We renewed the salad bars in the chicken’s run by moving the frames, adding new seed (wheat, mung beans, and alfalfa), and topping off with potting soil. The hens “help” by cleaning up the seed that doesn’t make it down through the welded wire. They think it is great fun.
They also really enjoy scratching through the old, now exposed, salad bar areas.
We have a pan cam working in the coop again! So I could see a hen get off the roost at 4:30am and blindly make her way over the nest boxes, hop up, and settle in. She isn’t broody, as when the sun was up she was off the nest and out into the runs. I guess when she has to lay, she has to lay.
I reinforced the back screen door with hardware cloth so I could leave it open at night in the summer heat. It helps the cooler night air circulate. Now the camera should be able to see if there are predators peeking in too.
Ultimately, I hope the crossvine will grow up the sides and across the top of the chicken runs, providing shade in the summer (and a whole host of orange blooms). Several times last year I had to redirect trailing vines away from the man made shade sail I put up. Rather than have warring shade makers, this year I put the sun sail inside the run to keep the afternoon blaze off their food dispenser (which is metal and gets hot).
The hens were not happy at first; having me rustle around their enclosure with a huge scary cloth was not appreciated. To keep the cloth from flapping too much in the wind, and scaring them further, I used cable ties like a stitch to hold the fabric to the poultry wire.
The next afternoon, they were all clustered happily in the shade in front of the coop. Mission accomplished.
I’m glad the hardware cloth on the top of the runs is sturdy since the neighborhood cats like to sit on it like fuzzy toadstools. I took the picture with the black cat up and Sophie looking on (I pretty sure she taught them all the trick). My husband took the one of the big white cat, who truly looks like a fungi. The chickens don’t seem to be concerned about fuzzy death from above, but did let out concerned noises when my husband approached. So there we go. The cats have found a place to watch chicken TV without disturbing the inmates.
I love cable ties. In my book they rank with duct tape and WD-40 in the “it needs to work now” tool box. Yes, they are great for taming and organizing cables, but they also make good chicken leg tags (my hens are color coded). Putting signage up on a wire fence is an easy task with a hole punch and some cable ties. When the rotating wall mount for the webcam no longer holds, cable ties can be used to prop up the weakened part.
The webcam is still hit or miss on connectivity. Sometimes I am able to connect, sometimes I’m not. Very frustrating. I keep tinkering with it, though.
Critters and Craft 