I know that you’ve been hearing a lot about hay movements lately, but just one more report today and we’ll move on. Today, Sue hauled all the goat hay from the previous cleaning over to this side of the fence. Some of it she used to give the newest plantings a bit of mulch. This will help keep them from drying out so quickly since the rain has started back up. The remainder of it she put in the chicken runs. The photo you see, to the left, is little Maeve who quite quickly scratched herself a hole in the hay and got to work. Later, both she and Imen were submerged to their heads in the hay. I was sure the hay walls they had made were going to topple and cover them at any moment. So far, the walls – and the chickens – are still standing. Continue reading
Hay!
06 Wednesday Sep 2017
We’ve had a quiet Labor Day Weekend, but we still managed to get some things completed. I just wasn’t much help to Sue this weekend as she cleaned out the large side of the chicken coop. She didn’t plan on doing the total clean like we did on the littles’ side, this was just to get some of the old out and put a new layer of clean on the top. In general, you leave an inch or two of the old so that you don’t get rid of all the beneficial enzymes and such. Usually people do it once a year, but it was getting a bit stinky in there, so wanted to change it up a bit. Instead of hauling it out, like we did the other side, Sue scattered it around the enclosure. This will help to replenish the earth around the coop and give the chickens something to rummage through for bugs during the day. Leaving the hay on the ground also encourages bugs to come into the enclosed area, thus giving the chickens a nice supply! That was the big project for Saturday. 
Dusting is a natural activity for chickens. In fact, it is necessary for their health! Our chickens seem to enjoy this activity greatly. They enjoy it so much that they have set aside a whole section of the coop just for this activity. They have dusting holes that can swallow up the smaller chickens, like Maeve, and we can barely see them! Sometimes when we go out there, a chicken will be almost upside down in the hole and for a second we think, “Oh no! She’s dead!” But – no far – that has never been the case. They really get down and dirt in their little dusting holes. The photo on the right shows one of the buffs in the dust hole and another waiting. What you can’t see are the other three or four holes to the right. They just pick a good place and turn it into the communal bath. 
Wing and a Prayer 