Cleaning The Chicken Room

The day arrived when I could no longer put off cleaning the chickens' room. I let the little hens out again:

They enjoy their time outdoors, but I can't do it on a regular basis because we have so many ravenous foxes. Also, the hens are kind of ravenous themselves, and attack my seedlings and new plants:

The flock made a break for the front of the house:

  They ran past the car:

And stopped on the lawn, where they searched for edibles:

When I thought I could trust them to stay out of the road, I went into their room and removed the feeder and waterer. This photo doesn't make it clear, but I can tell you that the crap and bedding on the floor was 8" to 24" deep. The 24" part was beneath their roosts, and it was both heavy and stinky:

Other places were more dry, but this was still an unpleasant job:

I had to shovel the poopy mix into a plastic tote and then carry it out through the pigeon room, down an aisle and dump it into the tractor bucket. By the way, the little hens have shown no interest in their xylophone since the first day:

Each time I drove a tractor bucket load out to the compost pile, I also pushed some waste hay to the pile. To my surprise, there was still ice beneath the hay:

Three of the hens got tired of being outside and came back into their room where they felt safe. They're used to me moving around, so it didn't bother them that I was still cleaning:

When I was done with the chicken room, I used a leaf rake to herd the hens back inside. This is a routine we used to follow every day, and they still remember what to do. The dogs would have loved to chase them, but the fence prevented that:

Once all the birds were back in their newly cleaned and comparatively sweet smelling room, I once again locked them safely inside - but left three windows open for ventilation:

Birds And Plants

Just when we thought spring had arrived, we got another cold spell. The fantail pigeons, though, stayed safe and warm in their room inside the barn:

The little hens, similarly, had their own room in the barn and hardly noticed the weather. I even turned on the light for them on dark, cloudy days:

There are now three Easter Egger bantams and seven Barred Rock bantams:

  The Barred Rocks are getting too old to be good egg layers, but that works out well for me as I have no use for lots of eggs:

The six little baby roses were positioned in the back room, next to a window. One of them, a variety called Watercolors Home Run, surprised me with a flower just a few days after they arrived:

 

It's a pretty, pastel color mix and apparently a highly floriferous variety. I'm already pleased with it:

The hardening off process has begun. On mild days, I put the little roses outside to become accustomed to our weather. After all, they surely were grown in a greenhouse:

The Day Lilies are emerging. Now I need to do some weeding:

And the old fashioned Iris are coming up. The big, modern Iris on the other side of the house have not yet emerged:

I let the little hens out for a day and they explored everywhere:

They pecked and scratched. They clucked and ran and flapped their wings. They lay on their sides and basked in the sun. A couple of them fought like roosters until I broke it up. Spring is arriving: