Alaskan's Journal

[Finnie]

Also... yep... still lots of rain.

Oh! On the livestock front....

The "infant" ducks are now.... packed like sardines in that white tractor.... something about them continuing to grow.....

Anyway... with the weather being nasty daily .... letting them out daily was no longer happening... and they were way too cramped.

So this afternoon I had the boys help me finish up enough of the chicken coop complex to put the ducklings in there, in the shed part.

The shed connects to the coop part, but the coop floor is too high for the muscovy to hop up into from the shed. I have a ramp to put there for the ducks, but the shed is 16x8 so big enough for now, and the infants do not yet know how to use a ramp.

Tonight ducklings are in the shed only area..... chickens are in the greenhouse area only.... they can see each other through a wire door. Ducklings now have lots of space, but zero outside time... chickens are WAY too packed in the greenhouse (they keep growing too... yeah...)

I am thinking.... keep ducklings only in shed until .... maybe Saturday I will open the pop door into the little and/or big run. We shall see how they do with the area.

On Tuesday.... I am thinking about putting old ducks in the shed as well, and all chickens, the young ones from the greenhouse and the 5 old girls that are now in the pond coop. Or... maybe that is too much chaos. Usually chaos means picking/bullying isn't too bad.

I have time on Tuesday to sit on a chair and watch them....

The thought is... youngest ducklings are the ones most likely to get picked on.... so I want them to get the lay of the land first....

Then on Tuesday when I put in older ducks AND 5 old hens from the pond coop, AND take down the wire door to the green house.... it will be enough confusion that there will be minimal fighting....


But.... I might just put the 5 old hens and older ducks in on Tuesday.... and keep pop doors closed..... for 1 or 2 more days...

Then open pop doors..... wait 2 more days... make sure everyone has figured out leaving and returning at night....


And then very last take down the wire door to the greenhouse, and let the hoard of young chickens in.


Hummmmm.


With the rain and temps in the 40s... if and poultry get confused and stay in the runs... I worry that they will get chilled.


Whatever.... too many thoughts... I will figure out out later...

Tuesday is the next day I have free to sit all day in the coop.

Also, it doesn't help that I decide this stuff, and then totally change my mind!

This is how all my poultry decisions go too.

My notebook with all my plans worked out in it has many pages with “this will not work, re do” written across the top.

 

[Alaskan]

This is how all my poultry decisions go too.

My notebook with all my plans worked out in it has many pages with “this will not work, re do” written across the top.

Yes!!

 

[Alaskan]

So.... I did NOT move old hens yesterday...

I was emotionally wiped yesterday... and lots of rain... so that day was skipped.

I was thinking I would try today.

Anyway... remember how I was thinking of setting up the coop complex with low area for ducks, high for chickens....

This morning I walked in.... and on the HIGHEST perch... 3 muscovy girls are sitting and looking at me.



Yes, I know they are flying and perching ducks... but i have never had them perch that high before.

Wondering how this will upset my plans....

 

[Alaskan]

Finished up coop....

Put the 5 old hens in with all the ducks.

I put the hens in the red coop part... where ducks haven't yet gone....

The hens have one full length poop shelf with tray filled with wood chips, and a full length perch... I put a bit of lumber in there with some crumbles sprinkled on top.

A few feet away from that poop shelf is a plywood shelf on which I put a feeder and a water pan.

Hopefully that will work.


Also... we finished up the big run, I put 2 small water pans and then also a large shallow water trough for the ducks to bathe, and to get the duck waterers out of the shed.

I have seen the ducks go in and out of the big run, haven't yet seen them on their pond.

The hens were looking through the window screen into the big run.....

If I took that screen out so that they could go into the run... I wonder if they would figure out how to come back in.

 

[Alaskan]

A bunch of photos... I really should have scribbled all over them to make it clear as to what is what.

So... inside the shed part of the coop complex, looking North

Lower "play tray" (poop shelf without a perch) where I hung a feeder at middle and left. Nest is at the right end tucked under the higher poop shelf with perch. I have a bunch of hay up there, just for the chicken hoard to play with when I finally let them in. I lined the play tray with hay. The higher poop shelf is lined with feed bags, the hay stuffed behind the perch is just.... there...

Further away shot of the same area. On this photo you can see 2 little suspended nest boxes on the right. Suspended from the higher poop shelf. Only Leghorns and similarly acrobatic hens use those. I have more hay stashed on the left end of the play tray... which is now a feeding station. Those 2 red things are feed scoops (folger plastic cans). The ramp there goes up into the red coop. The pop door kind of hidden under the play tray and by a random stump, goes out to the large run.

Still in the shed part, but now looking south to the greenhouse.

On the left corner of the photo you can see a bit of those 2 small suspended nests. I put that large dog crate in there as a duck nest, sleeping box, bedded with hay... BUT...with using hay it really needs to be cleaned out daily ... which i am not going to do.... not sure yet how to get around that...

I think I have to eat some ducks!! But... I want to wait another month at least... get some more size on them. And yes, I will keep enough to breed... but right now I have 15!!! Way too many to overwinter, and WAY too much poop and feed.

Ah, the garbage can on the right holds oyster shell and empty feed bags. It has a plywood sheet on top as a bit of poop shelf and landing pad for the perch that is right above that. Highest perch, it runs edge to edge(left to right, east to west, 8 feet long)... not in photo. Behind the garbage can is the pop door to the little run.

Little run. It is tucked in between greenhouse to the right/south, shed in middle, and red coop left/north. These are the older ducks. 5, but in this photo you can only see 4.

And... the larger run, newly expanded to be way bigger than before, and even bigger would have been better... but I couldn't figure out how to safely include the spruce in the run.
This is the younger set of ducks, 10 of them.

I put the trashcan feeder (full sized trashcan with 6 pipe ports) into the greenhouse with the young chickens. As soon as the young chickens are properly using it... I will take down the chicken wire that is blocking off the greenhouse.

Might do that tomorrow.

Except... the 5 old hens are spending most of their time on their poop shelf (about 7.5 x 2 ), and I need them more comfortable in the space first... before I let in the hoard.

North side of the red coop (painted red on the outside). That little window looks into the big run. I put their water dish on the poop tray with them... since it didn't look like they were moving. There is a feed bowl on there too, far left and not in the photo.

The shelf i set up for them. So, south side of red coop. A short hop from the poop shelf the old hens are all sitting on. I have a feeder there... I sprinkled feed on the plywood... their water had been there... but nope, they haven't wanted to explore. The hen in the center of the photo, I picked up from the poop shelf and put on that feeding shelf... she jumped right down...

She is looking into the shed area.
She, and the young red hen that jumped down to follow her...walked around, looked at everything, then went back to the poopshelf!

Anyway.. the feeding plywood on the right is supported by a bookcase that has been made into 2 nests. I left an area behind it for another larger, maybe duck nest, on the ground.

On the plywood floor I tossed dirt. The nest boxes have hay... on the poop shelf in the red coop I put wood chips.

 

[Alaskan]

Oh... the feeding bag in the last photo is stapled to the wall to cover up the old pop door that used to be there, and that went into the small run.

 

[Finnie]

Silly chickens! I’m sure they will come down eventually.

 

[Alaskan]

The 5 old girls are still on that poop shelf!!!!

They are not yet exploring!

 

[Alaskan]

Ok.... Friday afternoon the 5 old hens and out into the big run...

But then they went back to their poop shelf!!!

I have THREE elevated/up on trays chicken feeders...

But they only touch the crock of feed on their poop shelf.

They haven't touched the shelf with a bunch of hay to play with.....

And except for the one time I saw them outside.... they are still on that one singular poop shelf.


:lol

If this keeps up... should I move them, on the middle of the night, to a different poopshelf?

 

[Alaskan]

Also... the geese are eating maybe 1/2 a bag of feed a day.

I am letting them out every single day....

But... I want to wait another month before I start to eat them.