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| One cold coop |
Last night, my friend Steve helped me with the next step in constructing the chicken coop. He had some leftover salvage lumber set aside for a project that didn't require good quality wood. We hauled a couple armloads of that to his shop after agreeing on the general plan for the nesting boxes we intended to build. He set me up at the chop saw with instructions to cut a number of pieces and specified the length. While I was working on that, he began assembly.
In short order, the nesting boxes started to take shape.
Steve had advised the amount of wood I was carrying around in the back of my pickup wouldn't be enough to do the job. I was skeptical, because it had seemed like quite a bit. I was more concerned about the low quality of old cedar planks that had been laying on the wet ground for several years, bleaching in the sun and targeted by dogs flipping boards in pursuit of squirrels and chipmunks. He was right. It didn't take long at all to see that I didn't have anywhere near enough wood. Without the additional material from his stock, we wouldn't have had enough.
The chicken book said the ideal nesting box would be a 15 inch cube. That would have been a little big for the space we had to fill, so we settled on a row of 6 cubes measuring 14 inches on a side. I imagine it will be like a cramped apartment for the birds, but hopefully they won't complain to the landlord. We built a single unit, three rows high. The bottom row will be completely closed up to keep chicken droppings from getting inside. Besides, chickens don't particularly like nesting at ground level. The top of the unit will have 6 more nesting boxes on it, formed by the base of the upper unit we have yet to construct. The result is that this lower unit will provide 18 nesting boxes for birds.
The upper unit, yet to be constructed, and planned for completion Friday night, is to provide 10 more nesting boxes, for a grand total of 28 when construction is complete. From what friends tell me, this should be enough to support about 50 hens. That last bit of information warmed my heart, just knowing that I could probably buy some more chicks some day. But, I'm going to try to hold off, at least until I get to the farm store after work today. LOL!
The skies darkened outside the shop while we worked. Initially that was due to heavy storm clouds that were moving in. Each time I went out to my truck for more wood it smelled and felt of rain. Sometime after dark, and as we were getting near completion of the lower unit, the rain started. The air had turned cold, and the rain intensified the chill. Tiny hail stones pelted the pavement driveway as we watched from inside the shop. By the time we finished the project, the rain settled into a light steady patter. It was enough to require the use of the windshield wipers on the way home, and not on the intermittent setting, either.
When we got home, Smoke jumped out of the truck and ran out to the back meadow, checking for wolves or whatever other intruder might be lurking. When I returned to the truck to pick up the thermos, I called him, and he came running. The cold was more than he cared to endure for very long!
Inside, I did the chores. Each pen of chickens needed more feed, naturally. Every time I fill the troughs, I marvel at how much they eat! The waterers for the little chickens and the turkeys needed to be refilled, so I did that. The method for those is simply to carry the waterer, consisting of a 1 quart mason jar inverted on a plastic trough, to the toiled, swish the watering trough around in the toilet bowl until all the debris floats free, flush, and move the cleaned waterer to the sink. At the sink, in unscrew the plastic trough from the jar, refill the jar with water, replace the trough, and take the unit back to the chicken box.
The bigger chickens have a big regular chicken waterer in their pen. It works on pretty much the same principle as the mason jar apparatus, but it's made of galvanized steel and holds about 2 to 3 gallons of water. The bigger chickens scratch around more, and they invariably have the trough filled with wood shavings, droppings, etc. I have to reach in and remove all that by hand. Even after setting the waterer atop a 2 inch thick brick, they manage to have it full every few hours. You get used to cleaning it after a while.
The bigger chickens seem calmer than the smaller ones. For one thing, they are different breeds, and the bigger chickens are of breeds that are noted for being more docile. Those little ones, though, are mean! They will walk right up to another bird and peck the unsuspecting victim on the head. And they seem to get a big kick out of flying across the box and creating consternation among the other birds.
The turkeys also spend a lot of energy attempting to fly. At this point, they are undoubtedly the best flyers of any of the birds. They fly up against the side of the box like prison inmates throwing themselves against the walls in protest of their incarceration. The turkeys are the fastest growers, too, and are easily the biggest birds I have. Even the little hen is bigger than almost all the chickens except the Cinnamon Queen roosters.
If I don't get feed in quickly enough, or if I haven't noticed the waterers need cleaning, all hell breaks loose. The birds seem to have figured out that if they make a racket, I'll come to tend to them. Once they've had the water trough filled with debris for a few minutes and can't get any water, they start flopping, pecking at the walls, scratching madly, and flapping all over the place creating havoc. When I hover over the cage looking in at them, they stretch their heads up, eyes cocked in my direction as if to say "Did we get your attention yet?" They do that almost with a challenge, daring me to not do their bidding. When I reach into the cage, they no longer run away, but cluster around my hand, looking for fresh feed or water.
It's interesting how animals train us to do their bidding. We think humans are the masters of the universe. All it takes is a little time with a bunch of helpless birds in cages to make you realize we are nothing more than the servants of these birds we intend to eat. While we may have the last word, they sure let you know they have a say in the matter along the way. You've gotta respect the birds for that, at least.
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Posted by Bearville on 2009-05-14 10:57:21 | Rating: | Views: 25
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