With Bob in jail Mildred seems to be recovering. Saturday there was a medium sized egg in the next box she usually uses, and I'm pretty sure it was hers - I don't think the Reds are quite ready to start laying yet.

The Reds continue to show different personalities than the Rosses. These birds love to perch, on the highest available place, of course. On a morning early last week I opened the door to the coop to see only Mildred and one Red inside. The other three were nowhere to be seen. When I looked to my right and up, they were perched on the top of the fence that divides the coop from the tack room (not officially a tack room, but we keep the goat harnesses there, along with the hay and food for the goats and chickens).

Unfortunately, when they faced the inside of the coop, their defecate would drop down into the tack room, ironically enough on top of some plastic buckets I kept in the corner for various and sundry purposes. Time to put up some of the chicken wire I had bought for just that purpose. I just hadn't done it because it had been cold and the Rosses weren't into perching at all.

Since I took Friday off for another reason, I went out and did it in the morning in the space of about half an hour. That took care of that problem, but now the Reds have decided that their favorite perch is the top of the goat gate, which is about six inches from the stall door. So sometime next week I'm going to put in a higher perch for them so I don't have to shoo them off the goat gate when I want to go into the coop and work.

The floor next boxes have also taken a beating. I'm thinking about getting one of those five gallon plastic buckets and fixing it up. Several folks on the Backyard Chickens Forum have used them as nest boxes with great success and they can be had cheaply from restaurants and bakeries. Plus, Mildred is a little big for the cramped 12 x 12 x 12 box she favors now.