No rain today meant I could do a little more on the coop tonight after work! Yay - trench digging! Seriously - the things that make my day are starting to scare me :)
The plan calls for either a 12 inch deep trench to bury the hardware cloth OR "burying" 12 inches of hardware cloth on the surface by bending it away from the coop at ground level - to help keep out predators. I chose the trench option, but I didn't dig down 12 full inches - more like 6 and I will bend the hardware cloth so it goes out across the bottom of the trench too. Hopefully this works OK. I don't really have the right equipment for digging a 12 inch deep trench. I may look into a post hole digger tomorrow, or I may call it good and start putting on the wire tomorrow night.
I was also able to get dirt into the last bed I put in - I planted some of the overage red peppers in one end and Yukon gold potatoes in the other end. I think I am going to try to add some blackberries along the fence in front later this summer, but it depends how far I can stretch the garden funds :)
The chicks are really amazing me - they grow soooo fast. They are starting to get feathers on their backs and breasts now in addition to their tails and wings. They also eat like machines. I filled the quart jar of food for them last night before I went to bed and before I left for work this morning I had to fill it again - it was nearly empty. By the time I got home tonight it is nearly empty again! I clearly need to get a feeder that holds more than a quart! They still don't really 
seem to be bonding to us - I am afraid they think Oliver, our cat, is their mother! He sits by the brooder all day and watches the chicks so they are used to him standing guard. I guess that is OK - they know we bring food, I am not sure "lap chickens" are really what we want anyway. I am starting to think Pouf (behind Cadbury in this picture) may be a rooster - how funny would it be to have a rooster named Pouf! :)
seem to be bonding to us - I am afraid they think Oliver, our cat, is their mother! He sits by the brooder all day and watches the chicks so they are used to him standing guard. I guess that is OK - they know we bring food, I am not sure "lap chickens" are really what we want anyway. I am starting to think Pouf (behind Cadbury in this picture) may be a rooster - how funny would it be to have a rooster named Pouf! :)
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A friend of mine who's a professional dog trainer recalled having seen chickens that were trained with 'clicker training'; which is positive reinforcement using a 'click' sound to mark when the animal has done well, and to bridge the time it takes to put food in their mouth. You might want to try looking it up?
ReplyDeleteWorth trying! The only challenge is that once you pick them up they are too nervous to take the treat form you - even if they were eating it jsut before being picked up. Maybe if we clicked before putting them back down?
ReplyDelete