Well that’s fancy.

On April 28, 2019 By CarynIn Coop

Or is it? Is wainscoting in again? Or did I just date my coop?

Not that it matters. I didn’t install it for looks (and there are no trim boards, so there’s a big finish no-no); I installed it for safety and cleaning. For safety: it keeps the chickens from pecking the asphalt paper and either damaging themselves (it is STICKY when it gets warm), or picking holes in the vapor barrier. For cleaning: the boards are made of solid PVC (polyvinyl chloride) which is a kind of plastic. Easy to clean and water-proof. It was not cheap (but cheaper than wood boards), but I am hoping it will work long term and be worth the investment. The whole coop isn’t cheap, for that matter, but we aren’t raising chickens to produce eggs for big-box company A, we are raising chickens for our personal educational, health, and entertainment purposes. We do have a budget, money set aside for the project, and are tracking costs. Not that I’m sensitive about installing wainscoting in my coop.

Spider with egg sac

On April 27, 2019April 26, 2019 By CarynIn Wildlife

Well here is something I’ve never seen before. A wolf spider with her egg sac. I’ve seen wolf spiders carrying the littles on their back (and still have nightmares), but haven’t seen the pre-kingdom-of-the-spiders version.

I disturbed her when I was digging around the coop. Scooped her right up with a load of dirt! Rather than flinging the whole thing, I took her gently over to the edge of the woods and let her go. Much better her outside than inside the house.

120 toes

On April 26, 2019April 26, 2019 By CarynIn chickens

Faverolles have five toes on each foot. I have twelve chicks. I did not do the math when I decided to clip their sharp little nails. I did not manage to clip every nail (I was going to file, but the nails are still so little and the toes are kind of floppy), but I did manage to only expose one quick. 1 out of 120 is not bad. I quickly (#punintentional) put some “no-pick” purple goo on it and the chick was fine. And all of them have at least been exposed to the process. Phew.

Storm

On April 25, 2019April 24, 2019 By CarynIn Coop

We had a big thunderstorm with 60-80 mile and hour winds and hail. I can’t verify the hail because the storm hit about 8:45 and it was too dark to see, but the weather app says we had hail, so there we go. It was loud.

Screen shot from the weather app during the storm

And wet, so much rain so quickly. Despite putting more dirt in front of the coop, the whole area was a muddy mess in the morning. I had almost a full bale of compressed straw (outdoor cat cold boxes don’t use much), so I took it down to the coop, laid it over the mud, and pressed it down with my feet. It is still pretty sloppy, but at least I no longer sink up to my ankles and come away full of mud.

Since the chicks are stuck inside, I tried hanging a romaine lettuce head in their area as enrichment. I used a screwdriver to push some plastic twine through the stem, then hung it in the chick area.

Chicks don’t seem thrilled.

But Pooh finding a caterpillar was great fun!

Enrichment

On April 24, 2019 By CarynIn chickens, Craft

The chicks enjoyed their second time outside even more than the first! And they were even more excited about the grass and dirt I put in their inside area; not afraid of it at all, quite the opposite.

They are also exploring the perch, so I made them another one using some 2x4s.