What did you do with your flock today?

[Shetland lover]

View attachment 3369883
I love winters here!

I'm so jealous! Our North Sea was grey and a sub artic 3 degrees Celsius when I had my New Year dip.

 

[Shetland lover]

I spent two hours today digging out my quail pens from the mud The rats have tunneled enough that the ground is loose and saturated much lower than I expected when building their setups and pavers. I discovered after our last round of rains that the coops were almost level to the ground and their living area was a semi cemented 4” thick mixture of feed, poop, pine shavings and muddy water. It was a disgusting massively stinky mess. So since the weather is supposed to stay wet and nasty for at least the next 10 days…I knew I had to fix it. After all the cleaning, crawling in mud, and moving pens around…I’m hoping they will stay put and safe. They’re now up on cinder blocks and wrapped in tarps.

AND those bloody rats dug a hole into my coop and chewed through the mat I used to keep critters out So I also had to add that to the day before the winds and rain started up again. By the time we are through I will have used pavers and metal plates everywhere and the coop will be Fort Knox

Let me know if the buckets work on larger rat sized rodents! I’ve been eying them for awhile now!

I had a similar stinky mess in the old greenhouse I use to cover the big coop. The sand had compacted and mixed with old food and poop so I shovelled the lot out while DH was at football. I had plenty of 'help' though...
My chickens refuse to eat pellets under any circumstances and that's what creates the mess. They seem to be the main cause of the slime and smell too. Now the sand is everywhere, I'm going to devote a portion of time to picking up spilled pellets a couple of times a day.
Penelope laid two eggs today, one absolutely normal, the other with a very thin shell.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

View attachment 3369883
I love winters here!

OMGeeze that is simply heavenly!!! We may need to take another cruise now!!!

AND those bloody rats dug a hole into my coop and chewed through the mat I used to keep critters out

Oh that sounds awful to have to deal with!
Have you tried ¼" 19 guage hardware cloth under everything to keep them from digging in and through? It's a little pricey but I've had such success with my ½" 19 guage!

 

[ChicksnMore]

Found 3 eggs in the runs today...I think maybe the young'uns haven't quite figured out what the urge is all about. I think I may have missed the two since I hadn't looked on the other side of the coop the past few days. Luckily, it's naturally refrigerated, but boy were they muddy! Deployed one bucket trap and filled the holes the rats had dug along the fence line. Reconnected their water bucket to the auto filler hose and disconnected the heated water bucket for now, until next freeze. Cockerel Ertugrul is doing a great job rounding everyone up, along with Cockerel Rumi. They were last into the coop today. He has not tried to attack me at all lately.

I'm curious about those bucket traps too. Looking forward to hearing what you think of them.

View attachment 3369883
I love winters here!

I can see why!

Rode Boo out to Mana with the intent of grabbing some irrigation tape for my basket project. Great ride, nice day. Unfortunately for me, even though the gates were open the tape is in a fenced in field. So... I need to find another source. Should not be that hard and maybe part of the adventure.

Flock is terrific and gave me 14 eggs today. Lots of screaming and yelling at the boxes this morning. Too funny. I just love my babies. Just scraped boards and filled feeders today.

Vet gave Cisco . Nice to have that out of the way. Though I am getting sad to know he is not our boy anymore. Delivery date is a few weeks away so I will enjoy him until then.

Told dh I wanted to order dinner out tonight. BBQ chicken bowl from LL BBQ was a treat. I like not cooking. Chooks will get some good leftovers tomorrow.

Sounds like a lovely day. I'm glad you get a little more time with Cisco...I'm sure he'll be missed.

I spent two hours today digging out my quail pens from the mud The rats have tunneled enough that the ground is loose and saturated much lower than I expected when building their setups and pavers. I discovered after our last round of rains that the coops were almost level to the ground and their living area was a semi cemented 4” thick mixture of feed, poop, pine shavings and muddy water. It was a disgusting massively stinky mess. So since the weather is supposed to stay wet and nasty for at least the next 10 days…I knew I had to fix it. After all the cleaning, crawling in mud, and moving pens around…I’m hoping they will stay put and safe. They’re now up on cinder blocks and wrapped in tarps.

AND those bloody rats dug a hole into my coop and chewed through the mat I used to keep critters out So I also had to add that to the day before the winds and rain started up again. By the time we are through I will have used pavers and metal plates everywhere and the coop will be Fort Knox

Let me know if the buckets work on larger rat sized rodents! I’ve been eying them for awhile now!

So much work, 10 more days of rain, and rats to boot. That's how we know who really loves chickens...you do the work and still want them. It gets easier as you fiddle with this and adjust that... eventually you'll have the set up that works best for your areas challenges.

 

[Shetland lover]

You know I said I cleaned the stinky sand out of the old greenhouse yesterday? I put the fresh sand in this morning and everyone has been playing 'the floor is lava' all day! Gladys, who is 4 in March and has been with me since 12wks old - and for two thirds of that time has walked, scratched and dustbathed with sand on the floor in there - decided the floor was so dangerous that the only way into the coop for bed was to launch herself across the gap between the greenhouse door and coop door. She crashed into the wall chest first! Silly madam was lucky she didn't break her neck!!!

 

[ChicksnMore]

I spent yesterday eyeing one of the alohas I traded for. I tried hard to pick all hens but turns out one chick is a roo. He's an odd guy with no tail so I kept watching him and feeling baffled. The alohas are in with my yokos so he can't stay. I wasn't sure if he has a problem like wry tail or if he's healthy and a rumpy. Asked for help yesterday and got suggestions that helped me figure out what to do with him. Sounds like wry tail or rumpy, he can have a good life if someones willing to take him. I'll start with the lady I traded with. She got him from the lady in Phoenix that's trying to establish them as a breed. If Neither of those want him, then I'll give him to a friend I know that doesn't breed at all. He's a nice boy.

Think he's a rumpy but

Anyway...this is him. What a tail for a roo eh? Kinda cute though.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Cleaning in the garden again today. Looks like Schultz is going to be a regular visitor...so far he's traveling solo. He's so much like Nutters in personality Pity his combs not good...but love him anyway.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Such a beautiful boy
Today I say a young man walking down the road with a roo in his arms and at first glance it looked like a Yoko with its long white tail but I don't think anyone here would have been able to get- or cared to get their hands on a Yoko. I also think I would have heard about it. Was a nice thought though.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Today was one of those easy going days. Flock was out and about, content healthy and happy. I scrapped boards and topped feeders.
Collected 10 eggs and sold 24. Rode Boo to the Ag yards looking for irrigation tape and found- though it is locked up on a Sunday.
Worked on Boo as I want to replace her turn signals with something tighter so I quit knocking them when I get on. It is taking a little fabrication to make the new turn signals fit but it feels good to do the work. So that took up the end of my day. That and putting the cute chickens to bed.

 

[TropicalBabies]