Do Chickens Mold?

Typically, our rain storms come through at nice intervals giving us plenty of time to dry out in between storms.  But every once in a while, the jet stream sets up just right and we get a series of storms back to back to back.  And this is what happened last week.

Over five days, we received nearly three inches of rain.  And given that our average rainfall total is fifteen inches, that's a lot of rain for us.  The chicken run is a mosh pit.  It just got wetter and wetter until now it's a soggy mess.  And the girls were not happy about it.  Coco didn't miss an opportunity to tell me about her displeasure each time I'd go out to visit them.

Usually, when it rains here, we get breaks in between downpours.  But not with these last storms.  It just poured all day and night long.  The girls like to hide under their house when it rains.  But there's not much to do under there.  And when they are stuck under there all day long, the only thing to do is try to excavate out more real estate under their house.

Today, the weather broke, and I took advantage of the dry weather to get out there and put back all the dirt they dug out.  I also had to replenish their house with pine shavings.  They obviously went in there at one point and started digging because all the pine shavings were relocated to one side of the coup.  Not the end of the world, but it does make cleaning easier if the poop lands on the shavings and not directly on the floor.

And I see that Pumpkin is back to chasing Ginger around.  Which I'm sure is just a sign of boredom.  I added some dry sand to their dust bath area and hopefully, they can get back to their old routines moving forward.

I also met with a carpenter who is drawing up a plan to cover half of their run with corrugated fiberglass panels.  Half opaque to keep their house in the shade and half clear so they get as much sunlight as possible when it's sunny.  By the time the plans are ready and they get to work, we'll probably be at the tail end of our rainy season.  But we'll be in good shape moving forward.

No more beach umbrellas to blow inside out and scare the living daylights out of the girls!