Coop de Coeur

There was a nice surprise awaiting me when I arrived home yesterday. Taylor and Victoria painted the door to the chicken coop while I was gone. Doesn’t it look great?

What’s more, the CE is moving forward on plans to build  a small deck in the chicken yard.  Here is an outline:

The CE took very good care of the chickens while I was gone. They have now come to believe that daily free-ranging is an entitlement, and they complain mightily if we don’t open the gate to the pen on their command.

Lily free-ranges in the fuchsia

I stopped by the feed store on my way home yesterday to pick up a bag of laying feed for the girls. When I commented that they haven’t yet started to lay, the employees told me that it’s possible that we won’t get eggs until spring. SPRING!!!??? Actually, I knew this was a possibility from the beginning. When we had to postpone getting the chicks from April to June, I realized we would be right up against the edge of the seasons. Chickens go through a molt in early fall, which for our young pullets amounted only to a mild mess of feathers. After a molt, as the feed store employees put it, “they take a break from laying”. A break? How can they need a break if they haven’t laid anything yet?

An example of a mature hen during a molt

The dual factors of a molt and the change of seasons – shorter, colder days of fall – some, perhaps even many, chickens stop thinking about egg-laying until spring. We still think that Hope is getting ready to lay – she has been spending an inordinate amount of time trying to make a “nest” of the paper towels that line the coop counters. Today I’m going to set up the nesting box counter with the same layering of newspapers, paper towels and pine shavings as we have on the other counters, and hope that makes the nesting boxes more attractive to her and her three eggless counterparts. Spring is a long, long ways away and far too long to wait for our first, fresh, organic, free-ranged eggs!

“Spic ‘n Span in Chickenland”

If you could ask your spouse for anything, what would it be? I must acknowledge that the CE is very good to me. For a guy who buys his clothes at Gap because he doesn’t want to pay the price for what he contemptuously terms “Resort Dip Wear”,  he’s extremely generous with my indulgences. However, I do have to keep him on his toes, so yesterday I asked for the moon: a complete coop clean-out.

I would, of course, be happy to do this myself, but due to back problems, I must rely on the noble Chicken Emperor. We use what I would call a “modified deep litter method” of maintaining the coop.  Pine shavings are my litter of choice, and are quite popular with other chicken-keepers, although some use shredded paper or hay. Some also use cedar shavings, although this is controversial due to the phenols they emit, which can be toxic to chickens.

Who says he doesn't have a job?

A true Deep Litter Method begins with a four-inch layer of fresh litter material and then adding more from time to time as needed. In a true deep-litter regimen, one is removed until it becomes 8 to 12 inches deep. Since we only have four chickens, and the luxury of time, I choose to be more fastidious. I do a complete counter-top clean-up of the coop each day, and the CE rakes the “big clumps” from the floor weekly. The last full sweep-out of the coop was about a month ago, so I asked the CE to do another full-scale clean-out along with mopping the floor (one of the benefits of a concrete coop floor) with a weak bleach solution. This post’s headline is his, as he proudly announced when he was finished that “Things are spic ‘n span in Chickenland.

24 hours later, they're working on making a mess

Some people stir lime or diatomaceous earth into their litter but so far we haven’t needed it since we change our litter more frequently and we live in a fairly dry climate. This could all change come the rainy season, of course…

There’s more to it than aesthetics. According to Robert Plamondon, who I’ve quoted previously, “the “deep litter method” was one of the most important poultry developments of the twentieth century. It resulted in a dramatic drop in disease and a reduction in the amount of labor it took to keep a flock of chickens. It also gave an early example of how biodiversity works to our advantage, even with confined livestock.”  According to Plamondon’s web site http://www.plamondon.com/faq_deep_litter.html, the DLM has been proven to aid in building chickens’ resistance to coccidiosis and improve their growth rate. Plamondon would likely frown upon my method, since we don’t let the litter build up to 8-12 inches, but so far, this is working for us. Our chickens seem happy and healthy!

The girls at 16 weeks of age

Future developments in Chickenland may be on the horizon. I’ve been hinting (imploring, nagging, bullying might be more like it) that I would love to put a fountain along the currently bare wall  at the back of the chicken area. The CE initially vetoed the idea because of the expense of running electricity to the area, but he recently consulted with our landscaper and thinks he may have found a way to do it for a manageable cost.

Here's where I envision a fountain, and maybe a deck

Now I’m thinking we might also want to put in a small deck so we can have a seating area elevated above the oak leaves. It would be nice for chicken-viewing, and might also lessen the amount of flora the dogs track in. And, since my husband is so generous, I may as well shoot for the moon, right?

They claim dogs are chicken predators, but I just don't see it.

Maybe this is what is known as a "bird dog"?

A disturbance in the froth and coop couture

The great writers  favored booze as a lubricant. Hemingway had mojitos, Faulkner loved mint juleps and Fitzgerald favored gin. For me, a lowly chicken blogger (chlogger?) it’s Keurig. As in coffee.

Second to chickens, Keurig is my greatest recent discovery. Called “revolutionary” by some reviewers, the Keurig brewing system and its attendant “K-cups”  make a single cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate at a time, leaving  no grounds, no mess and no cold leftovers. Just this morning, I had a cup of Kona blend, an Italian Roast, and a Gloria Jean’s chocolate-flavored “Mudslide”. Three cups is unusual for me, but given that it’s not only foggy and cold (again. still.) but actually slightly precipitating, an extra cup of coffee seems to be a worthy indulgence. Sold at Costco and Wal-Mart as well as through www.keurig.com the brewing system comes in various sizes for home and office. Tina just sent me the mini travel-size after hearing me grouse about missing my Keurig while we were back East, so now I can have a cup of Keurig coffee anywhere I go. I wonder if there are travel-size chickens?

K cups

The icing on the Keurig cake is a nifty little accessory they make that produces frothed milk at the touch of a button. You pour in the milk, press the button and in under a minute you’ve got the makings for a cappucino, which is what I drink every morning as I clean out the coop. It’s a little bit of heaven on this fog-sodden earth. Unfortunately, my milk frother gave up the ghost yesterday morning. It consents to heating the milk, but refuses to froth.

Keurig milk frother

I called up the folks at Keurig, who agreed to send me a new frother, which has already shipped, but I fear writer’s block or worse while I await its arrival. To fill the time, I thought I’d share the inside info on fashionable coop wear. This thought came to me when the Chicken Emperor reached over to give me a hug the other day and then hesitated, saying “Are you wearing your chicken sweater?” I answered truthfully, “Every sweater is now a chicken sweater”. To his credit, the CE did not deny the hug, but he did go on to gently suggest that there might be certain occasions where sweaters dripping with pine shavings might not be appropriate.

One of my cleaner sweaters

The upshot of this is a piece of advice: cashmere is not the best option for the chicken coop, since it is a great attractor of pine shavings. (Of course, if I lived someplace that actually had summer weather, I might not have this dilemma.) I’ve also learned that the coop is not kind to shoes, and have already taken steps, so to speak, to address that issue. For $13, I found a great pair of garden clogs that miraculously do not aggravate my back problems.

My new "coop shoes"

Finally, there is the challenge of maintaining a manicure while keeping chickens. Mine, not theirs, although it is not unheard of for chicken keepers to paint their hens’ toes. (I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, but I would probably have to be drinking something other than coffee.) The CE, ever to the rescue, brought me some gloves to use for coop cleaning, which may not be the most attractive accessory but are a necessary part of the uniform.

For the rest of you, he thoughtfully purchased “coop boots” in a variety of sizes, so there will be no excuse not to take a coop tour when you visit us.

If the shoe fits...

One of the great things about chickens is that they’re happy to see you, regardless of what you wear, as long as you come bearing gifts. We decided to bestow a new treat upon the girls and bought some live crickets at the pet store the other day. Their first reaction was a fleeting moment of fear, followed almost instantly by a predatory feeding frenzy. Forty crickets lasted less than ninety seconds. If you have any pesty six-legged creatures in your house, you know where to bring them.

Crickets for lunch

Coop de foudre

In case you hadn’t noticed, I love my chickens. And I love my chicken coop. Thus, the reaching pun as subject title. ( coup de fou·dre (ko̵̅o̅t fo̵̅o̅′dr‘) 1.a thunderbolt, 2. a sudden, intense feeling of love) I am, indeed, thunderstruck with a passion for poultry!

 Now that the chickens have been happily ensconced in their new digs for a few weeks, I’m declaring the coop a success. Coop kudos to the Chicken Emperor, of course. While the rest of us just need a roof over our heads (and perhaps 500-thread-count sheets) chickens’ needs are complicated by their susceptibility to illness and their finger-lickin’-good desirability to predators. I am now fairly certain that the sirens who lured Odysseus and his companions were gussied-up chickens, as these birds seem to be absolutely irresistible to pretty much any non-vegan. In fact, those sea sirens are said to have had the body of a bird, so there you go.

A siren statue - I think she looks like Hope

Thus, the coop design includes a number of features aimed at thwarting wily raccoons and other predators, all of which, to date, are no-shows in the chicken yard. We’ve seen no signs of attempted breaking and entering, although this may just be a grace period while the raccoons plot their coop d’etat.

Front of the coop, built onto an existing concrete pad and between the existing columns to keep it low profile from neighbors and street view

First line of defense is the existing dog run

We covered this gate with hardware cloth when we noticed the cats easily slipping through the bars

The chicken pen features hardware cloth 3' above ground and 1' below ground

The windows are screened to deter would-be intruders

Thursday is our designated coop clean-out day and we realized our system is working so well that there wasn’t much to do this morning. I do a daily clean-up of the coop countertops after the chickens go outside in the morning and refresh their countertop water and food, but their larger feeder and waterers only need to be refilled weekly. As long as the coop is kept clean and dry, the chickens should stay healthy. I spot-replenish pine shavings daily, and in another week or so, we’ll do a thorough sweep-out and put all new shavings inside the coop.

The CE designed this sweepout for easy cleaning

And this one.

Electricity in the coop is a luxury, but one I'm very happy to have

And, of course, the CE thought of everything in terms of organization

One of the neatest, and most-discussed, features of the coop is the egg door. The Chicken Emperor balked at the idea, both because of construction expense and concern that every opening presents a possible avenue for predators to enter the coop. In the end, the egg door won out, and the CE installed latches on the outside AND inside of the door for added security.

Egg door

We'll put the nesting boxes on this counter when the girls are a bit older.

Every morning we open the chicken door, and the four girls go through the “chunnel” to start their day. They’re getting better at coming back inside at days’ end – one afternoon I came outside and all four had put themselves to bed all by themselves!

The oft-mentioned "chunnel"

The chicken door. We leave it open during the day so they can go back and forth between the coop and pen.

The chickens seem to be amenable to conducting at least part of their lives in a “townhouse”. Since bending over aggravates my back problems, we arranged the coop so that the girls spend much of their time up at my level.

The CE made "chicken ladders" so they can reach their "second floor walk-up". Note the hanging feeder and waterer.

It’s fun to discover a part of our property we’ve rarely used in all the years we’ve lived here. The eastern exposure is ideal for the chickens. It catches early morning and a bit of dappled afternoon light through the oak branches, but never gets overly warm. We planted some vines on the fence at the property line to help screen the area for the neighbors’ driveway adjacent to our property. The chickens make very little noise, so I don’t know if the neighbors have even noticed them yet.

Thunbergia alata, "Black-Eyed Susan Vine", growing like a weed, thanks to chicken fertilizer

This tile of St. Brigid, patron saint of poutry farmers, watches over the flock

Next project is to build a bench around this tree or put some plants in pots next to it

All is well in chickenland and the girls are now 9 weeks old!

End of day roosting time

All cooped up.

The girls spent their second night in the coop. They seem a bit puzzled as to why we keep forgetting to open the door to the run, but otherwise happy. When I brought them meal worms yesterday afternoon to appease them, Amelia got so excited that she actually leaped into the meal worm container in my hands!

They’ve been staring longingly out the window this morning. I know they’d like to be outside doing their bird work. Maybe we’ll let them out this afternoon for a bit.

And a fine Sunday morning to you, too!

Amelia does her seagull imitation in hopes that we'll let her out - the feathered feet are a dead giveaway, though.

Lily looks longingly out the window

"Open the door, you dummy!"

I MEAN IT!!!!!

You could at least have pizza brought in!

One step forward, two clucks back.

The girls are doing their part. They turned 6 weeks old today and are feathering out very nicely. Autumn and Hope have shown promising signs of trainability – their sandwich boards would read “will work for meal worms”. They learned in a heartbeat to fly up the ladder in their run and eat the meal worms out of my hand. Lily and Amelia have declined to participate; I’m hoping they’ll change their minds. Since I’ve been rotating lumbar vertebrae with alarming regularity – pretty much every time I bend, turn to the left or to the right, in fact – I have to figure out a way to entice the girls to come up to my level as they grow and transition to living in the coop instead of on the bathroom countertop.

"I command you to bring me meal worms!"

That transition is taking a bit longer than we’d hoped.  I’ve read somewhere that if it were possible to start over, people would make their coop twice as large and start twice as soon. The latter applies in our case. Since the Chicken Emperor and I are headed to Amagansett next week, the boys (shall we call them the Princes of Poultry?) are going to be left in charge of the “farm” and we’d hoped to have the chickens tucked into their coop by then. It wasn’t to be. Our painter was on vacation, and by the time he finishes, there won’t be time to finalize “coop lockdown” before we leave.

Confining chickens to the coop for a few days up to a week is recommended when they first leave the brooder. Locking them in reinforces their understanding that the coop is “home”, similar to the practice of confining a cat to the house for several days after a move. “Coop lockdown” will hopefully prevent the common lament I hear from other chicken owners: “My chickens won’t go back into the coop!” While there are actually people out there who chase chickens for a living, it doesn’t seem that anyone who lives here wants to be one of them.

Prepping

Painting

All done on the inside

Ch-ch-ch-changes

The coop, for all practical purposes, is finished. Still needs some latches here and there, paint, hanging the feeder, etc., but it’s plenty done enough for a test drive by the girls. We put them out there this morning; they lounged a bit on the upper deck where we set them before flapping down to the chunnel to head outside and begin a day of pecking and scratching. Our plan is to transition them to the coop full-time by the end of the week. Their chickie-childhood is most definitely a thing of the past; they’re now the size of small crows and ready for life beyond the brooder.

Autumn greets the morning from a coop roost

Hope and Autumn

I'm not fat; just fluffy. Really!

Ruling the roost

The “Chunnel”.

Let’s say that the coop is London and the run is Paris. Master over the entire domain is the Chicken Emperor, who dreamed up this ingenious method to give the chickens a trans-continental travel option. It will allow them to go safely from coop to pen and back, as well as a “no deposit-no return” option, kind of a mailbox from the outside. So if you have a chicken outside the system, you can just “mail” her back through the Chunnel. Sounds more complicated than it is, actually. The whole thing, in addition to being the chickens’ mass transit system, is designed to discourage wily raccoons, who are probably the greatest threat to the girls once they go into the coop. All in all, I think the girls will enjoy their daily Chunnel trips – chicks love traveling to London and Paris!

The Chunnel

Top lifts from inside to confound raccoons

Autumn gets "mailed"

Door from chunnel to coop

Checking out the chunnel

Hope does an inspection

Hope at five weeks

A thousand words.

I wish I could give you the picture instead, but the camera battery was dead when we took the chickens out to their run at dusk last night. The Chicken Emperor was doing some touch-ups to the coop, which is close to being finished. The dogs, thinking, as always, that it’s all about them, joined us in the run with the chickens. Soho didn’t notice when Hope chicken-tip-toed up to her and gave her plumed white tail a peck. But Chloe definitely noticed when Hope approached her and pecked at her eye. Not aggressively, but a peck nonetheless. Chloe, ever tolerant, didn’t budge; I guess she knows Hope’s just a bird brain.

Camera battery revived, we got a few pix of the chicks’ first introduction to the inside of the coop:

The CE made custom chicken ladders

First try on the coop roost

Chicken Emperor and subjects

I think they like it!

Hope

Happy 4th!

Instead of whooping it up, we’re cooping it up this 4th. It’s getting harder and harder to manage the girls inside, so we’re hoping to send them into the coop a bit early. The rule of thumb is that chickens go into the coop when they’re “fully feathered”. Conventional wisdom says 8 weeks; some people toss their hens into the coop at 6 weeks, and we’re aiming for 5 weeks, in hopes that a heat lamp inside the coop will keep them warm and happy.

Chicken Emperor at work

Taylor gets a tour of the coop

Apprentice Carpenter