Eggs (week ending 5/14): 45*I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. I was e-mailing a friend who had asked me about the fate of the hidden clutch of eggs I found (they're now cat eggs), and by way of explaining why I don't compost them into the manure pile (I don't want the chickens to find them and get a taste for them), I told how they acted like little gardening tools, keeping the pile stirred up for me.
Eggs (year to date): 817
*includes 6 Bantie eggs
Then it hit me. I could actually encourage them to more of that by sprinkling their ration of scratch into the pile. What fun for them, what a time saver for me. I feel like I'm starting to get more efficient at running things here, so I might actually be up to speed after a while.
Meantime, here's a preview of what I need to accomplish this weekend (besides the usual chores). I'm doing this for me, because I jotted my To Do list on a scrap of cardboard while wandering the barnyard last night - and I tend to lose things like that:
Finding the White Rock in hiding, leaving her in hiding, and watching her back feathers grow back in is what made me decide to build a chicken tractor first. Not only will I use it to raise the massively excreting meat birds, but I can also use it as a respite housing for sexually abused hens, giving them a chance to rest and grow their feathers back and lay eggs in nice surroundings without having to worry about opportunistic roosters.
- It's fill-up day in the coop - meaning I need to fill up the containers of stuff that doesn't get used up quickly (Dry Stall and Crushed Oyster Shell) that I keep up high in storage.
- The barn swallows are starting to build condos in the goat stables and in the overhang again. Time to start knocking them down. (They're allowed to build elsewhere in the barn, but not around the animals.)
- Find a suitable place for, and hang up, the Rain Gauge I impulsively bought at Tractor Supply (they were right next to the Rooster Thermometer that I bought and put up last night). If suitable place cannot be found, take it back.
- Remove the scur on Lewis's head. (A scur is a flat, horn-like projection that grows on a goat's head if they have not been disbudded (had their horns removed) properly. Both Lewis and Clark have recurring scurs, but I got Clark's off last night when he got his head stuck through a gate. Sensing an opportunity, I pulled the scur before I let him loose.)
- Start collecting lumber for the chicken tractor. I've been scouting it out for the last few days. Time to draw some plans and make a pile.
- Start mucking out the outside of the barnyard. (The stalls are my daughter's problem.)
- Get a plastic container for the black oil sunflower seeds I bought for the goats. They're sitting in a tack room in their big, difficult-to-open sack. But rodents have sharp, pointy teeth. (I may do this on my lunch hour today.)
I thought about going the PVC pipe route, but it's better all the way around, I think, if I use scrap lumber, which is plentiful around the barn. There's that whole recycling thing, plus this lumber is heavy. I want something that winds can't shift and predators can't tip. Time to start sketching. WIth this new site design, I may even take in-progress pics and post them. I'm also planning a new Chicken Genetics page based on what I've seen in this batch of chicks.
More fun ahead.
