Tuesday, January 13, 2009

A Postaholic Today?

I don't know whats up with me today...but I just seem to be a little chatterbox! I will just go with it, because there are days I don't have a thing to say and pull back into my shell for a while. I think it is just the anticipation of shows, it makes me giddy. ;)

This afternoon after I got everyone taken care of outside I set to cleaning out Bonnie and Clydes abandoned house. This is on the screened in porch. I have a bad habit of leaving things like this if not in use and cleaning them only when I need to use them again.

First thing to do was take the plexiglass guards off and get to scooping out the old shavings....

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You can see why I have to take the plexiglass guards off...shavings get trapped in between the chicken wire and the guards.

Next we have some places where the shavings collected in a damp spot and got stuck..this happens when they scratch around and expose the floor...and then promptly poo in that area...then go to scratching again and it gets covered up and hidden, which dries to the consistancy of CEMENT.
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So I take a flat head screwdriver and scrape it all off the floor of the house...cause thats what screwdrivers are used for right? It has many many uses! ;) After scraping and spraying with 409 and a wire bristled brush...I got most of it...as you can see below. Next I sprayed every nook and cranny with Frontline spray, just to be sure no mites would stow away and then get on my birds later, or if there were some already stowed away, in hiding, lurking, waiting for some birds to be put in...either way, they are dead meat now.

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Next I put in a perch, fresh shavings, a platform raised on bricks for their food bowl and waterer, put the plexiglass guards back on, covered the pen with a fleece blanket to keep out the wind and cold...and last but not least I put my two girls in there. After their bath tomorrow they will have an indoor facility to stay in where it is warm until after the show...then they will go back out to the house shown here until February 7th and 21st for those shows. Hopefully I can keep them clean and won't need to rebathe them.

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Here they are above checking out their new digs


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How about that CLOSE UP!!! ;)

Night night girls, sleep well...

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The one at the far end is not dying...lol...she is looking around. All those feathers make it hard to look around...so she turned her head upside down. If they are perching I see them do that a lot.

7 comments:

Paula said...

She is really interested in whatever she is looking at. She is beautiful. Wouldn't a putty knife work better for that scraping? Wider you know. I used them to scrape the grease from under the burners of cook stoves in rent houses.

Janie said...

That is too funny how she is looking down! lol Man! You do stay busy!! Have a great week. Janie

Helen said...

I was wondering why she has her head hanging down like that LOL. You do take good care of your chicks. Helen

peggy said...

I didn't know they did that...I am learning so much from your blog, maybe someday I will have chickens, it may be a "sign". You work really hard for them. Have a good week.

Anonymous said...

Kelly, when you do a job you do it right. That coop looks clean and great to me. Those birds better enjoy it and show good at the show. Bill

breakaway said...

OH my I SO want some of those colored polish! I just need hubby to make me another coop just for them! LOL Mine do that when they are sleeping LOL

Lisa said...

I love your pics, they are such beautiful chickens!

A gas grill cleaner works great for cleaning out pens. I have one with a scraper, a brillo pad type thingy on it and little hooky things on the ends which I guess you would use to pick up the grill.

A screwdriver is good too but Doug would kill me if I touched one of his precious tools let alone used it for poop!!! ;)
xxx