More Automation

On By CarynIn Coop

I love automation. I’m so easily distracted, it is easy for me to forget to do what I should when I should. And when I do forget, it causes me anxiety, so everything I can do to reduce the anxiety is a good thing (I have over 20 daily alarms on my phone when the kids are in school)!

The automatic door on the coop is awesome. After the sunrise, it opens up and the chickens come out, and at dusk, it closes again to keep the chickens safer. I don’t have to remember to open and close the coop. (And I love that the chickens put themselves to bed well before dusk. So neat.)

Now the heat has me stressed. It is still cool at night, but the day time “feels like” temperature has hit the 100s frequently. I have a fan in the coop, but if I leave it on all day, the temperature is actually higher around noon than if I left the fan off. But if I leave the fan off, by about 3pm the coop heats up to 100. And if I leave the fan on at night there is a chance of the chickens getting too cold. So I bought a temperature controller and an oscillating fan. When the temperature reaches 80 degrees, the fan will start, and help cool the coop. Then when the temperature drops back down to about 80, the fan will turn off. And the fan can be disassembled and cleaned so I can keep the dust build up off (since I read that most barn fires occur when dust collects in fans and overheats the motor).

Oscillating fan with temperature controller

I installed this a couple days ago, and since then we have had the most glorious 80 degree days. Too cool to actually trigger the fan. I’m not complaining; to test the fan I finally figured out that if I hold the temperature sensor in my hand, the controller will kick on. All good!

One step back

On By CarynIn chickens

Apparently the poop catcher under the roost is also scary. I noticed that the chickens had stopped even playing on the roost, so I took out the poop catcher, changed out the wobbly branch and put the 2×3 back in. The chickens appreciate the change.

Chickens using the roost… without the poop catcher. Sigh.

I’ll try to put it back once they start actually sleeping up there. They still huddle in the corner together now.

Still growing

On By CarynIn chickens

We did health checks with weight, vent and feet check, and band size check. The chicks are still putting on weight, which is good. Magic is the largest at 753g (1.66 lbs). They are over 8 weeks old, so we have also introduced scratch grains. We are staying on chick feed, though. One of the local suppliers of the organic grower feed has some on back order, so we are waiting for that. A bit frustrating to have the labels say chick feed to 8 weeks, and layer feed for over 16 weeks, but the feed for 8-16 weeks is no where to be found.

Chicken weights chart

Scorpion

On By CarynIn Flora
Bark scorpion

Uh, hello. My iNaturalist app tells me that this might be a variety of bark scorpion that was crawling across my back porch. It was on its way to being a former bark scorpion; I’m pretty sure it was suffering from the effects of the spray the exterminator put down around the house last week (not around the coop, just the house). It did not have to suffer long. Out in the meadow, under a nice rock is a good place for scorpions. On my back porch is not.

Scarlet gilia

On By CarynIn Flora

Aren’t these pretty? The app PlantSnap identifies these as Scarlet gilia. Here is an interesting article on the Scarlet Gilia, which is native to the western US. I’ve spread native wild flower seeds, but this one wasn’t in the mix. Bonus flower!

The hummingbirds love them, which I love, because I am terrible about remembering to change hummingbird food every three days, and after reading that the black mold kills hummingbirds, I don’t even bother making sugar water anymore. I plant flowers the hummingbirds like instead. Win win.

We ordered some Scarlet gilia seed too, since this plant is doing well. We are all about planting native species that don’t need lots of specialty care and attention!