Ice water

On November 14, 2019November 13, 2019 By CarynIn Coop

Ice water is great in the summer, not so great in the winter. We’ve had another cold front bringing sub-freezing temps (again, this is not normal for Texas). During the last freeze the chicken waterer outside froze, but the inside waterer was OK. Not this time. After breaking out the ice twice in an hour I headed to the farm store for a solution.

I found a heated dog water dish for about $20! (There was a chicken set up, but the warmer and the metal waterer together was over $80.) I was again very thankful that my husband installed power in the coop, and put outlets on three walls, inside and out. The outside outlet is in a perfect place to plug in the water dish.

I’m still quite good at freaking out the chickens, like by carrying a ladder around a corner. But I am improving because I noticed the freak out, stopped, waited for them to stop bouncing off the poultry wire and put themselves away in the coop before I took the big scary ladder in the run. The heated water dish fit where the hanging waterer was, so I moved the hanging waterer over a bit (which is why I needed the ladder).

Hanging water (red) is frozen, the heated bowl (green) is not

The bowl had a thermostat that only heats the water if it is cold enough to freeze. The next morning showed that it worked! And I witnessed a chicken drinking from the new bowl. Phew!

Chicken enrichment

On November 12, 2019November 8, 2019 By CarynIn Coop

It has been cold and rainy and I tried to make the chicken’s covered run more exciting by putting in a large branch. The branch has been sitting behind the coop for awhile, so cleaning off the tiny branches to make it more roost friendly was easy.

Side view showing the height of the branch

The chickens are not impressed. They love their branch perches in the uncovered runs, but this new one has been met with incredulous skepticism. If after a few weeks they still don’t like it, I’ll come up with something different.

But hey, I still have a lap chicken!

They like it!

On October 23, 2019October 20, 2019 By CarynIn chickens, Coop, eggs

They don’t like it as much as the other nest boxes, but I found a chicken in the metal nest box! And she laid an egg there! Cleaning and painting it was not a wasted effort, yay! Granted, their two favorite nest boxes were both occupied.

I have been putting down plastic bins everywhere I find an egg on the floor. We are up to 6 nest boxes. For 12 chickens. A little overkill, but they fight over the two boxes under the workbench. Here is a video: https://youtu.be/6hDRHzRU3fQ. I thought Velociraptors were eating my chickens; no, it was just a hen screaming at another hen coming toward her nest box.

Unauthorized entry

On October 20, 2019October 16, 2019 By CarynIn Coop

Sophie trying to get access to the chickens

We have had unauthorized access to the chicken runs. Our outside/inside cat Sophie has figured out how to get on the roof, then she crawls onto the sunshade over the runs, and her weight bends the hardware cloth down enough for her to look in.

Recently we came back home from being gone all day, and when I went to check the chickens I heard a pitiful meowing. Sophie had climbed on top of one of the closed doors to the runs, her entry point had closed up, and she could neither get down nor go back up. I have no idea how long she was stuck there, but she was very grateful for the help down. It didn’t stop her from getting right back up on the roof, though.

To stop the cat from getting to the chickens and/or getting stuck again, first I took down the sunshade (since our temperatures are dropping, it was time anyway). Then I put up 2×4 supports under the gutter so that the hardware cloth could not bend down, even with a cat standing on it.

To be safe, I also tied down the hardware cloth with a loop of steel wire in the middle of each support. I don’t think the cat would have been very happy if she actually made it inside the coop. The chickens don’t seem to be afraid of her at all, and outnumber her 12:1.

More curtains

On October 16, 2019October 12, 2019 By CarynIn Coop

The chickens have not seemed interested in the metal nest boxes, so I added a couple of curtains in the same fabric as on the nest boxes under the work bench. The curtains make it look nice a dark, we’ll see if it entices any hens!

Critters and Craft

Category: Coop