I Dream of Chickens

I keep telling myself I haven’t turned into a crazy chicken-lady (I haven’t… right?) but lately the Nugs have been top-of-mind, what with the building of the run, merging of the flocks, and general chicken-related nonsense in my life.

This is why I drink.

Well, actually, I drink because people make beer like this…

Untitled

Chocolate, peanut butter and banana ale. Fun and kind of quirky, just like my weekend project.

(I was just like, OH MY GOD, I should totally make beer and project pairings a thing on this website! and then I was like… um… that’s definitely a lawsuit waiting to happen. So. Don’t drink and DIY if you like all of your fingers properly attached to your body, probably.)

Brilliant beer-related ideas aside, here’s what happened in the coop this weekend. This is what the roost situation looked like when I finished it last year…

Untitled

I basically slapped that thing up the day I finished the coop and then moved the Nugs in. With the addition of the nugglets to the coop I felt like more perching space would be a prudent move, and I wasn’t sure the littles could even make it up to the high perch. So I started Saturday by cleaning out the coop…

Untitled

So. Much. Poop. (It’s really good for the compost pile though.)

Then I moved the existing perch up a few inches and started playing around with the idea of some chicken ramps to get from level to level.

This is honestly the most fun kind of building for me. I mean, I seriously spent an afternoon making a chicken jungle gym.

Untitled

It’s like all the joy of playing Mousetrap or Legos as a kid, with the added fun of getting to use way bigger tools. (While still smelling glue…)

Untitled

The end result was a bi-level perch and three different ramps…

That window on the right leads out to the future run, so the ramp to the ground serves a dual purpose.

Last night I took a risk and left all the birds “out” when I went to dinner. I’ve seen a few feathers forcibly removed from little chicken-heads in the last couple of days, but no blood had been drawn yet.

When I got home…

The big Nugs were testing out the new perches. And the little Nugs were…

Well, some of them decided to make their own perch. (Take that, big nuggets.)

The littles are definitely learning the lay of the land…

Untitled

Got up this high. Got terrified. Forgot how to get down.

“What is this?”
“You go first.”
“No you go.”
“No you go.”
“I’m not going, you go.”
“STOP PUSHING ME.”

Yeah, it’s possible if I’m making up chicken-narratives to go with my pictures that I am, in fact, a crazy chicken lady.

Untitled

But how can you help it?

The nugs are endlessly entertaining, even when I’m spending most of my waking hours hoping they aren’t being major assholes. The addition of a cabbage head to the barn has helped immensely.

 It gives them something to pick at besides the little Nugglets.

So, overall it’s going well, even if I have nightmares about half-pecked-to-death-chicklets every night. I revised my earlier plan and I’m thinking about keeping the dog crate in the pen for another week or two until things settle down a bit more… because you know there’s never a dull moment on the farm.

18 Responses

  1. “if it looks like a (insert whatever), then it must be a (whatever)”…. however, you look perfectly normal… so you you can’t be a crazy chicken lady… it’s just a phase, maybe you’ll outgrow it!

  2. I had the Voodoo the year it was a maple bacon concoction. Went quite well with our “breakfast for dinner”.

  3. You do know there’s a Crazy Chicken Lady Society, right? ;)Haha! Once you’re in, you’re in for life! We still haven’t started on our coop yet but I have my chicks picked out for June delivery. Getting the chicks prompted the coop building last time. I’m certain it will work again!

    1. its Rogue brewery, but they have a few voodo flavors… maple bacon to i believe!!!

  4. I’m wondering if the lower shelf(?) would be simpler to clean up if you put a layer of kraft paper on it. Then the whole thing paper and all could just go into the compost with no other work.

    1. That’s definitely an option. I’m thinking about putting a board under there with stick tiles on it that will be easier to scrape the droppings off of, too.

      1. I use a very short tub (I believe it is actually a washing machine drain basin) under the roost. The tub has hardware cloth over the top of it so they don’t have to walk in poop. Most of the poop falls through the hardware cloth into the tub. To clean, I just slide out the tub, lift the corner of the hardware cloth, and dump the poop out into the compost pile. Every once in a while it needs rinsing with a hose. Now one advantage we do have here in AZ is that the poop dries out almost immediately so its not too much of a mess.

    1. I found a bolt nearby and screwed it in to the stem of the cabbage… they loved it!

  5. Years ago when I got my first batch of chickens, I’d get home from work and walk up to the coop with a big glass of wine and a couple tomatoes/avocados/cuttings from the garden and let my chickens out to scratch around and play. That was my entertainment for the evening. Chicken TV. It’s a thing. 😉

    1. Not bad. I’ve had beer that tastes more “flavored” (this didn’t taste all that different from a brown ale) but I definitely finished the bottle!

  6. Just built our own coop for the kids and are going through all the growing pains of caring for our chiks….. BTW, never can go wrong with Rogue, especially the Dead Guy.

Comments are closed.

I'm not interested in a mediocre life. I'm here to kick ass or die.

(formerly DIYdiva.net)