This week in summary:
Got up before early this morning and hooked up the little yard trailer (5x7) and loaded the pressure washer, the fuel (gasoline) can, a gallon of 6x vinegar and backed up to the chicken coop door. Removed the roost bars and poop pans and the hangers for cleaning and then dragged 100 feet of 3/4” water hose out to a good spot where I didn’t care if the vinegar killed a few weeds. I already made that mistake once this week when cleaning the feeders and water tanks and now have a big dead spot in the lawn. It’s been a bad week for my birds and me. Had one get sour crop on Saturday and we did everything we could for her until Monday afternoon until she died in my wife’s hands. My granddaughter was devastated because the bird was the one we all were most attached to and I was because of the heartbreak my granddaughter had. So Monday I had to throw down the deck replacement project and put the PHD on the LX to give the bird a burial worthy of her life with us. Got the PHD stuck and stalled the LX 3 times and of course the sky decided to drop the bottom about the time the point of the auger hit the dirt. Probably part of the reason I was having trouble operating the PHD was because I was getting drenched. Chicken burial completed, I took the PHD back off and stowed it. Grass needed cutting Tuesday and wifey was off to work early, and the work I needed to do on the deck required a bit of climbing, so I drove the little orange tractor for about 2 hours. Got two trailers with lumber on them so had to get the LX out to move them so I could cut the grass. Went out to the chicken pen to feed and check water and found one of the birds sitting in a corner. Wouldn’t eat or drink. Had every symptom of coccidosis and was deteriorating fast. Had lumber that I needed to exchange and return so did that and put the sick bird in out quarantine pen. She acted like she felt better but was stressed about being away from the flock. Crap, can’t stress a sick bird, so started a full treatment for coccidosis on the whole flock. Turns out, she didn’t have coccidosis, but instead was depressed and mourning her flock mate that died Monday. The other four members of the first 6 birds we got last year were all standing guard around her and trying to get her up. Chickens are pretty amazing critters. She’s back on the mend and starting to ramp up her food and water intake and acting more normal, so maybe she’s gonna be okay. Meanwhile, the missus had bought 12 more chicks on Monday and on Wednesday, 3 more (expensive) chicks arrived. We had decided to run the new flock in the old pen and put the little ones in the old coop with the automatic door disabled. I went to check on them today after we finished the deep cleaning on the new coop. One of the little ones is SUPER docile and friendly and likes to climb my arm up to my shoulder. I counted and verified all 15 were present and accounted for. We gave the older birds (23) a mix of yogurt, blueberries, and flock booster to bump their digestive systems after the Coccidosis treatment and then looked in in the babies again. Wait a second, only 12 visible, and all panicked along the back wall. WTF? The missus says “LOOK!” and I turn around to see 4-1/2 feet of chicken snake hanging from the power cords for the brooder heater and 3 very large lumps in the middle. He deprived me of 3 healthy chicks, so I deprived him of his life and head. I still have no clue how that thing got in the coop but ANY snake that crosses the pen boundaries is forfeit of its life. I gave him a Mike Tyson upper cut with a hoe, dragged him out of the coop and then decapitated him with a machete. We figured out he got one of the dominics and two of the Rhode Island Reds. I bought 3 last year but one died and the other two had gender identity crises and turned into enormous beautiful roosters. Im not having any luck getting some laying Rhode Island reds.