Coop move, meeting, etc.

So, in case you don't already know, the construction on the playground begins May 6. This means we will be moving the girls out and deconstructing the coop the weekend prior to that. They could be in foster care for up to one month. It all depends on how quickly the garden is re-located, our cement poured, and how fast we can re-build. Please put aside time the weekend of April 30/May 1 for coop demo. Our next meeting will be April 17 at the Gamble household, I think we decided 6:30, but now I can't recall... We will discuss the move and construction. There will be plan details and a work detail sign up. Please make it a priority to attend this meeting, we will try to keep it to one hour. Thanks!

Thanks Hils! Talked with Geoff who said all seemed well at the coop!

Separately, but related, posted a new sign stating the following:

Attention - Area Under Video Surveillance - Vandals Will Be Prosecuted To The Fullest Extent Of The Law.

Vandalism Photos

Here are the shots that go with Susan's post...

HORRORS!

Someone vandalized the coop. Thankfully all the ladies are in tact and in bed for the night. A large hole as cut in one of the south panels and whoever climbed into the coop. Susan G., Hilary and I were able to do a patch job - not pretty by any means, but hopefully secure from the 4-legged potential intruders. Police were called and a report filed...Hilary will be posting photos. The most important thing to know is that again, our gals are in good order. Details to be shared via email.

-Susan

Friday, locks and dust baths

Yes, I agree, the hens are taking "dust baths" and I was just thinking this week that we need to incorporate a sand pit for them with the move.

I took home the found 8th lock, we cleaned it up, and it is now in working order, so we are back to locks on all doors!

Yesterday the hens were literally jumping up like dogs, trying to grab the snacks we had brought out of our hands. I think they get miffed if we show up now empty handed.

Sara

All's well...7 eggs today. Noticed two spots where the hens seem to be digging (if was definitely from the inside)...south wall of the coop, toward the west. They had not dug below the fence that is buried, but I am thinking something we might want to watch.

-Susan

Happy Monday!

3.21.11

One day after the start of spring, and all's well this morning. Will report in on egg count!

-Susan

More Water please!!!

Hello all - it seems with the warmer weather that the chickens are drinking more water. Tonight their water was all gone when Tom went to put them to bed. So I would suggest that we plan on filing both water containers for the day. Tom put one into the roost tonight, but I don't think this is a good idea in the long run. We got 6 eggs total today - 2 this morning and 4 this afternoon. This morning Geoff got to see on egg being laid - even got it recorded on his iphone! Very cool! Otherwise, all is well!

Erin and Tom Fahres

FYI - Gate

Hey all! An FYI - Cindy, the ECE para noticed last wed. that the gate had been pushed open despite that the lock was secured. She told me and I e-mailed Robert Shikiar, who was on duty that day. He noticed the same thing. Chickens were well and acounted for. He surmised that someone must have pushed down on the gate to get it open. So, as we're all out admiring the chickens, we may want to double check to see if the gate is secured. - Amy A.

ps - I think Cindy would love to come and observe the chicken care if anybody would be willing to give her a little tour.

First Friday

My first day on the job started off with serious resistance from my two little helpers.  I prodded the two foot-draggers (Eli and Ian) into the coop, where they waited reluctantly while I prepared everything before opening the roost.  Their low-key whining turned into screams of abject terror when the chickens came pouring out.

But after they realized this wasn't a Hitchcock movie, their horror quickly melted into delight.  In the end, the boys had a hard time tearing themselves away from the chickens.

We found five eggs today.  I guess the girls were ready for some late-night Friday partying because 5:45 pm was too early for them to go into the roost on their own.  I had to put each one in one-by-one.

Looking forward to next Friday.

Jued

New Rotation

The new rotation seems to be running fairly smoothly thus far. Please everyone be super dilligent about making sure all seven locks are secure before you leave the coop. Reducing the number of locks on the "new" coop is pretty high on my priority list, along with some other suggested improvements.

We got 7 eggs yesterday, and Elli was mad I had already planned dinner (lentils.) Actually she would probably been miffed at the lentils regardless of the eggs.

Changing Denver Zoning

Cut-and-pasted from an e-mail blast forwarded from Sustainable Food Denver regarding changes in Denver zoning for chickens.
Lucy
*****

Hi all,

Thanks to the community support that urban FPAs have received, we're getting closer and closer to presenting the ordinance to City Council. However, now is the time when it's more important than ever to make our support for this issue known. Those that (for one reason or another) oppose the idea of backyard chickens and goats are starting to get ramped up, so we need to support our city agencies and our City Council in making these sustainable changes for Denver.

Important Events -- Please Come If You Can!

FPA Informational Forum

Monday, March 7th

6:00-7:30pm

The Tivoli, Room 320s

More information: http://bit.ly/ibis5P

Denver Planning Board

Wednesday, March 16th

3:00pm (meet at 2:30 if you want to speak)

Webb Building, Room 4.F.6

*Wear green*

The Planning Board will be hearing the proposed ordinance. The ordinance has to make it out of Planning Board before it can move along in the process. The public has the opportunity to speak in favor or against the ordinance. Everyone who signs up before the meeting will be given a 3 minute slot. I'd like to arrange for a long list of speakers who each focus on a different benefit of the FPA ordinance, so we can cover everything (economics, environmental, financial, health, food safety, etc etc). Of course, if you want to come and just say what you please, you're more than welcome to, but some sort of coordinated presentation would be very helpful. Those of us who are speaking will meet at 2:30 to sign up and coordinate. If you plan on coming and are willing to speak on behalf of FPAs, please let me know.

Land Use, Transportation, and Infrastructure Committee

Tuesday, March 22nd

10:30am

*Wear green*

City and County Building, Room 391

This is the same deal as above -- the FPA ordinance has to get through the Land Use Committee (and get through it without a whole bunch of changes) before it can go to City Council for a vote. However, although this is a public meeting, there is not an opportunity for the public to speak except at City Council's invitation. We can still attend, though, to show our support and listen to the proceedings. If you have a green shirt, scarf, hat, etc -- wear it with pride!

----------------

Upcoming RNO Meetings

The following are a list of upcoming RNO meetings where SFD will be speaking in favor of the FPA ordinance. If you live in one of these neighborhoods and want to attend the meeting to show your support for FPAs, please let me know and I'll send you more information.

Just an additional bit of good news -- last night we spoke at the La Alma/Lincoln Park and the Stapleton United Neighbors RNO meetings. Both groups voted to issue a public letter of support to City Council in favor of the FPA ordinance!

University Park

Tuesday, March 1st (short notice, I know)

7:00

Greater Park Hill

Thursday, March 3rd

6:30

Curtis Park

Thursday, March 3rd

6:30

Concerned Citizens for Barnum

Tuesday, March 8th

6:00

(we're not actually speaking, but this is a candidate forum, and we'll get a chance to interact with CCB folks)

Berkeley Regis United Neighbors

Wednesday, March 9th

6:00

Southwest Improvement Council

Thursday, March 10th

5:30

Highland United Neighbors

Tuesday, March 15th

7:00

Congress Park Neighbors

Wednesday, March 16th

7:00

(we're not on the agenda, but we're going anyway)

-----------

Thanks,

Sundari

-- Sundari Kraft

Sustainable Food Denverwww.sustainablefooddenver.org

Join us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/dmerNi

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/EatWhereULive

Coop Cleanup and Poop for the Taking

I shoveled all of the hay and poop from the floor of the pen yesterday, filling 8 or so large yard waste bags. They're in the alley parallel to Montview and just one house south off Clermont (West side) beside our garage - please come get some for your compost. Be warned that the bags are HEAVY.

The hens loved having access to the dirt floor for a bit, and several took 'baths.' Coraline, of course, supervised the entire endeavor. They also loved scratching through the new hay - all in all, a happy experience. They rewarded me with 8 eggs yesterday, my last day of the rotation.

Lucy

warm weather behavior changes

I love the new tool rack in the coop! It's both handy and tidy. Six eggs today, although two broke on me. Egg drop soup? The warm weather seems to bring out lots of on-lookers. That part was great. Their wandering into the coop without warning made me a little nervous. I made sure parents were there supervising and talked to everybody about keeping the gate closed, and did my best to educate everybody about what we're doing. It was pretty fun. A down side to the warm weather (if there is a down side) is that the ladies do not want to go to bed. I waited until 5:30, but had things to do tonight, so I couldn't wait longer. If you can, you may want to head over at dusk, when there's enough light to see what you're doing, but the ladies have decided to go to bed on their own. Just a thought. I'm sure going to miss chicken Wednesdays for the next couple of months. If you need a fill in, give me a call. - Amy A.

equipment replaced

I went by the hardware store and got the following items:
2 trowels
1 caribiner
1 kids size hoe (which I thought might be real handy for cleaning the hen house).
and some paper lawn bags for the big cleanup.

Annie

Parsley and Sunshine

The chickens may not like cilantro, but they LOVE parsley! Red Speckles let out what sounded like a few good sneezes this morning. I didn't notice any other signs of respiratory issues, such as nasal discharge, but I thought I should make note of it just in case someone else should notice something. Five eggs today, and no desire to go back in their hen house at 5:30. I guess when the weather is warm, I should probably wait until later to put them to bed. There were also a lot more folks on the playground asking questions about our flock then I've experienced so far. I think I enjoy the warm weather energy! - Amy A.

Found Lock

Hi all,
I found an old lock that the chickens unearthed (un-hayed?) when I dropped off some scraps on Monday afternoon. Yesterday, I walked by and saw that someone had put it on the top latch where the carabiner used to be, but unlatched. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that I'm not sure it's still functional because it had a lot of crud in it, so be careful about actually locking it. I keep forgetting to bring a replacement carabiner by - Ill try to remember.
Lucy

Sundays are rough

Beautiful weather, weekend days and community chicken coops create an unexpectedly combustible combo--or at least bring out the worst in passersby. Yes, we had another incident, this time the hoe and the trowel have gone missing. Recognizing the magic that is our chicken coop, I still don't imagine that our tools are developing legs and walking off. However, it does seem weird that anyone would actually want to take a hoe and a trowel--perhaps some emergency gardening? I have no answers and alas, no trowel or hoe. I am hoping to swing by the hardware store today and do some replacing.

Only 4 eggs yesterday, although I did happen to see one being laid right in front of me! Pretty cool!

Ouch!

A few of you have noticed that some of the chickens have black on their combs. Wynn confirms that this is frostbite:

Yes, frostbite on their combs. No need to do anything, they will scab over and drop off without you noticing anything, just one day their combs will be rounder and smoother. W

photo calendar fundraiser

I took these a few weeks ago, and have a bunch more. I'm sure I'm not the only one taking their share of photos. One fundraising idea I had is to make a day planner/calendar with some of the photos. If we could get next year's DPS schedule, we could even include important school dates as well as PTA and CSC meetings. : )

Cilantro non!

Brought the ladies some kitchen scraps, including some cilantro. Like many humans, they didn't really care for the stuff. They seem to be getting accustomed to kitchen scraps in the morning. They don't even look at the chicken feed, but instead look to us when they hit the ground.

Noticed that several of the ladies have black tips on their combs...don't know if this is from pecking each other, or if it's frost bite. We might want to ask Wynn if this is typical.

The ladies were all out at 5:30 tonight, which has not been the case for the past couple of months (sun is definitely up later, and so are they). As I lifted Coraline into the roost, the pretty gray and black hen reached out and bit her hard on the comb and Coraline squawked. It actually took some pulling to get her free. Obviously some pent up aggression. With all the short days, I think the roost gets pretty small about this time of year....

It was another frosty morning! I actually got to use my de-icer for the first time on the lock to the gate. After a couple of squirts I was able to get the lock open. The chickens all had frost on their backs again just like last Wed. They have a sturdier constitution than I do. Susan Gamble was wonderful and offered to check their water mid-day for me as I was home with a sick kid. The girls looked well fed and happy at bed time and left me a total of 6 eggs today. My personal best. Amazing. Susan and I will do a deep cleaning of the hen house on the 23rd. That will leave changing out the straw on the run for the weekend crew. - Amy A.

co-op meeting

this sunday, february 13 at 6pm at the noyes' house. i am not sure they really want me posting their address on the blog, so, refer to the email i just sent out, or the membership roster for where to go.

Chicken Tales from NYC

Chickens flourish in all kinds of places, from Denver to New York City. Here's a story of a beloved chicken in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of NYC that had a little adventure at the hands of a merry prankster:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/garden/03domestic.html?_r=1

Any lessons for us here?


Oh, the ladies were fine today. We found six eggs this evening.

Can you believe it? After all of the trauma of the cold the last two days, not to mention the threats from nasty vandals, foxes and cats, these wonderful little hens laid five beautiful eggs. The blankets remain nailed to the roof and it sounds like should stay there until we're out of sub-zero temperatures. I was so relieved this morning when eight eager chickens popped out of the hen house and began gobbling up veggie scraps and chicken feed. Each little hen had a patch of frost on her back that quickly melted once in the sun. I worry about how much worse they may have fared if the blankets weren't put up. I refilled the water three times today, and it was frozen over all three times. The chickens were happily eating every time I checked on them. I imagine they're burning up a lot of calories fighting the cold weather. By bedtime they looked content and ready to roost. Good luck tomorrow - and if you need help removing blankets, let me know. - Amy A.

Shout OUT

A big shout out to Paul Means and Rob Metcalf (husband to Lucy Dwight) for going over to the coop last night in our sub-zero temperatures to nail blankets over the coop to try to keep the chickens alive, if not comfortable. When Paul came home, his hands were causing him not a small amount of pain -- I'm sure Rob was suffering the same fate.

In any event, given that the blankets are nailed to the roof, and given the forecast for today and tonight, I suggest we keep them on through tonight and then remove them tomorrow when the temperatures are supposed to rise back into the balmy 30s.

Cold!

Lucy Dwight is going over tonight to put a blanket on top of the coop for extra insulation. This is after Amy consulted with a chicken farmer/pediatric orthopedist (long story). Please remove in the morning, but we can continue to use for the next few nights until it night temps are above zero again.

Security, etc.

7 Eggs, wow! I am very sad about the vandalism, but at this time of year, and with the upcoming move, there is nothing we can do about the fence, or structure. The new/and/or refurbished coop will be more stable, permanent and secure. In the meantime, we just have to deal with problems as they occur. We are encountering issues that backyard urban farmers usually do not have to deal with, it is all a learning process, and all part of being a pilot program. Frank is going to sit in on a meeting with the DPS Learning Lanscape, landscape arch. consultants, and DUG next week. He is leaning on them all very hard to carve out some money to help with the coop relocation and renovation. But, if anyone has any fundraising ideas, bring them on!

Remember the next co-op meeting at 6pm on Feb 13, hosted by the Noyes family. Plan on a 1 hour meeting. Officer reports, coop relo info and a new rotation are all on the schedule.

And those are the cutest damn egg covers I have ever seen.

Sara

Well, that's encouraging....

Hello, everyone --

With temperatures descending below zero, to what else would my thoughts turn but chickens, of course? I realize that they are creatures of the outdoors with much tougher constitutions than my own (this despite their small stature and rather delicate appearance). And yet --I'm worried about them. So I emailed Wynn to see if she had any advice given this most recent turn for the frigid, and she had this not-so-very-encouraging reply. Take from it what you will:

Hi there - careful about the water being too warm.....try not to worry and remind yourselves that if something happens to one of them - you all are doing the right things. Some are weaker than others for routine chicken health reasons. W

What a Difference a Day Makes!

We only got two eggs today but, on the bright side, there were no vandals near the coop.  After the morning chores, I stopped by the coop again just before 11am and the water was frozen.  I was able to chip the layer of ice off the one on the 'deck' but the other waterer was frozen solid.  I brought it home and thawed it out.  I returned around 2:30pm with the thawed and refilled waterer and changed that out for the now almost frozen one on the 'deck'.  I took that one home with me and returned again at 5pm with a refilled waterer for the chickens to have a drink before going into the coop for the night.  I imagine the Tuesday family might want to do the same sort of thing tomorrow.

The chickens seemed to handle the cold pretty well and ate a lot today.  We put out some extra straw this evening in the coop and the run.

The door is pretty cantankerous with the bent latch at the top.

Susan Gamble

7 eggs and a bunch of little $@#%s!

Well, the wonderful news is 7 eggs collected on Sunday!

This was a welcome discovery after getting to the coop at dusk yesterday only to be told by a good Samaritan that a group of kids had been vandalizing the coop. Apparently, they had gotten the snow shovel and were using it to pound on the door to the coop. They bent the top lock pretty bad, to the point that I had to pound the locking device on the door with a rock to get the door to close properly. The blue caribiner was missing from the front door yesterday and this made the damage even worse. I was eventually able to get the chickens all locked up. I think with a new caribiner we should be OK and I will try to get that today.

Thanks goodness for the good Samaritan who said he scared off the group of ne'er-do-wells pretty well just minutes before I arrived. I sure wish I could have been there to read the riot act, but, with any luck, I will never have the need again!

I stowed the tools--shovel, hoe, etc--behind the hay to keep them out of idle hands.

Otherwise a beautiful chickeny day.

Hey all! I'm a little worried about the below zero temps coming up this week. Is there anything extra we can do to keep the chickens warm? Maybe a tarp over the hen house? -Amy Anderson

Check out the auction item my aunt-in-law sent...She and her husband have a yarn company and they sent a kit for hard-boiled egg covers. I think a little "bird" must have let them know about our ladies!

Chicken Karma?

It was a lovely warm day with three eggs. Brown, beige and white. It was the first day on my rotation that neither the water nor my fingers froze over. Wonderful! The hens loved the apple peels and cauliflower greens I gave them. And I notice that a fairy god chicken came by and gave them even more veggie scraps today. So they were in heaven! Thank you Fairy God Chicken!

Susan, I asked Not-Fiona why the eggs are always found on the right side. She told me that it's not because of any republican leanings. They prefer to be bipartisan and love Sen. Udall's IDEA of sitting on both sides of the aisle. It's just that the box on the right is always still warm from the previous hen nesting in it. It's much more cozy that way. ; )

As an anecdote, this chicken coop has sparked some very interesting conversations. A friend of mine was talking to her favorite barista about the deplorable conditions of commercially raised egg laying hens. He told her that it was because they had bad karma caused by their ancestor, the T-Rex. She then gave me the postcard shown above with the following message on the back. "A team of chicken scientists doing field research concerning their ancient ancestor. The focus of their research is to determine: Did T-Rex roar or sing? Possible crow?"

So Not Fiona in charge

Turns out if you wait until twilight, all the chickens are nicely in the coop with Not Fiona standing on the deck, tapping her foot, as she waits for the people to come and close the drafty door.

Four eggs, same colors as usual.  Three were in the far right nesting box, one in the box next door.  What is it that makes that side of the coop so attractive for egg laying?  Is it warmer?  Does it get more sun?  Are our chickens Republican?  There could be a science fair project here.

Susan Gamble

pretty pink eggs

If only I could paint some room the same color as these pretty pink eggs. We had two and two lovely brown ones as well. The ladies seemed eager to be out in the warm weather and really enjoyed some time in the run.

Fox Prints

A fresh layer of snow revealed fox prints inside the fence this morning. It was interesting because we could see exactly where he went and what he did. He obviously was looking for a way to get in. We could see three or four places where he poked around and dug very slightly, but nothing or any real note. Must be driving him crazy being so close to those delicious hens.

We collected one egg this morning - which was our first "morning egg" - and four this afternoon. Killian insists we eat them for dinner as soon as we get home, so we had huevos rancheros. Absolutely delicious!

Urban predators - 0 urban eggs

Either that, or the ladies are all tuckered out after laying a record 6 yesterday. As of 11:00 this am there were no eggs. And so far no eggs have been laid after 11:00 on my watch. I'll comment if I find any tonight. I did find a cat lurking about in the run this morning. I'm going to empty the trash can this evening to see if that gives the urban wildlife less reason to visit. What is the purpose of this trash can anyway? Maybe we should get a lid that latches for it. I searched the perimeter of the coop for any visible points of entry for predators. The chicken wire on both the north and south side seem pushed in a bit, but have not pulled away from the sides. I'm a little worried about cats eventually prying their way into the hen house through the ventilation screen, but it appears pretty sturdy right now.
We're out of oyster shells. I e-mailed Michele Horn, as I don't have Dave's e-mail address. The ladies devoured the apple slices I gave them this morning. And I needed to re-fill the waterer by 11:00. Man, they're thirsty chicks! I'll give the straw an extra fluffing tonight to help with the chilly temperatures we're supposed to get tonight and tomorrow.

Unremarkable Monday

We got four eggs before 11am yesterday.  The hens seem to be enjoying the warmer weather.  A lady on the playground mentioned that she had seen a fox in the run as well.

Susan Gamble

And the Blue Ribbon goes to....

Just saw this information about the Denver County Fair -- which is going to focus on urban homesteading, backyard farming, and healthy cooking -- and thought many of you might find it interesting. Check out the competitions page. Some of our birds are pretty awesome....

Fox

I was coming up Elm from 17th this morning about 8am.  I saw a fox trot across Elm and head, in business like fashion, up the steps and down the garden path to the coop.  When he elegantly leapt over the fence into the run, I sprinted up the steps, heard the chickens, and saw the fox already halfway across the field looking at me.

So, good for us, the coop itself is safe.  But, be aware that it is certainly on the map for our neighborhood wildlife.  Locks and regular 'integrity' checks are important.

Susan Gamble

Did you know that there are 250 million egg producing chickens in the US?

I got that little tid bit off of "The Natural History of The Chicken" which I watched on Netflix recently. There was little in that documentary which could be called natural, and even less that could be called historical. But it was anecdotal and showed the extremes of chicken care in the US. It made me appreciate this little Chicken coop Co-Op all the more.
On to real news. Four eggs today, 1 white and 3 brown. I think the little red hen (Not Fiona? - I really like her!) was trying to get into the nesting boxes as I was adding hay to them this morning. She kept peaking in and giving me that "Gotta go!" look along with a "bu buk?" I found 1 egg this morning and the other 3 around 10:30. Gave them apple slices which they seemed to enjoy. The water had an icy crust on it when I came at 10:30am and the hens did some complaining about it. I removed the ice and gave them fresh warm water. When I checked back at 5:00 the water dish on the pavers was crusted over again. I gave them a little bit more warm water. The water by the hen house was fine. I added more straw to the house, as it seemed a little thin. I didn't see any snow in the hen house today, but can see how easily it could blow into that large ventilation screen on the east side. I'm too short to cover it at night without a ladder. Could we build an overhang out of sheet metal to keep the wind from blowing snow in?

Straw, ventilation and tour

For now we are going with the "deep litter" method, which only requires cleaning out the coop every few months. If we rake the straw, the poop falls to the bottom, mixes with straw and naturally starts to compost. It is actually a less-smelly option than no straw on the bottom. So all continue to keep raking and adding straw as needed. We still need to scrape off the ladder, deck and if possible, the perches inside the coop, that is where they actually sleep.

Vents with doors would be a good addition to the next coop, add it to the list. For now we could cover the west facing triangle in these sub-zero and windy nights. It would need to be removed in the morning however.

I led a tour of the coop and answered questions for the group of 6th graders from the Denver Green School today. They were high energy, and had good questions. Their school actually has money set aside for a coop, what a wonderful opportunity for these urban dwelling kiddos. Advocacy and teaching is part of what Urban Hens is all about, it was great to be a part of it today.

Snow in the Coop

We got four eggs today.  The chickens all seemed well and ate the carrot scraps we brought for them.    The water on the deck was not frozen through but had a crust on it at about 4pm.  The other water was half full but frozen.  I gave them fresh warm water on the deck and took the other waterer home to thaw, wash, and dry.  When we returned 45 minutes later, about half of the water had been drunk.  So, if you have the option to give the chickens a late day water like this, it might be a good idea.  (The second waterer was returned to the storage bin.)

There was snow in the coop this morning.  I cleaned out a lot of straw trying to get it all out.  I know we need ventilation but we might want to have covered ventilation in our next coop.

A suggestion for the straw issue - we could change it on a 8 day rotation so that a different day of the week would be due for the "changing" each week.  Doesn't help with the expense but would spread the workload.

The Gambles

Straw Consensus

For now we will keep a good amount of straw in the bottom, for insulation and cushioning. When it is your day, "stir" the straw around. Take out any large clumps, but unless it gets overwhelmingly gross in there, we are going to leave it and clean at the end of each rotation. At that time we will clean the outside straw out as well. For now we are going to just throw away in the dumpsters, large amounts of straw. If you have a compost pile at home, feel free to take it with you.

Any eggs this weekend?

Sara

More hay trouble

As all of you have probably noticed, now that we have hay at the bottom of the coop, we have a bit of a poop problem. I emailed Wynn for advice, and her opinion is that we have to have something down there -- in the winter for insulation and in other times of year for cushioning when the hens jump off their little poles. This wasn't such an issue when they were younger, but as they get bigger and older, they can develop leg and foot trouble if they are jumping on a hard surface. When we build the next coop, let's keep those poles pretty close to the surface.

With hay, we need to change it out at least once a week. This isn't great news for a number of reasons. The hay costs money. We're having trouble finding a place to compost it all. And if we do it just once a week, then just one person gets stuck with the task.

Wynn says we can consider other substances. She suggested sand or sawdust or rubber mats. Here is where our coop design is problematic. It is hard to scrape the poop off the surface of whatever is down on that floor because we have to bend over and reach in (another thing to keep in mind when designing the next coop -- those pull-out drawers that Peter mentioned seem pretty nice at this point).

Anyway, decisions must be made. If you have thoughts on this issue, please comment to this post. I'll email Sara and the other board members directly so that we can get moving on solving this problem.

Stay tuned.

Amy

Can you say frittata?

The Johnson/McMahons finally have some eggs. Three beautiful eggs in the roost today and one broken one. We'll be enjoying a nice frittata tonight, thanks to our lovely ladies (and indirectly the rest of you, as well). Gave the hens some carrot and apple peelings this morning, which they enjoyed. We also put out about 5 romaine lettuce leaves, which they ate in about 60 seconds! It's a good way to see if they're all healthy...throw down some lettuce leaves and see if any of the hens doesn't show interest.

Denver Green School Tour next Tuesday

Hello all,
Next week I am giving a "tour" to some 6th graders from the Denver Green School. For those of you unfamiliar with them, here is the website: www.denvergreenschool.org
They are interested in getting a coop at their school.

Anyone who is available at 1pm on Tuesday, the 11th, please contact me if you are interested in helping.

Sara

I'm having so much fun on my first day of this rotation! I found one egg this morning waiting for me. (brown) The locks all worked, although the lock to the coop was a little sticky. I did buy de-icer for myself and bought an extra if anybody wants it. I put it in the supply box. Auto Zone on Colfax had a good supply of them. I was unable to find them at King Soopers or Walgreens. I stopped by to check water and the ladies when I picked up my daughter at 10:30 this am. They'd all but emptied the water dish on the flagstone! So I refilled that one, and then found 3 more eggs in the hen box. (1 brown, 1 light brown and 1 pinkish white) So exciting. We'll see if there are any more when we put them in for the night tonight. I showed the eggs to Mrs. Levy's kindergarton class. They were thrilled! What a fun day! - Amy Anderson

5 eggs on Monday

Susan Gamble, with no help from her husband, tended to the birds today. Five total eggs were harvested.

Of note is the bottom lock on the door - which was not cooperating (sticking) at twilight time - it was eventually persuaded but not without some whispered swearing...

Susan was a little surprised to see hay in the coop this AM - question: are we keeping straw on the ground in the coop - and how best to keep this clean?

Park (on behalf of Susan)