Removed a cedar that was about 10 inches at the stump and graded the surface to connect my two chicken coops. I started off with 8 birds (two of which had gender identity crises) which was reduced to 6 in the coop on the right. Next thing I knew, I had 18 more in brooders in my basement that would be demanding living space much sooner than later. Ok, so I built the larger pen on the left, with full intention of taking down the one on the right. We no sooner got the younger ones housed and the older ones assimilated in with them than the missus decides we need more birds to occupy the old coop and run on the right which I had planned to demolish. Suddenly, we had 40 birds ranging from 15 months old to 15 days old. and feeding them in two places has gotten quite annoying. It's a lot harder to assimilate new birds into a flock if they weren't raised in the flock. So, we (read SHE) decided to join the two pens to expand the run area for the smaller coop and to let the two flocks chit-chat through the fence with no danger of them harming each other. Mind you, she's working at TSC, and I'm retired, so I'll give you three guesses who does most of the chicken tending, coop building, and carpentry, and the first two guesses don't count. But, happy wife, happy life. I NEVER expected her to get so crazy about chickens. Our 20th anniversary is in February, so it just goes to show that you can never fully know someone. I wanted enough birds to supply us with eggs after the egg producers went in cahoots with the Gubmint to get away with monopolizing the egg market. I had NO INTENTION of raising enough birds to supply half of our little town with eggs. But here we are.
I've got some pine tops to chip and will cover most of this with the chips for a deep bed run which requires a lot less maintenance and cleaning. We use pine pellets inside the coop on the right to keep the floor desiccated and that also gives the birds a place to roll in the dirt and dust. We also put barn lime down in there to keep the mites at bay and the ammonia levels to a minimum. The yard on the left has 89-10 gravel in about half the run and inside the coop, and the 'mosh pit' is a deep bed with chips and stuff that I've accumulated. The girls have certainly pointed out which they prefer (the chip beds), and it also seems to draw worms and insects in for them to munch on.
So, the two coops will become a single duplex coop and keep me in plenty need of the tractor. I never realized how handy a tractor is for having chickens.
