I didn't do much of anything over this past weekend, we had the rain for brief periods but most of the time that doesn't stop me from doing things. I have a lot I need to get done but took it easier than normal yesterday too. I had a weird thing happen on Sunday morning, I guess it may be called a Thunderclap Headache that was a bit scary. Intense pain at the base of my skull suddenly, the bad pain only lasted minutes but it made my neck hurt and my left eye and ear would get sharp sudden pains. I am thinking it is related to my degenerative disk disease. For some strange reason, I ache in other parts of my body, nothing bad...but almost like I worked out and am sore. I waited until after 4:30PM to work outside yesterday, then I just fed and watered and cleaned my coop called the "Condo". I had to, the poop was getting bad so I scraped it all out, leveled the ground and spread some straw for my babies...they are getting big though.
Today I need to tackle cleaning my big coop, I don't like to clean it if there is a chance it will rain...because it won't stay clean long. My chickens will spend the day in the coop if it rains much and it doesn't take very long to get nasty when they don't free range. It is cloudy out and I think we have a 30% chance of rain today, I may just clean the nest boxes out and put fresh pine shavings in them and turn the liter today. I want to shovel the liter out, wash the walls and roosts but...if it does rain, they will be in the coop and I can't do it with a bunch of chickens mobbing me. Maybe I will go look for small trees to use for new roosts...I need more roost space for them, the reason I have to clean the nest boxes is because they are roosting on the bars on the front of them. I have more roost space in the coop itself, but they like sleeping in the run in the summer, it is covered by Polybarbonate panels so they are protected from rain somewhat, but the walls are just hardware cloth and they catch any breezes there are. The top roost is the most popular in the coop, it is the same height as the windows. I may change the roosts in the coop and make more at the same level as the windows. I change my mind a lot and re-engineer things based on how my poultry behaves sometimes.
I need to get more roosters out of my coop too, I am thinking about moving the younger chickens in with the hens to the big coop and using the Condo and the grow out pen to house the ones I want for breeding purposes. Some of the young hens will be laying age before long and I have no nest boxes in either the Condo or Grow Out pen. Lots to think about and I am procrastinating today.
I am also kind of sad, one of my best egg customers is moving away, she is a sweet lady and came by with her neighbor today to buy eggs. She asked if she could come visit when she was in town again and asked if she could just sit and watch my chickens sometime. Oh...that reminds me, I need to put some wire over the cattle panel we are using as a gate! Lol, my chickens have discovered they can walk through the holes on it, maybe I will do that first, there is a cat that comes and visits sometimes and it would probably help to keep it out and the chickens in...while my customers were here, I walked to the fence and noticed I had a chicken out in the non-fenced area that ran back through the holes when I went over to the gate, rabbits tend to run through the 2"x4" fence holes too...I don't have enough hardware cloth to keep them out, maybe just my upper garden though...they ate all my green bean plants so I will have to do something if I want any veggies.
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