Saturday we traipsed down to a farm supply store south of Seattle to buy a bale of straw plus adult chicken-sized feeders and waterers. The husband was bummed that we didn't go for the galvanized models, which would have looked cooler, that's true. But the plastic ones were much less expensive, plus I've read in a gazillion places that the plastic ones are much easier to keep clean. And clean is important.
I also bought some scratch (aka treat food for chickens), which three of the ladies are pecking at in the above photo.
We got the coop one step closer to full-time occupancy by putting another coat of paint inside the henhouse, installing the main exterior door, cutting the opening to the hen-only access door from the coop, and installing a long roost in the coop (which the girls only used briefly).
The day's highlight was when I came to check in on the chickens after moving some compost around in the front yard (the perfect antidote to a chemistry homework induced near-aneurysm, as it turned out). As I was walking toward the coop, I could here this almost ecstatic trilling sound. "What the heck?" I thought, as I crept forward.
Coco and Lady M were taking their first dust bath. The had dug a shallow hole next to the cement blocks on one side of the coop yard, and were wallowing like little feathered piglets. The hole wasn't very wide, so I swear they were half on top of each other, but boy did they look happy.
Babette busied herself picking bits of debris off her two sisters, and Miss Buttons pecked at her food and went about her chicken business like nothing special was going on.
I watched before about five minutes before getting the husband. We watched for a while more, before I bailed to resume my chem homework. He watched for several more minutes, before the two silly ladies finally got up and shook the dirt out of their feathers.
Better than television, I tell ya.
And yes, when we brought them in, they went right to sleep. They were tired!
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