Spring Cleaning

I took advantage of the break in between storms to really clean out the coop today.  I ran to the feed store before I got all dirty and bought more feed, pine shavings, oyster shells and grit.  Course a storm cloud passed over just as it was time to load up my car.

Then I proceeded to give the coop and run a really good cleaning.  I never cease to be amazed at how much dust these four ladies can kick up.  And now that their run is fully roofed, there is no rain to tamp down the dust.  But on the flip side, they are high and dry.  Their feed is dry and they have a place to dust bath year round which is really nice.

My new flower pot.  She just had to come home with me from the garden center.  It's one of the few spots of color in the yard this time of the year.

This is the coop where the girls sleep and lay eggs.  I vacuumed all the dust off the outside and the cobwebs from the inside.

The lighting on this photo is awful.  But on the left is the corner of their coop.  The little coop in the back was my original. It's just too cute for me to part with.  I hope to have a broody raise babies in there this spring.  The reason the lighting is so bad is that their run is fully roofed and it allows in minimal light. 

This is their dust bathing area.  I saw something like this on Pinterest but they had used logs.  I wasn't able to find any so I bought cinder blocks with caps and it works.  The girls love it.  You can see it got some use today.  If you look to the left you can see that I had a guy put 1/2 hard wire cloth over EVERY opening into their run and this has keep out all mice and rats thus far.  Which is VERY nice for me.

This was my original coop.  It was just too small for my big birds.  I paid a little extra for the cute red roof.  Which is rarely red but typically covered with dust.  We'll see how long it stays red this time.

Different angle on their dust bathing area. You can see from the two huge imprints that I do indeed have big girls.

I moved the two cinder blocks and 2x4 over to the wall.  This wall gets morning sun and will give them a sunny spot to hang out while they wait for the sun to hit the rest of the run.

Grit on the left.  Oyster shell in the middle.  And bird charcoal on the right.  They eat this as they feel the need to flush toxins from their system.  I don't put out much.  But they do seem to enjoy it.

Peaches enjoying some warm mash before I put them back into their run.

Pickels is the blond and Coco is the black hen enjoying mash.  That's Peaches fluffy bottom on the right.

Pearl is behind the pots inside the wire ring.  Poor thing is simply terrified of EVERYTHING and wasn't having anything to do with my camera.  

And this is how the majority of my photos come out - the girls giving me the tail.  

Clean nests topped off with more shavings and a big scoop of Nesting Box Blend.  If you haven't discovered this stuff, you must.  It's made by Treats for Chickens and simply smells divine.  

And the inside of the coop.  No more cobwebs.  And lots of fresh pine shavings under the roosts sprinkled with PDZ to help keep oder to a minimum.

And I know this is hugely unattractive, but I have wire rings around my tastier pots to keep the hens from eating them to nothing.  When spring arrives, there will be more things in the garden and they will move on and I can remove these.