUNGER than me have 25-year-old married kids.

This old fart had kids late.

 

[itsren]

Yea and ya know I don't watch much news either, but, my mom and dad live in MI and they were telling me about all the deaths there and in TX, and I agree with you about the chemical thing, this unfortunately was not something I thought about when I was younger, I have been thinking more and more about it as I've gotten older. I have put enough chemicals on and in my body, I'm done with that!!
Good idea about the tea!! ( I love you blog by the way!) It should work fine!!!

Thanks!

I was going to make the tea in a bucket and I'm second-guessing the smell of that. I think I'll try to find a small covered garbage can. Not that I really need another one of those... I have too much compost in the compost bin and the 3 garbage cans I bought for compost overflow... not to mention the two metal garbage cans I bought for storing chicken supplies. This little lot is getting "garbage canned" to death!

 

[FirewifeJess]

The last thing I really feel like NEEDS to happen before we get too much rain is add a rain gutter to the side of the coop next to the run. Otherwise all the rain flows off the roof into the run. That could get quite wet, and if it's pouring I could see the girls not wanting to go to and from the coop/run because of a sheet of water blocking their doorway

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote:
I'm also out of room for compost as it never really got going this year. I think I'll do what you (still do? used to do...there, I kept you outta trouble with the poo protecting people

) and burn all our shavings, hay, and poo for the fall just to get rid of it. I'm so sick of seeing the mess and need to do a full coop cleanout before winter sets in.

 

[itsren]

That's wonderful!!! That's something to be proud of for sure!! And ya know what? There is plenty of time to play math games, kids need to be kids and learn how to play outside and not be cooped up, playing video games all day, day after day. I realize that this is a learning game, but, making time for both makes a well rounded child! Just MHO.

I agree. That's why we usually strictly limit his time playing the math games. We have him in scouts, send his little behind out the door to play outside and make him play an occasional sport in an attempt to push him out of his limited interests. Now that he's taken an interest in music, diverting him is a lot easier.

 

[itsren]

Quote:
I'm also out of room for compost as it never really got going this year. I think I'll do what you (still do? used to do...there, I kept you outta trouble with the poo protecting people

) and burn all our shavings, hay, and poo for the fall just to get rid of it. I'm so sick of seeing the mess and need to do a full coop cleanout before winter sets in.

I have that huge bed in the front yard I've been digging out and burying it in. It's a lot of work - but at least I'm getting some of it out of the garbage cans. Not as fast as I'd like though. Granted, nothing is planted in those beds right now, so I can get away with burying it. Next year might be a different story. If I have it planted by then, I'm not going to be able to use it as my chicken poop dumping ground.