The Raising Chickens for Dummies book told me that coops of free-range chickens need to be cleaned out every six months to a year, and since I couldn’t remember the last time anyone cleaned it, I decided now is the time.
Besides, the massacre appears to be over, egg production up, and I was thinking about enlarging the flock.
My original plan was to replace all the nest box material, but we couldn’t get any straw yesterday. So, instead I cleaned off all the roosting areas and obviously soiled bedding.
Then I spent an hour raking up sticks and shards of glass in the chicken run. Y’all, there is a serious glass issue in there. Also pieces of crockery. Sara says that they’d gotten rid of all of it when they lived in the cabin next to the chickens. I’m pretty sure the next renters did, too.
As it rains and the chickens peck, more glass comes to the surface. The chickens don’t eat it, but it looks bad.
As I raked and stuffed the mess into two huge feed bags, I pondered why people of the past would just throw bottles out like that.
This is how you know I’m not from around here. It suddenly dawned on me that Elaine Laywell, who used to own this ranch when it was much bigger, told me they’d used the cabin as a hunting cabin.
Well, heck! The hunters probably sat around and lined up bottles and crocks for target practice! There’s probably hundreds more shattered bottles in there.
So, we’re setting a bucket outside the chicken yard, and all of us chicken caregivers will pick up a few pieces every day.
We got bedding in Rockdale today, so we will replace the old stuff tomorrow. Egg-ward and upward!
Next: New chickens!
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