COOP Thoughts And More Quick Fix Engineering

You could almost hear the chicken equivalent of a sigh this week as the grass came in fully and I now can move the tractor to a fresh patch every other day. We can tell the difference in the eggs. The yokes are back to their deep yellow-orange color from the added carotenoid content.

Another smoldering issue we've been dealing with started last summer. One of the hens insists on sitting in her nesting box at some point during the night and filling it with crap. At first this was just an annoyance as we could shake out the nest pad in the morning before they lay. But now it seems that at least two others are doing it too. The odd thing is that they don't seem to stay in there all night long because we can hear them jump down from the roost pole when we let them out in the mornings. This doesn't seem to be tied in with broodiness either as they don't linger on the eggs once they lay. More QFE to the rescue. We now slip in a blocker panel in the evening before they go in. This keeps them out of the boxes at night. It is much easier to go out in the morning and take this panel out than having to shake pads and play with poop first thing in the morning.

And speaking of nest pads, those commercial grade pads we got in last month are really working well. Much better than the homemade variety.