R.I.P. Chickens

My original 6 chickens 3 years ago

 As if life were stressful enough for me these days,

I lost the last two hens from my original 6 chicks.

And I lost them during my son's family birthday party.

It was definitely a downer.

Seems a fox got my Buff Orpington Bertha down by the barn.

The other 4 older hens scattered toward the house.

Two went to the coop,

Martha Stewart, my Araucana, ran toward the house.

The fox got her next to our deck.

So I'm down 2 layers

until the other pullets get older

(not till August/September time frame)

and I won't have any more green eggs.

Bertha in the Garden

Bertha looking for a treat

Martha Stewart is the chicken on the right

 Now the remaining chickens are locked up.

Penny is still at my house, 

though I'm growing tired of having her there 

in such tight quarters.

I guess there will be more chickens

since we put all that money and time into making the coop bigger.

But honestly, with everything going on, I don't know if I have the heart to bother with more.

Supervisory Chicken

Yesterday evening I decided to work on painting the coop.

The wind was blowing pretty hard so spray painting the portions

that need to be sprayed was out of the question,

but it was a good time to get a coat or two on the rest of it.

I brought along Henny Penny so she could get some exercise,

but all she seemed to want to do is make sure I was doing my job properly.

I had to lay on my stomach on a piece of cardboard to get the areas

located under the coop.

Penny was especially curious about why I was doing that.

Eventually she decided she just needed to sit with me.

I wish she'd try to go make nice with the other young chickens,

but she always sticks by me when I'm out in the yard with her.

It was quite the challenge painting while trying to keep a curious chicken out of the paint.

I did manage to get at least one coat on pretty much everything

(except 2 boards I couldn't reach).

The area under the coop is finished

as I decided if I had to crawl under there I only wanted to do it once.

It needs a second coat

and I need to spray paint the wood that has the wire attached to it,

but other than that it's finished. 

Garden in Progrress

The Cabbage, Broccoli an Cauliflower are doing well

now that their fenced in and protected from the chickens.

The beans have sprouted around the bean trellis

and I got the cucumbers planted along the cucumber trellis

that the husband built for me over the weekend.

All the peppers are planted, 

beets are sprouting,

peas are popping up 

and tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe and squash have been planted.

I just need to plant the pumpkin seed, add a little more watermelon seed

and possibly plant potatoes.

Hopefully all those wheelbarrows full of composted maure

will give us a plentiful yield this summer!

Repainting

Part of the coop renovation includes repainting.  I meant to get another coat of paint on it last year but time got away from me.  The original paint was seriously weather beaten.  So far, we've managed to get one coat on most of the coop.  It will definitely need a second coat, so I'm hoping I manage to get that on this weekend.  We're also painting all the wood framing of the run to help prevent the wood from rotting. That requires a little more work as I never painted it originally and now there's a lot of dirt and mud built up on the bottom framework.  It's nothing a little elbow grease and a wire grill brush can't tackle, but it's time consuming.  To help preserve the wood further, we're putting the whole thing up on 1 foot pavers to keep it out of the dirt.  And there's the reshingling of the roof and fixing/rebuilding the nest box and installing a second roosting bar. It will definitely be a busy weekend.

Chicken Hospital

Henny Penny is back at the "chicken hospital"

in my hallway.

My mom called me Wednesday evening to say she was pretty sure

one of the new pullets had been pecked.

So I rushed over to assess the damage.

Penny was up and moving around, 

but a large area of her back end was bleeding

and she was missing quite a few feathers.

I also notice that she had her right eye half closed.

I wasn't really sure she would even make it.

 Yesterday she was up and around and eating and drinking normally.

Her eye is still closed

but she felt good enough to hop out of the cage and follow me to the kitchen

as I filled her water.

I think if we can keep her wounds from becoming infected,

she'll be okay. 

She's getting a small amount of aspirin in her water for pain, 

and I'm applying triple antibiotic ointment to her wounds to keep

the wound moist and hopefully prevent infection.