Week 9; Day 1

My daughter's adventures with the camera. The is the
chickens favorite place to rest during the middle of the day.

I will never again tell anyone that the chickens won't bite. One of the 'boys' bit me the other day. I was giving them some wilted lettuce from the fridge, and they didn't seem terribly interested. So I would pick up a piece at a time and hold it out for the chickens to take. The girls took to the idea immediately, and would run up to me, grab a whole piece, then run away and drop it, just to run back for another. Two of the boys would actually peck at the pieces I was holding; they would pick off a small bit, eat it, then peck off another little bite. Then, the biggest of the boys decided that the little flesh-colored thing underneath the lettuce looked more interesting. So he tried to take a bite. Of my finger. OUCH!!! It didn't break the skin, but it left a mark for a few hours, and for the first few seconds, it felt about like having my finger slammed in a door. For not having teeth, those things can be vicious when they choose!

The rubber mat on the door to the coop is turning out to cause a slight problem: the chickens love to poop on it, so it gets coated pretty quickly. Luckily, I attached it to the coop using a door hinge. So, when it gets soiled, I can just pop out the hinge-pin, remove the door from the coop and spray it off. Clean door, without having to soak the chickens' pen and risk them getting wet and possibly sick.

Other than that, the coop arrangement is still working wonderfully. I didn't think any of them were even using the roost that I'd installed. But a few mornings ago, I went to let them out earlier than usual, and peeked in through the window before opening the door. Isa was perched up there, sound asleep. But the second I unlatched the door, she jumped down, anxious to get out to the yard. I really need to get their nesting box built, but I've been busy the last few days, assembling a shed that's been begging for my attention. That should be done tomorrow, though; if I have enough energy left, I'll try to put together the nesting box.

Today, we borrowed the 'tarp' from the coop for a little while. Then the rain started, so I had one of the kids rush over and put it back on, to make sure rain didn't get in through the windows. He threw the tarp across the top, and when it thudded onto the roof, the chickens all came running out of the coop, scared silly, and huddled on the other side of the pen. It was a few minutes before they calmed enough to brave the coop again, but I found it rather amusing.

Rushing to the fresh grit in the can.

The boys are now officially old enough to be 'dispatched'. We're pretty much waiting for both of us to have the energy and motivation to finish the job once it's been started; hopefully that will be by the end of the coming week. I have to fine-tune a few details for the procedure, but we've pretty much got it planned out [official translation: we've got a vague idea of what to do, and will adjust our ideas as we go. This doesn't always work out well, but sometimes it's the best way to do things. For us, anyway.]. I was considering taking photos during the process, but I don't really know about that. I don't want to take photos of the actual slaughtering, draining the blood, etc. *cringes*

"Hey, I think you dropped a piece. Don't worry, I'll get it.
And that piece. And this one over here."

Hmmm... chicken bites, chicken poop, nesting box, roost, blood, amusement... yeah, I think that's about it.