First day of chicken care went well. Happy clucking pecking pooping chickens. No eggs, yet -- but they are young. And maybe a little freaked out by their new surroundings. I did get pecked a few times, and Not Fiona was overly interested in the zipper on my coat, but otherwise, all was good.
Try as we might, we could not get them to drink water before putting them away for the night. Wynn said this was vital to them keeping warm all night -- and we brought lovely clean warm water for them -- but they could not have been less interested in it. We placed them in front of the water, we hung around casually and talked about water, and we just plain waited until the sun went down and it was too cold to wait any more. Now I'm just hoping for the best.
A few issues to note:
A few kids were quite interested in the chickens and wanted to pet them. They were middle school students with no parents in sight. We let them pet the chickens and then squirted sanitizer all over their hands. My rationale (shared with Susan Jenkins, who was there at the time) was that this is an educational tool -- and these kids probably pet people's dogs and cats all the time without permission anyway. As a lawyer, I'm confident we have no liability, but as a parent, well, I know there are some chicken freaky parents out there, and they might not be too pleased with us. So -- I suggest we have permission slips at the coop. If parents are with the kids, don't bother with the slips, but if the kids are on their own, hand them a slip, tell them the approximate times we're there, and ask them to come back later with a signed slip. That's just my suggestion -- I'm sure there are other ways to deal with the issue. This should probably be decided officially at some meeting or other. Sara -- I leave it to you to figure out the appropriate way to deal.
There just isn't enough poop in the straw of the run to clean out the straw every time -- we should probably have a monthly day (or maybe one day every quarter) when the people who are on active chicken duty clean the coop. Again, I know we should decide this in an official way. And again, I leave it to you -- Sara -- to figure out the appropriate way.
Finally, you'll note that the lock on the outer gate is not effective at all. People have been notified and are on it.
Anyway, this is a great thing to do with the kids -- so thanks to everyone for allowing us to be part of the co-op.
With that, I am --
Amy
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