Yesterday I finished putting chicken wire around the bottom of the chicken pen fence, and so I put the mama hen and her 9 chicks into the pen. All day they have been wandering around the pen as part of the flock. Mom doesn’t let the other hens too close, but when I threw some scratch in there everyone was one big happy flock pecking at the corn. The chicks are so cute to watch!

It’s great to see them out stretching their legs and enjoying the grass. The chicken tractor was too cramped for that many chicks for very long!

On the other side of the yard Big Bird is angrily stomping around in his chicken tractor by himself. I kid you not – he is pissed! Looks like he’d like to take someone out! I am so relieved to have him contained, I was able to go into the chicken pen and check on the chicks and take pictures without having to watch my back the whole time.

What to do with Big Bird is another question. Nobody wants a mean rooster, and most people I’ve talked to about it say that the only good place for a mean rooster is the stewpot. But would I have the guts? He is ‘chicken’ after all.

Poor Dave’s hand is wrapped up like a prizefighter tonight thanks to butthead Big Bird. Dave reached through the fence to pet the friendly hen and Big Bird ran over and jumped at him. He pulled his hand back not thinking he had even got him, and looked at it and blood was running all down his arm! The damn bird had poked a hole in just the right place, it was bleeding like crazy! We ran inside and rinsed it off, and he kept his thumb over the hole while I got a couple gauze pads ready. I got two of them over it, and he sat down on the toilet, then suddenly he took a header and was out on the floor! Scary! I kept pressure on the wound and he quickly came to again. Then he was able to hold it while I finished wrapping it. Glad I took those first aid classes.

Of course the urgent care place isn’t open today (you think they would have business on the 4th of July with everyone blowing off thumbs and whatnot), so we’ll have to go in the morning and have them take a look at it. Needless to say we are pretty unhappy with Big Bird. I’m going to have to find him another home, or he’s going to be dinner. Dave says he’s about ready to go out there and take care of him himself!

Update: Dave is fine. We went to urgent care this morning and they cleaned it out, gave him a tetnus shot, and some antibiotics since it’s a puncture wound. It’s actually surprisingly small, it must have hit a vein or something because it sure bled like crazy. But he feels fine and it looked fine, we just have to watch it and make sure it doesn’t get infected.

I caught one of the chickens this morning and checked out her butt, to see how our mite-powdering treatment had worked out. I was happy to see no mites on one hen, and only a few on another, but when I picked Penny up (got attacked by the rooster while I was trying to corner her), I saw a LOT of bugs on her bum! Poor Penny! So I decided to clean up the coop and spread that powder in all the corners and nest boxes, and then tonight we’ll powder everyone’s bums again.

So I shovelled out two wheelbarrows full of cedar chips. To get to everything I had to remove my roosts, which were just pieces of old ladder. Three of the chickens prefer to sleep on a shelf, and poop on the shelf, and it has been a terrible mess, so I removed the shelf too.

In it’s place I built a big roost. It’s like a big ladder, and it’s hinged to the wall at the top, so I can lift the bottom and hook it to a chain in the ceiling and get it out of the way for cleaning. I saw one done that way on the net and thought it looked clever.

I also put a piece of aluminum angle on the edge of the doorway where there was rough chickenwire always sticking out to catch you as you walked in and out, and put a latch on the door so I wouldn’t have to just slide a feed bucket in front of it to hold it closed. I can latch it from the inside too, so Barclay can’t follow me into the coop anymore. A few weeks ago he followed me in and ran out the chicken door into the orchard and chased chickens around until I pounced on him and stopped him.

So now the coop looks like this, with the feed buckets neatly arranged in front (scratch, chick food, and layer pellets). The red glow at the bottom left is the turkey brooder. In the back left corner of the coop is Penny’s nest box. I realized after I had it all set up that it would be a pain to get around the new roost to collect eggs, so I moved it to the foot of the roost. I’m sure she won’t care.

Everyone came in to check it out.

They had been away from the food all day, so that was their primary interest!

My chickens have mites! Not their fault, they can get them from the wild birds who come visit to steal their food. Penny had a dirty bottom the other day, and when I caught her and turned her over to clean it off, I saw little buggies on her bum! Yikes! But when I got over being totally grossed out by that, I asked my chicken mentor what to do. She said to go get a powder at the feed store and powder her bum and under her wings, and treat the other birds and the nest boxes too. So tonight Dave and I went out after the birds had been asleep a few hours and caught them one by one and I flipped them over so he could powder their bottom, then I rolled them over and lifted each wing, and once they were done set them back on their perch where I found them, still sleepy and wondering what the heck happened!

No pictures of their indignity, needless to say!

Luckily chicken mites have no interest in people. But it’s still creepy!