Damn those stupid chickens! They are driving me insane! INSANE!!!!!! WHY? More changes to the coop, no eggs, lack of survival smarts. Let's dive into it.
They have zero survival instincts from what I can see. We have built them a beautiful coop. The inside part is insulated and would be kept warm if the stupid chickens would go inside. Do they? No! They prefer to huddle under the coop. This has led to no eggs because they lay them in the coop and then peace out and without body heat the eggs freeze by the time we can get to them. In order to get them in at night I have to catch them one by one to get them in. Fortunately it has only been cold enough to have to do it twice. I did it for the first few days at night to get them used to always going in the new coop at night. Did it work? NOO! They don't want to go in. So here comes the changes we have had to make and will be making.
The first thing I did was buy a heated waterer. Again thanks to them never going in the coop at night their water kept freezing at night. Now they have water for a few days and as long as it doesn't get too cold it will keep it that way. The next thing I did was buy a heat mat. This is going to go in the coop and might be in by the time I post this blog. I will post the pictures if i manage it. Currently the heat mat is under the coop in an attempt to keep them warm until I can modify the coop to make it more tempting. The third change is I am going to set up a heat lamp under the coop for the really stubborn chickens and build a little shelter under there. This will hopefully help the heated waterer work in colder temps. Our previous chickens never needed us to teach them. Even free range they would turn up to the coop (unless they had been eaten) at night and be in there waiting for me to close the door.
Here are the pictures of the changes. Enjoy:
The first thing I did was to move the food dish off the door since with the freeze and thaw I haven't been able to get food into it. The little door is easier to get open when the water freezes the bigger doors.
I then moved the wood and such around so I could get the heat pad into the coop. Made a raised holders for the nesting boxes!
Created roosting areas, which I will increase as I can get the currently frozen wood chips out. Nesting boxes in!
Waterer in!
I also put the water shelf under the coop for nicer days, so they will have water underneath. I have more things I need to change, but after lying in chicken poop off and on for several hours I gave up. I will include any other updates in the regular blogs.
We love our hobby farm, we love our hobby farm! Seriously though I think I should have stuck with my childhood dream to just save all the dogs and cats people don't want. Screw my allergies, dogs and cats are better than chickens! Talk to you all later! Therapy scheduled for after Christmas!
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