A Welcomed Returning Occupant

I sure do miss having chickens.  Looking out back and seeing the empty coop seems wrong and makes me sad.  Oh, I've been tempted many times and have almost caved a couple times this year alone but passed each time.

However, not having the worry about protecting them from predator's is a relief and stress free.  For example, I recently posted pics of the coyote I watched stroll through my back yard and onto the neighbors chicken coops.  If I had chickens in my coop, the encounter would have been completely different.  Also, the other morning around 6ish, as I was standing at the sink washing my breakfast dishes, a BIG raccoon came ambling by, along the same route as the coyote, and made a b-line towards my neighbors coop and sure enough it wasn't a minute or so later and the chickens erupted with squawking and cackling and carrying on.

Now, not to be completely discouraged, I am happy to report that I do have a resident of my chicken coop this spring!  A returning resident too that is reusing their old nest after some patching -

Anyone care to take a guess at what type of birds these are WITHOUT looking below and cheating -

Looked like there were two littles in the nest but I can't be certain.  I was already causing a disturbance and the parents were in an uproar, so I snapped my pics and hurried away -

A small bird; one of the smallest in North America.

A very chatty boisterous bird.

A busy and energetic bird.

A territorial bird.

A master at finding and catching all sorts of pesky insects, especially on the ground and under plants.

A Northern House Wren! 🐤

Another of my favorite birds.

Concrete Chickens

Sadly, not the real thing but thought I would kill two birds (get it) with one stone here.

I moved the yard figurine mother chicken and her three chicks into the vacant chicken coop.  Gives the impression that there are still chickens occupying the coop, and it gets the figurines out of the direct elements and protects them some.  They've been outside for so long and it shows but hopefully this will extend their life some.

Closed For The Season...

Sadly, I am out of the chicken business...

Decided I didn't want to fuss with winterizing the coop, then the need to shovel a path out there and keep it maintained and I didn't want to make numerous trips out there each and every day throughout the winter either.  Although, not a huge burden and worry, it was always on my mind.  Worrying about the cold weather on the girls, snow in general but heavy wet snow on the roof.

It's only been a month since I rehomed them and I can honestly say I do miss having them.  I miss the fresh eggs and recycling foods out to them.

Once they were picked up, I spent some time cleaning the coop out, including the nest boxes and laying down the last of bale of straw.  Sill using the upper part as storage but for now - NO VACANCIES!

Exposed!

Similar to a strip dance where the cloths come off, our chicken coop is slowly taking her winter protection off too, hubba-hubba!

The door plastic was the first to be removed about 5-6 weeks ago.  Last weekend I removed the rest of the protection along the lower section, as you can see in the photo above.  

The girls seem to be happier since they can now all see out without jockeying for a spot at the door and there's fresh air blowing in.  I'll remove the the remaining protections in the coming weeks.

One of the downsides to exposing the girls is they're now also easily seen by predators.  We had a big beautiful fox out there yesterday morning, excitedly running back and forth along the front of the coop.  Foxes won't typically try to get in, as they get too excited, rather seems they try to scare them out.  Either way chickens aren't the brightest and are easily spooked, so needless to say they were squawking and running and flying with each lung from the fox; feathers everywhere.

Shag This!

Good news is that we've getting 4 to 5 eggs a day for the past couple of weeks.  Delicious and as fresh as can be, YUM!

However, one of the Buff Orpington ladies does not use the next boxes for her egg laying, nope!  She prefers to lay her egg on the run floor and typically in the farthest corner from the door, see the red circle where.  She was being kind on the day I took the pic below, as I only had to crawl halfway through the run to shag her egg that day.

I've pulled her aside and spoken to her but she's a stubborn one...

Bring It On!

I spent last weekend, actually the past two weekends, winterizing our chicken coop\rabbit hutch.  I believe we're all set for whatever mother nature has to throw at us this winter.  The import thing is that all drafts have been eliminated, with only certain area left open to allow some fresh air and ventilation.

This is the first batch of chickens that has me scratching my head.  They're some typical of today's snowflakes, so fussy and needy.  I toss in table scrapes and goodies, e.g. bread, crackers, lettuce, etc. and they don't know what to do with it and spend more time investigating and ultimately not touching.  I've had chickens since I was kid and cannot recall ever having such birds.

Also, this is the first batch of chickens that thought it was a good idea to pick at and eat through the plastic!  I kid you not, hence the reason this was a two weekend project.  They ate the entire bottom right section, which had to be removed and replaced.  I used old cardboard boxes along the bottom half, which you can see in the above pic, in the hopes of preventing them from eating this plastic.  The added cardboard should help with wind also, so a win win.

Special care was made to ensure Jack 2.0s cage is bundled up tight too.  Although, an old timer, his time spending winters in the garage are over.  He's relegated to coop life full time now.

Any Day Now! C'Mon Ladies!

The coop ladies were 16-weeks old this past Friday (8-28)!  They've been carrying on, singing and clucking for a couple weeks now, so I'm hopeful we'll be getting eggs soon.  With that in mind it was time to hang their nest boxes.  Reusing and old favorite, one that I used growing up in Westwood.  We've sure gotten our money's worth out of it that's for sure.  It's showings it's age too but still functional, right down to the golf balls I use to fool the ladies with.  They're near 20 years old too.

H2O Self Watering Bucket

I've seen these chicken self waterers for some time now and always wondered if they really worked and if so how good were they.  Well, now that we have chickens again I thought I'd give these a try, so ordered a couple from Amazon.  

Installed and ready for use!  I will add water and leave under the deck for a little while to see if they leak.  If not, I'll move it to the coop and hope the chickens get the hang of it and take to it.  This will help keep their water clean and I won't need to fill up nearly as much as the waterer I use today.

She's A Beauty Clark - Coop 2.0!

The old chicken coop has been resurrected!

Moved to a new location, lowered, replaced some rotted wire and many rotted boards.

WALLAH, I give you Coop 2.0! 

The Littles have been tossed out of the basement and into their new forever home.  Jack 2.0 was also tossed out of the garage and now resides on the second floor, west end.

Everyone has adjusted well and I could not be any happier!

Only about 4 more months until the girls start laying!  It'll be here before we know it!

"Coop" De Grâce

Over the course of a couple months I slowly dismantled much of our old chicken coop.  Not the core structure but more the pieces and parts, e.g. lattice sides, rotting back panels, etc., and systematically loaded into our weekly trash bins.

With that completed, I was able to rock the coop forward and slowly jimmy it forward enough so that it was now fully on our property and off the neighbors, see first pic -

I began working on what has now become the new foundation.  Digging it into the ground to get level but more importantly to help discourage predators from wanting to try and dig under -

The structure itself isn't too heavy, rather more awkward due to it's size.  So, with the help of my neighbor and his two teenagers, we were able to stand the coop back up and rotate onto it's new foundation and new location.

A quick trip to Home Depot on Saturday, and several hours installing what was purchased, and the renewed coop is beginning to take shape.  Cut the legs to shorten the unit so more accessible, installed a new solid T1-11 back and shored up the sides -

This weekend I'll be working to close in the front, lattice the sides and mount the roost.  Once complete, the (10) 6-week chicks are FINALLY being evicted from the basement AND Jack 2.0, our ageless mini lop rabbit is also being evicted from the garage!  

Ah, there is a light at the end of tunnel...

The Coop

The weather hasn't been too cold here in New England, so I left the coop plastic off their door.  I don't want it to get too hot in there.  Also, it allows the girls to see out.  However, that's changing, so I'll need to close this off soon.  It's always nice when I get this completed and the coop completely winterized and I know they're all tucked in for the cold weather to come.

On High Alert!

We have a potential predator problem!

Some critter was pretty determined to get into the chicken coop the other night.

Put in a pretty good digging effort too.  Made it's way down to the bottom of the buried pressure treated timber but thankful that was it.  Perhaps too tired or it got scared off before breaking through.  In any case I pulled back the dirt, added a bucket full of stones and filled back in.  Hoping this, along with keeping the traps set, will deter and encourage the critter to move along or better yet, stay away.

Additional Coop Winterizing/Insulation

Added some leaf bag insulation to both ends of the chicken pen.

This will certainly help keep the wind from peppering the plastic.

I filled them will Maple leaves. I'll slowly use as bedding for the coop floor throughout the winter.  The chickens will enjoy scratching in it to find snacks.  The rabbits also enjoy a handful here and there snack on too.

All Tucked In For The Winter!

Well, I finally got the chicken coop - rabbit pen winterized this past Sunday.

The resident critters approved and are all now ready to take on the coming New England winter and all that Mother Nature throws at us.

Stop The Winter Drafts!

Yesterday was another beautiful Fall day.  The temperature warmed up to mid-fifties.  Perfect weather to be outside working in the yard.

Disregard Tirxie-dog watering the freshly mowed and leaf free lawn, rather focus on the chicken coop behind her.  As you can see it's 99% winterized.  The first project of the day was to get the front plastic secured and in place  It might not look too pretty but it helps protect the critters from the cold winds and makes quite a difference with the inside temperature, which is why I've left the door uncovered for now.

I also filled five leaf bags with mostly Maple leaves and stacked them on the left end, seem in the picture above.  The left end of the coop is where the chickens roost is and where they sleep.  The bags act as further insulation against the wind.  I will also use the contents throughout the winter as bedding for the coop and snacks for the rabbits, as they enjoy nibbling on the leaves.

Lights Camera Action!

 

Ever since the days got shorter and the cold weather moved in our Buff Orpington hens have stopped laying eggs, alas.  As a part of this weather/season change they also went into a molt, which I believe they've completed or at least in the latter stages.

 

This year, and for the very first time, I bought the fix'ns and have installed a "night" light in the coop.  I'm using a timer to turn the light and extend their day light, which in turn should induce them to start laying again.

 

Last night was night number 1. 

 

One of the items I purchased for this experiment was a timer, which I've set to turn on at 4:00PM and then off at 10:00PM.  Hopefully, another ~6 hours of day light will stimulate them to begin laying again.  Stay tuned!

The Coop Has Been Winterized!

 

It's finally done and winterized!

 

JoAnne and I spent a couple hours this afternoon taking care of the chicken\rabbit coop.  I bought a brandy-new roll of 6-mil plastic that we used on the sides and front.  I also filled 5 paper leaf bags  and we're using them as added insulation on the outside of the pen.  They're placed at the roost end of the coop and will definitely help with the wind.  Over the course of the winter I will slowly empty the bags as bedding on the floor of the pen.  This also gives the birds something new to scratch and scrounge through and adds additional matter for compost.

Le Coop Hath Been Winterized

The chicken and rabbit coop has been winterized. The critters are tucked in and comfortable for the long, cold winter ahead. The good news is that the Oprington pullets are beginning to lay; (3) eggs today. The older hens are in various stages of molt and not laying but no worries they're all snugged up.

New Oak Roost For The Ladies

Now that we have (10) chickens rooming together I installed a second roost in the coop. This roost was delivered onto us by hurricane-turned-tropical-storm Irene, so why not use a perfectly good piece of oak! This will give the newbies another place too flee to when being chased by the older hens as they set the pecking order, as well as another option for the ladies to spread out for their evening night nights.

The photo above shows the first user of said roost. A perdy four+ month old Buff Orpington pullet. Can't wait till they start laying!

Winterized Coop

Well, we finished winterizing the chicken coop/rabbit hutch today. Yes, we've been running a little behind in getting this done and unfortunately the rabbits felt the brunt or rather the chill but it's done now.

I built two 6' doors that we hung up top to protect the rabbits. During the winter the plastic will stay on and come summer it will be removed. The doors will remain all season long, which I also built with wire. This way the rabbits will finally be protected from any critter trying to get at them, i.e. a raccoon. We and the rabbits have been lucky to date - no critter incidents.

As you can see in the below picture, the doors are hinged up top so the doors can swing up to open. I drilled some holes; one in the door and one in the cage front to put a broom handle in, which will hold the door open for easy access to the rabbits for feeding. Each door is held shut and snug with a bungee cord.

The chickens are housed underneath and doing just fine. The two sex-links are going through a molt. When this happens, which is typically once a year, the birds stop laying. So we're down to just one egg a day from New Honey. Also the cold weather and shorter days usually have an effect on egg production.

Bottom line is that the animals are finally snug and settled in for the long New England winter - bring it on!