Cluck and Quack Happenings: Around the Coop

Feathers are flying everywhere! It's been a rough fall for our hens - both chicken and duck - as they're all going through their first molts. Still. ::sigh::

Each year, sometime in the fall, chickens and ducks lose some, most or all their feathers and replace that with new ones. It's a protein-zapping process that ends egg laying for months. The hens haven't laid a single egg since early September! And 2 weeks ago the ducks stopped.

I've had to buy STORE eggs! Can you imagine?! ::sigh::

Otherwise all the girls are doing their thing and settling in for the colder winter months.

The chickens forage for bits of something or another under the fallen leaves. What they find, I do not know! ::wink:: They've been finding cozy patches of warm sunlight near the trees to nap or dust bathe in pine needles. But you won't see them outside the covered fun if there's even a smidgen of snow on the ground.

And the ducks waddle out to the icy brook to swim and forage, preening afterwards. Poor Olive is still coughing occasionally and has a dry-sounding quack despite her round of antibiotics and now VetRx. But she is alert and active and definitely enjoys her dried mealworms.

With the colder weather here and the snow coming, White Pine and I wrapped up the run with plastic sheeting a month or so ago. Transparent plastic sheeting, which you can get get Lowe's or Home Depot, is wonderful for letting in sunlight but keeping out snow, freezing rain and chilly breezes. And we don't have to get into the run and shovel out mountains of snow through the season! 

To give them some added insulation and warmth, I've been adding dry, fallen leaves to the run. We have an abundance of leaves and they make great bedding! Not only do they provide some insulation against the cold ground, but the hens can scratch through it for exercise, searching for scratch grains or mealworms we randomly throw in. And they'll decompose with "flock fertilizer" easily through the winter months and can be raked out and added to the garden or simply left in the run.

We've begun "deep litter" inside the coop. Our coop does not have electricity as we believe its better to keep things as "au natural" as possible (while still protecting our flock) and so it's unheated. "Deep litter" is a method of allowing straw to compost inside the coop over the winter, releasing warmth in the process, and in the spring providing seasoned fertilizer for the garden. (Read more about "deep litter" on Fresh Eggs Daily.) Believe it or not, done right, "deep litter" isn't smelly at all.

Now, if only they would stay laying eggs again! ::sigh::

ETA: Guess what? I was surprised and excited to see our FIRST EGG since molting started this morning on the coop floor!

Welcome Home, Cluckers and Quackers!

Cluck! Quack! 

Welcome to your new homes and run, Cheeper, Sassy, Onyx, Rhodie, Lil' Rhodie, Mustard, Speckles, Olive, and Opal! 

When Olive and Opal, Pekin ducks, joined our family in March we knew we would need some new "digs" for the flock. But we're not builders. LOL

So, we asked a homeschool friend, who happens to be a carpenter, to build us a larger coop for the hens. Blue Spruce and I designed the coop on graph paper (to scale!) and passed it along to him. And he did a WONDERFUL job! Our fabulous "poultry palace" has 2 wired windows with clear plastic coverings that raise and lower, 2 large double-doors for ventilation and cleaning, 3 sturdy nesting boxes and 2 wider roosting bars, a fold down ramp-door, and a roof that opens up on one side.  It's DEFINITELY a "cluck castle". (Are you loving these alliterations? LOL)

And what more fitting then to paint it like a barn!

Cousin Noodle Helping

Balsam Fir Painting Above the Nesting Boxes

Red done! Time to Finish the White Xs and Trim

Sliding Clear Plastic Window (with Wire), Double Doors (with
Wire), and Front Ramp-door

Back Door (for Cleaning) - Balsam Fir Peeking Out

Blue Spruce and I laid peel n' stick tiles on the coop floor, like linoleum, for easier cleaning. And I added CHICKEN CURTAINS to the windows. Who laughed? LOL Chickens like a "homey touch" too! Seriously! There's chicken specialists who say that having curtains up over the nesting boxes helps promote more laying!

Roosting Bars, Floor and Window with Wire
and Plastic Covering

2 of the 3 Nesting Boxes and Another View
of the Floor

Chicken Curtains!

The older, smaller coop was repurposed for the ducks. We removed the nesting boxes, added a Plexi-glass window to one side and a wired window with a shutter on the other. We haven't repainted it yet, but the plan is to turn it into a barn too. Eventually.

We also needed a new run - a fenced in area for the hens and ducks to roam around outside their coops safe from predators - and set out to build one with the help of my Mom. We repurposed 1/2 of the old run to add to the end of the run for the duck's new "pond", a 4 1/2 foot x 2 foot x 20 inch plastic trough, but haven't repainted that white yet either. Eventually.

Mom Stapling Chicken Wire to the Top of the Run

Almost Finished Run

Olive and Opal Resting By the Partially Inground Pond

And then we put everything together in a new area of the yard. Not only are the coops and run near the brook so the ducks can explore it easily during supervised free-range, but we can see everything from the livingroom and diningroom. (Before the coop was not visible from inside the house.) And some mornings, when our bedroom window is open, I can hear them waking up for the day!

Roof Will be Black, but Set-up From the Diningroom Window