Bigger and Better

The coop extension was finished this weekend.  With the new addition - I don't have to let the chicks out to roam the yard if I don't have time/want to.  Mostly since we got fresh mulch - which they love to kick around and dig in - it is much better that they stay contained.  Since they have been in the coop and not roaming free, we have not had any fox sightings. 

The coop addition was created by Grant and his friend Mark, and then my Uncle Glen helped to attach the addition onto the existing coop.  It was a process, but well worth it.  They even created this little person door for me to crawl in so that I can give them fresh water and food.  It works perfectly!

 

It is quite funny, that despite all of the extra space, they still all cram together and sleep on the same roost.  Side by side.  But this is much better than all of them sleeping in the nesting boxes.  And they are birds. Birds are supposed to want to sleep off of the ground.  Once it gets dark out, they all make their way to the roost and jump, fly, climb their way up to snuggle in for the night.  I don't have a picture of all of them on the roost, but you will get the idea.

 

 

 

I think it is a good sign that they are sleeping on the roost and not in the nesting boxes.  Hopefully they start laying eggs soon! We even put some golf balls in the boxes so that when they do sit in there, they will feel the golf balls and figure out that is where they are supposed to lay their eggs. 

 

 

I'm not sure if it is the hotter weather, but they have been much less active and even less excited about their treats.  In the morning I would usually walk out and give them lettuce, any scraps we had, yogurt, etc. and they would go CRAZY! I mean literally jumping over each other to get to the food.  Now they barely even peck at the lettuce and when I leave some in the coop - it will still be laying on the ground by the afternoon.  I did read that the cracked corn I had been feeding them is basically like feeding a young child candy.  No nutritional value what so ever. But they do love it.  So I have pretty much removed that from their diet.  And added in "grit" to their feed.  I also switched from starter feed to "Grower" feed.  They will be on this until they start to lay eggs. 

 

I made my first trip to Tractor Supply Company last week.  I felt slightly out of place with my Tory Burch bag, Tom Ford sun glasses, and lululemon outfit.  And the fact that I was female and under the age of 40... But I did get lots of service, so that's good :)

 

 

And Barry, the sales associate that helped me, was very knowledgable.  He also helped me spend way more money than I intended on spending.  The chicks got a new 3  gallon waterer and a 10 lb feeder.  Geez.  Spoiled rotten.  They better lay some delicious eggs! He informed me that they will need broken Oyster shells added to their food once they get to be about 18 to 20 weeks.  This will help their eggs have hard shells.  Apparently soft-shelled eggs are very common... ew. So I bought a bag of oyster shells for them as well.  They will be 16 weeks old on June 4th, so haven't started giving it to them yet. 

 

I also learned that the only thing NOT to feed chickens is avacados.  Good thing I didn't give them my leftover salad with avacados in it... could have been bad. 

 

That's all for now....