3 egg AM-The morning looks so spring like till you walk out into it, and get hit with a winter chill. Oh spring where are you. Treats of old bread “heels” kale and organic baby spinach on the menu. The new system of raised food is a blessing, sometimes while reading all these chicken forums I wish people would say “hey! get a hanging feeder! It’ll keep you from having 10 inches of muck in the coop” but alas, lesson learned. The coop (run) remains dry and that makes me happy. The eggs no longer have muck on them, so I don’t have to wash them off, preserving their protective “coat” that keeps the bacteria away.

Many people ask me how chickens can lay eggs without a rooster. I sorta giggle to myself. All girls lay eggs in some form or another. The key of course is it fertile or not. Believe it or not, even with a rooster,  eggs are NOT fertile until they are incubated for a certain number of hours. So if you collected them right away, you’d  just have normal non-fertile eggs.

4 egg AM-The weather has been so up and down. The beginning of the week brought beautiful 50-60 temps, now, we are back into the high 30’s. Light bulb fixed and the water flows. Flock is happy, coop is dry. Treats are organic baby spinach, Kale, and “heels” of bread. They love those, and chase each other around with a keep away game.

1 egg am-The morning is chilly, and the water had a layer of ice on it. Yesterday I noticed the bulb was broken, but forgot to switch it. Coop run looks great! The ground is starting to dry out and I am happy I took the time to get rid of the winter muck. Kale and organic baby spinach on the menu.

After getting excused from work, I went to the store and bought a “Rain suit” (Jacket and pants) Grabbed a bucket and my wheel barrow and a garden trowel, and headed up to the coop to clean. 2-1/2 hours later I got all the winter muck up from around the run area, but after testing decided to leave the mud under the coop, because as I dug, it went downhill, good/ bad thing. The more the slope the more water will build up, so I am going to wait till we figure out a drainage system on the exterior and then address the under coop mud issue. Took down the west side plastic, so that the spring sun could dry everything out.

The girls spent the day free-ranging and dirt bathing under the bushes. Happy chickens were purring and excited to be out and about.

I love the spring weather! Last night more rain, leaving the coop in a state of disrepair. I need a solution for the mud puddle. They girls are dirty and need a bath. But everyone is happy with the kale and baby spinach treats.

I SEE FOOD!

The other flock members 🙂

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Boss called doesn’t need me at work, Flock free ranging enjoying the sunshine, and I am going to tackle the mud in the coop today yay!

2 eggs AM- After a fabulous day of sunshine, the clouds have moved back in. Things have started to melt but quite a bit of snow on the ground still. Bread as a treat.

Starting to feel like a broken record, another storm will dump 4-8 inches of wet icky snow on us tomorrow and Friday. Flock is happy and I let them free-range for over an hour yesterday and they enjoyed that alot.

4 Eggs AM- Flock is happy. Sourdough bread on the menu. Weather calm but cloudy.

1 egg-Sammi on nest-After torrid rains that slapped us around for 2 days, things are finally calm, but cloudy. I removed the tarp from the south side of the run, in hopes of drying out the interior a bit. Flock wants out and Martha and Flower escaped and were none to pleased to be brought back. The solution will come in the spring, when we have time to figure out why there’s a water problem, for now they seem to be ok. Coop’s nice and dry whenever they want a rest from the mud.

Last day of Feb. I hope that March is kind to us

4 eggs AM- The morning was much warmer, and things have begun to melt. Another pending storm on the horizon makes this news of warmer weather fluff in the big down pillow. Flock is happy, broccoli and bread for treats and I cleaned out the coop, which I had been piling it up in the corner during the cold snap, mostly because the compost bin was full and the cold wasn’t allowing it to do what compost does.  Along with nice clean digs, the girls got a fresh coat of Sweet PDZ. What is Sweet PDZ you ask? The most awesome stuff on the planet! No, but really it is “Horse Stall Refreshener”

Here’s a coupon!

http://www.sweetpdz.com/coupon.html

I also use it in my cat box and anywhere there is animal “smell” Makes the animals happy and you happy too!