Clean coop

We started the day off by de-lousing the chickens one by one. We had found poultry lice on one of them the other night and found more with lice today. Yumm! We dusted them and put them out in the run for the day. With the coop empty we cleaned the entire thing. Took out all the straw, raked and swept, cleaned and bleached the nest boxes, cleaned and bleached the perches, and hosed the whole thing out. I'm waiting for it to dry.






The chickens later escaped their coop and were playing on the tractor and waiting for new straw. Luna helped by chasing chickens. If the chickens keep escaping it won't be long before one of them gets eaten. That will be bad.

We also have one hen with a respiratory problem. We hate to dose the whole flock with anti-biotics just for one hen, but on the other hand we'd hate to have more chickens get sick. I guess we'll wait for a couple of days.

I'm exhausted. The coop cleaning has taken all day. I can't wait to get in the shower and go visit with some friends tonight.

Later, when I was taking Luna for a walk, she flushed a rabbit. She was right on it. She went right to where it was and went after it. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance for a shot. It was good to see her use her hunting instincts on something besides our chickens.

After working as a teacher and sitting on my behind during the week it is therapeutic to work with my hands on the weekends. Tomorrow is the big barn cleaning extravaganza! We will be having several friends over to help shovel manure and pitch old hay. Then we'll be serving a full on farm style afternoon dinner. Hard work, but hopefully fun too.