I ended up spending the day helping the Beast put in the doggie door for the chickens and had to lend a hand when he made a second (bigger) roost for the chickens. They are growing by leaps and bounds. They've doubled in size in less than a week and looking more like chickens every day. They're actually kind of neat looking with their feathers in now.
The door we put in, which will allow them access to the outdoors, has a plastic door that has a magnetic strip at the bottom so it will help keep insects out of the barn. It also has a sliding interior door that you can close up once they are in for the night that will help keep out any predators.
The Beast has to fence in an area outside the barn for the *coop*. It's become necessary since we have two fur babies that have taken up residence in our yard. They've taken over the dog house (that Baron has shunned since we got it) and we finally put a blanket in it for them and moved their water and food bowls over there for them. They have also decided that they like to spend their days on our deck and hide under the covered barbeque if the weather gets rainy or it snows unexpectedly. They found the hole under the fence that the Beast had put sand in to fill it and decided it's their litter box....LOL. He's replaced a couple more of the boards in our fence that were getting ugly so the fence is nice and solid.
The little male cat is skittish but the female is friendly and really adorable. I would have brought them inside but.....the truth is, I hate to try to find a place for a litter box in this small house. And we already have a big problem with the way that Baron sheds. With my luck, my grandkids would be allergic to cat dander, too. I mean my great-grands. I already know the Princess has a problem with dog dander. We never had a dog while she was growing up at our house. We had plenty when we had four kids and a small house. We always had dobermans, besides. She kind of lost out on that kind of experience.
The Beast has taken to reading up on raising chickens. He's now found out how to tell a *broody* chicken and how to make a brood box (that's when a chicken wants to raise chicks and won't leave the brood box). He's taken to forwarding me the links to the various pages and it does make for interesting reading.
We are still waiting to see if the Princess really DID get any roosters in the bunch of chicks that she got. They asked for a *mixed* bunch but how in the hell do you tell when they all look alike? The Beast says they still look the same to him and they are closer to being full grown than ours are.
We found one of the chickens doing what is called *dusting*. That's when they lay down and start throwing dust, wood chips, whatever is handy, all over their bodies. It looked like it was dying at first...LOL. But it is done to help remove mites and stuff from them. We found out that they need an area where they can do that regularly and, if we make a special box for them to do it, we should include diatomaceous earth with it because the sharp edges of it helps pierce the bodies of the mites and/or ticks to kill them off. Sounds okay to me. Better than trying to use some chemical. And non-polluting, too.
Time to get to bed. I'm tired today. Not surprising since I was up early and no nap. Going to Cee's tomorrow. I already checked with her and she will be expecting me. The Beast always asks why I'm going over and can't seem to accept that it's because we LIKE each other and like spending some time together. He's so weird.
Love you all. Hope you have some decent weather but, if not, stay warm and dry. We are heading for some more really cold nights but the days won't be too bad. ***Hugs***
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