A scarecrow and coop cleaning

It’s the only downside to having more than one coop. The cleaning. So much cleaning! It takes ages to do the main coop, in fact, it took most of yesterday to do it properly. The greenhouse isn’t a proper coop but it’s been used that way for over a year now. The hardest part is the sweeping out of all the old bedding which the chicks enjoy throwing into every nook and cranny. I am convinced they do this out of pure spite.

As they are now too big to go into the pet carrier, we put them into the mini outdoor run. Today was their first time outside and it probably wasn’t the best day as there was a significant wind. But they seemed happy enough for half an hour while we cleared out the greenhouse. We refilled their water and food after putting down new shavings. There is a school of thought that says chicks shouldn’t be on shavings because they are a choke hazard. In our experience, albeit limited experience, they manage fine with it. Instead of handling them to get them all back it, I decided to see whether they could work out how to get back in by themselves. I slid open the backdoor of the greenhouse and waited. It was only a couple of minutes before one saw it’s chance and hopped up onto the threshold and jumped down. Like sheep, the rest followed one or two at a time until they were all back inside.

We ambled down to check on the girls in the main coop. Happily most of them must have slept outside last night because the nest box was still fairly clean. One egg only and Polly seems no more broody than any of the others. Irritating bird! Still there may be hope that someone else has a spare broody we could borrow. Food topped up and water bowl refilled we left them to sunbathe in peace.

Leia and Rey have been busy tipping over their food and filling their water bowl with dirt as usual. Only one egg here so Rey got a talking to today. They seem happy in their new coop but clearly they can’t cope with being with any other chickens. That’s probably my fault for sheltering them from the others for too long. But they make a sweet pair. We moved on to check on Dolly.

When we arrived at her coop, she was standing in her water bowl. I have never seen her do that before and it was rather funny. Her beak seemed cleaner than it has been although her wing on one side seemed to have dropped slightly. We took her up to the shed and tried to get rid of some more gunk. I managed to get a bit more out and she was far more resistant than yesterday which is good. Several syringes of yolk and lots of water went down and we let her rest in the shed for a bit afterwards. We didn’t feed her yesterday and I’m not sure whether she had managed to eat anything. It was important to try her on her own but she clearly isn’t ready for that yet. I plan to restart her on the oregano oil tomorrow as it usually brightens them up.

Before we left, I went to have a quick chat with Liz who has been working hard with Sarah yesterday evening. Liz proudly showed off their amazing scarecrow. It’s superbly done and stands proud in the middle of their plot. That’s two scarecrows on the site now and I am wondering whether we should have one on our plot…