Cleaning houses...

 It was a perfectly beautiful day today. The temperature was in the low 40's and the sun was bright. I was able to do my chores wearing a fleece shirt, no jacket or hat required. What a treat!  We are expecting more winter-like weather in the next few days, so I took advantage of the gift today was and cleaned ALL the animal  houses. They don't usually get done all at once. Some get messy faster than others. The donkey dorm requires the most frequent cleaning, spot cleaning every day and a full strip down every few days, followed by the goat cozy, about once every week or two, depending on the weather. If they spend lots of time outside, the cozy stays pretty tidy. The big chicken coop needs to be cleaned about once a month. The small coop for the Silky chickens can go 6 weeks or so, because there only 5 little birds in there, and they don't make much mess. The duck hut stays fairly clean, because they are only in there at night. When I do a "big clean" in there I rake out all the shavings, and put an entire bale of fresh in. Since it's not a very large area, this makes for bedding about 8 inches deep. I can rake the top layer every few weeks, removing all the wet and soiled bits, and just add a little fresh in the space where they sleep. It only needs a major overhaul every 5 weeks or so.

 But because today was so fine, I started with the messiest spot (donkeys!) and then worked my way to the least dirty, which today was the big chicken coop. I almost didn't clean the big coop, it wasn't really terribly soiled,but I know from experience that it can go from "not bad," to "YUCK!" in a very short period of time.

 I let the goats and donkeys into the back yard while I cleaned their space. I gave them a flake of hay there, and they were excited to explore the yard they don't get to very often. It's MUCH easier for me to clean their shed when they are not investigating every forkful of bedding I move. I filled up their salt and mineral feeders while I was at it. When I opened the gate from the back yard to the pasture they all hustled to see what I had done.They partook of the salt and minerals happily, then the goats promptly tucked in for a rest on the clean bedding, letting the sun stream down on them.

 The Silky coop was next. 3 of these birds are quite elderly. I am not sure exactly how old they are, they were given to me 6 or more years ago, and they were not young then. They've stopped having much desire to leave the coop, even on nice days, and one is losing weight and acting odd. I made a point to pick her up and check her over today. Her beak was overgrown, which can make it difficult to eat, so I hustled her into the grooming room and gave it a trim.

 She wasn't impressed by the process, but hopefully the end result will be beneficial. A few snips with a sharp nail trimmer does the trick. I dished her up some soft food treats to try to entice her to eat more, and tucked her back into her freshened up space.

While I was tidying this coop, I found some eggs in the nest box. I had not checked for a while, because the Silky's don't lay often, and rarely in winter. Their eggs are small, anyway, but there was this wee tiny one. Isn't is cute? 

Next on the list was the duck house. It's a bit of a challenge to clean, because I have to bend deeply over to get in there and clean all the far back area. I have a dandy little child sized rake that is perfect to move the old shavings towards the door where I can scoop them out and haul them off. The ducks are always perplexed to see me there, and hustle away, making loud commentary. They keep themselves scarce until I am done, then waddle back to investigate my handiwork. I am pretty sure they find it lacking.

Last was the big coop. The birds here are not quite 4 months old, still babies, really, but getting big. Last week they still made the "peep, peep" sound little chicks make. This week they have switched to a more adult "cluck, cluck." I only ordered one rooster, but got two. They are developing lovely plume tails, and full combs and wattles. I had named one "Randy Roo," but need to come up with a name for the second one. I am thinking "Randy, II,"

 because I can't really tell them apart. All the chickens are the same breed, White Rocks, and look remarkably alike. There is one very tiny pullet, which I have named "Dove." With this group, if you are not a rooster or tiny, you are all dubbed, "Henrietta." I am particularly fond of this flock. I have been wondering why. Today it occurred to me that part of their appeal is that they make lots of prolonged, intense, eye contact. I find that charming.

While I was shoveling, one bird launched off the roost and landed on my shoulder. She stayed a few minutes before relocating to a more stationary spot. Bravo supervised my cleaning.

After I swept out the last of the soiled shavings, a bale of clean, fresh ones went down. It makes the coop smell so nice.

Although this new laying flock is all white, their feather patterns are lovely if you take time to look.

I sat on the picnic table for a few moments after finishing up all the tidying, admiring the day and the critters.

And some of them admired me back.

It makes me feel very good to know that with weather coming, the animals will have dry, fresh bedding to snuggle into.I love days like this.