Chicken doings

Some chickens I've had love to get up as high as they can, some like to live on the floor. This particular group is middle-of-the-road. They spend their days scratching around the floor but some bit of ancestral knowledge tells them that sleeping on their set of night-perches (across from the nest boxes) is safer. A few months ago a particularly large branch fell from a tree in our yard, and I stripped it of twigs and put it in the coop at about waist-height. None of the chickens seemed particularly interested, but I thought this may be because the stick was a little wobbly. The coop is 8 feet wide, after all, and a stick that long is bound to have some bend to it.

let's just say that Muriel was encouraged up to this perch for a picture

Yesterday I finally got around to making some proper perches. I wanted one to replace the stick, and then a smaller but much higher one in case the girls decide that they want to take in the view from 6 feet up. I used 2x4's, since I needed something strong enough to not sag over and 8' span, and also because honestly I had a few of them in the shed and didn't want to buy more wood. To make them easier on chicken feet I used a planer to round the edges. Then in keeping with my "everything about the coop will be aesthetically pleasing" rule I stained them the same color as the walls so that they blend in.

After two hours of measuring, sawing, and staining I drove the chickens crazy with 5 minutes of drilling and they were in place. Hopefully they will like them!

let us out, woman!

Since the girls do sometimes come out and wander around the yard (only when I am there the entire time, doing yardwork) I made them a little ramp so that they can get in and out of the coop more easily.

newer "big-girl" sized nestboxes

but everyone still lays in the little a-frame

In other chicken news, the other day I cracked an especially large egg and found a double yolk. Exciting!

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Eggs laid in the coop today: 4
Eggs laid in the coop Wednesday: 5
Eggs laid this year: 105