8.29.2004
Chicken House Improvements
We've got chickens aplenty. These birds are persnickety. I've had my fill of birds lighting on top of the nesting boxes and pooping. It smells (rank ammonia, friends)! So I resolved to move the roosting rails away from the boxes. In the waning light of day, I did.
My mental plan unfolded like a well-orchestrated symphony. Never mind that I had no level, plumb bob, or square. I got the job done in the nick of sun-set. Two, eight-foot rails at sixteen inches on center. You'd think that was sufficiently grand and plenty for a big old Rhode Island red Rooster, a white Amish hen, three juvenile Buff Orpingtons, and five young Aricana chicks.
The Rhode Island rooster and white hen rule the roost. It's geometric. They commanded 80% of the space. The other eight chickens bunched hard together. I stood in the gathering gloom and stopped a couple of young mavericks, who thought it best to jump to the top of the nesting box (where they could defacate, of course). Gently, I put them back on the weathered rails (gotten from an old chicken house). As the darkness had fallen, they stayed put.
My mental plan unfolded like a well-orchestrated symphony. Never mind that I had no level, plumb bob, or square. I got the job done in the nick of sun-set. Two, eight-foot rails at sixteen inches on center. You'd think that was sufficiently grand and plenty for a big old Rhode Island red Rooster, a white Amish hen, three juvenile Buff Orpingtons, and five young Aricana chicks.
The Rhode Island rooster and white hen rule the roost. It's geometric. They commanded 80% of the space. The other eight chickens bunched hard together. I stood in the gathering gloom and stopped a couple of young mavericks, who thought it best to jump to the top of the nesting box (where they could defacate, of course). Gently, I put them back on the weathered rails (gotten from an old chicken house). As the darkness had fallen, they stayed put.
// posted by HunterByrd @ 6:52 PM 
