House of Chickens

Today was a mostly cloudy day here in NC.  The temps did get over 80 degrees, but there wasn't a lot of sun today.  I worked and the hubs ran around most of the day looking for a part for his lawn tractor. After dinner tonight we let the chicks out to free range.  He took them some strawberries we had in the fridge that were starting to get a bit mushy.  They loved them!  They rambled around the yard looking for goodies to devour.  The big buff hen and one of the Golden Laced Wyandottes are broody and they were sitting in the nesting boxes and didn't want to leave.  Wade made them get out to get some exercise, eat and drink.  They didn't like it one bit.  They stayed out until it started getting dark and then they all headed to the run.  I was out pulling weeds from flower beds and headed down towards the coop to be there to close them up.  I forgot to take my big stick and Roo the big red Aracauna rooster decided to make me mad. He is huge and has big strong legs and he can really do some damage if you don't watch out.  I took my sandle off and swung it at him a few times and he finally left me alone.  Bad boy!

Rupert the Rooster (Roo)

We built our coop large enough to accommodate several chickens.  There's several roosting bars and 6 nesting boxes.  We use shavings in our coop currently.  A lot of people use sand and some keepers use straw.  The trouble with straw is that straw is hollow (like a drinking straw) and it's a great place to house mites and bacteria.  Shavings make it easy to clean and freshen with new shavings.  We keep deep shavings in the nesting boxes also to keep the eggs clean and cushioned.  Even though they have 6 nesting boxes they tend to use a couple of them and pile several eggs in each one.  I guess they have their favorites.  Outside the coop (building) we have a large run where the chickens stay when the weather is nice.  Half of the run is covered so they have shade or they can sun in the other end.   We have stumps in there and they love getting up on the stumps.  Especially the roosters.  We also have a big wash tub in there for them to use for dust bathing.  Dust bathing helps to clean the chickens and rid them of any mites.  They love a good dust bath!

The Hildreth Coop

Roo is ruling the roost up on his stump!

Heading to the house in the snow (Winter of 2016)