Hey there!
It’s hard to believe it, but our chicks are already six weeks old. They’ve grown rapidly from tiny, peeping little fuzzlings…
…into surly, restless pullets–that’s poultry-speak for chicken teenagers.
And they’re way too big for their brooder.
Our plan is to move them into the official, outdoor grown hen coop–a.k.a, the Granny Coop–in a few days. They’re old enough and they have all their mature feathers, so their little bodies should be able to acclimate to the chillier weather.
Jer and I are a little nervous, though. We’ve never integrated a younger group into an older flock before, and though we’ve read about it and plan to follow the recommendations to the best of our ability, we’re afraid there might be some “chicken-on-chicken violence,” as Hubby likes to say.
What are the recommendations for successful flock assimilation? Basically, put the new chickens in the main coop at night with the older ones, and when they all come out in the morning, they will recognize one another as a new, larger flock. Then, they’ll naturally go about adjusting their flock dynamic.
Hmm…ok, internet. If you say so.
I’m a bit worried about the younger girls because they’re, well, comparatively little. Especially Daisy, our meek little runt of a pullet, although she’s good about staying out of the way, poor baby.
Jer’s more worried about the older hens because he says the younger ones are “b%*#@&s,” which isn’t entirely inaccurate; they can be little spitfires and nasty with each other. And, they outnumber the big girls.
We’ll see.
Prep for this move also meant I had to get on with the autumn coop deep cleaning ASAP, which I would need to do anyway, but now it felt especially urgent given that the older hens appeared to have a moderate case of mites, and I still hadn’t treated them or the coop itself.
I do not want the little ones beginning their outdoor lives by contracting mites.
So, that meant I had to hop to it this week, when really all I wanted to do was curl up with a book or leisurely revise my latest work-in-progress (more about that in a later post).
The weather had been cold and rainy, with temps dipping below freezing at night, frosting the ground in the morning. But the weather cleared yesterday, so I put on my chicken-chore Carhartt and got to it, starting with older girls’ booty baths and mite treatments. Hubby was kind enough to help me with that part.
This entailed washing the girls’ vent areas (their single external openings, from which they both lay eggs and excrete bodily waste) with water and Dawn to clean off old poop and mite eggs, then spraying their vent areas and skin with a solution made from 9 ounces of Elector PSP mixed into a gallon of water–a powerful one-time treatment, thank goodness.
I was afraid our three big girls would freak out and make the entire endeavor difficult, but they were actually quite tolerant as you’ll see in the videos, bless them.
I’m glad they trust us.
After that, I mucked out the coop itself. This always sounds like a huge, awful job, but once it’s underway, I remember it’s really not bad.
I swept out and vacuumed up all the old shavings, then sanded the roost bar to get off as much old poop as possible.
Then, I washed the floors of the roost area and nesting boxes with water and more dish soap. Next, I sprayed all the surfaces with more of the Elector PSP solution, paying special attention to nooks and crannies, where mites like to hide during the day.
Finally, I let the entire coop air-dry for 45 minutes before piling in lots of fresh wood shavings.
I also sprayed down the poop boards, coop plank, and fake eggs we still keep in the nest boxes to encourage laying. (Each time I’ve tried to take away the fake eggs, our hens get upset and act like they don’t know where to lay. It’s ridiculous.)
In our coop, we use the deep litter method, which means we don’t change out the mass of shavings each day. Instead, I clean most of the droppings out on a daily basis by scraping the crap on the poop board (a removeable piece of wood located under the roosting bar) into the compost pile each morning, then stirring the old shavings inside the coop and placing the cleaner board back in. The poop that remains in the coop breaks down into a nice compost, which generates heat that keeps the hens warm at night. This warmth is especially important here in the colder months.
When it comes to coop litter, some chicken keepers believe sand is a better, cleaner alternative, but I just don’t think it would keep our hens warm enough. So, wood shavings using the deep litter method it is!
But using deep litter does necessitate a total clean-out twice a year, once in the early spring and once in the autumn. If that doesn’t happen, the coop can become unhygienic.
I’m glad those chores are done. And, though I’m a little sore today, it felt good to do some physical labor in the cool, bright sunshine. My head felt clear and my body energized.
The work is dirty, however, and not at all glamorous.
My life now is not glamorous in the least, really.
Sometimes I miss having reasons to fix up on a regular basis. When I was working, I wore makeup and my Tiffany pearl earrings everyday. I got my nails done, colored my hair, and worked out on a regular basis. I looked pretty damn good, most of the time.
Now, it’s comfy clothes and makeup only if there’s a truly pressing reason, and it feels like a good day if I’ve showered. I haven’t worked out much this year, though that’s really my fault–I just haven’t allocated the time for it. I need to change that, for health reasons if nothing else.
My habits now probably sound slovenly, but when I’m mostly home on our little farm here in the countryside, there’s no reason to dress up. Daphne and the hens don’t care. The neighbors don’t care, and my husband doesn’t seem to mind, either. He tells me I’m beautiful, no matter what.
Although, when I do put on makeup, he’ll do a double take and say, “You look pretty.” Ha.
It’s all fine, though. I’m the most content I’ve ever been in my adult life, and it’s been good for me to let go of the more superficial stuff.
I just hope someone will tell me if I start to look too unkempt.
What have you been up to?
See you next week!
XOXO,
Jenn
Jennifer Shaw 