Who you callin’ chicken?

August was a month of mixed emotions and tough decisions. Poopy says, “Can’t we all just get along?” We went back and forth all month with what to do with Poopy and Droopy. Plans were set to butcher if necessary. In the end (and after seeing that P & D were laying), however, we decided to table that plan for the time being. As much as we have learned about chickens in the last few months, we had/have a lot to learn about what to do when our chickens aren’t healthy and how to tell the difference between an unhealthy chicken getting pecked and a healthy chicken becoming unhealthy after getting pecked. In an effort for better understanding, Belinda took Poopy to see the vet and we found that she was in fact pretty healthy. Strict isolation has brought on many improvements, and the next step is in reintroducing Poopy and Droopy and then isolating the Aggressors.

Eggs

While the beginning of the month looked similarly low to July, the end of August saw some nice changes in egg production. Our ladies laid 108 eggs this month (in comparison to 88 last month)! This means each bird laid an average of 13.5 eggs this month. That’s a lot a layin’! In isolation we have discovered that Poopy and Droopy are in fact laying eggs as well. We even had a day this month in which we collected 8 eggs. There were only 2 days that we did not collect any eggs. Overall, August was a much better month.

Time Commitments

This month we have collectively put in 21.41 hours in basic coop duties (more when I receive missing hours from people). 7.16 hours were put in for coop and garage improvements.

Continued Improvements

The compost bins are usable and almost finished. Boards have been attached to the bottom of the garage door to temporarily keep squirrels and the like out until the new door can be installed. The basement is on the way to becoming a convertible coop. A nest box has been added and a roost has been built for sleeping at night. The last step is creating a curtain or blind to cover over the chicken wire at night to protect the chickens from being visible to predators.

The roof has made major improvements in the condition of the run. I know everyone loved mucking around in the poop slurry, but keeping the run dry has made it much easier to do anything inside the run. It also means that the ladies can use that space every day, even when its raining, meaning they don’t have to be all cooped up together in a tight space on those days.

Parade of Chicken Coops

The coop tour is coming up fast. As a reminder it’s this Saturday Sept 10th. Zac has sent out a schedule for manning the coop. This is a good opportunity for people to give feedback about our setup as well as take a look at some of the things other people are doing differently or the same. Two work days have been set up this week. If you have any other time open and would like to come do some work, have at it. Anything that will make the coop look more presentable… For those that ordered a t-shirt, if you would like to pick them up early they will be in the garage. Otherwise you can pick them up on coop tour day.

Originally written by Nicki, posted by Zac