DH still has things to do/needed to finish the shop as far as shelving and cabinets storage. Needed so he can start emptying these bins! Originally his plan was for these nice aluminum shop cabinets. They are quality and they are pricey.....but, as we are out in his shop yesterday and he's trying to show me what he wants and where to put the 3 cabinets above his work bench, I'm like you know....with all this wood you did with this loft that is above where your cabinets will be I don't think the aluminum kind will look very good. I think wood cabinets would look much better (and I'm thinking they probably cost similar anyway). He was really leaning towards agreeing with me and then when we started pricing those out, much cheaper - by like half! So, of course I'm trying to steer him in that direction and make him think it's his idea LOL.
This morning he's still leaning towards the wood cabinets, so we have decided to order a couple of sample doors from an RTA cabinet company so we can see the 2 dark brown finishes. They charge for the sample doors, but say refunded upon return. Kind of strange though that both of these are their "shaker" style doors and one sample door is like $20 and the other is $25, but the cheaper door sample is more expensive than the higher priced sample. He's giving me more of a headache than I already have trying to decide! I thought we were good now, waiting to see the 2 samples, but then he just realized these sale prices end today. Sigh..........
This morning I noticed one of my chickens has a bunch of feathers missing! On both sides below her wings and a bit on her chest and top of back. Eek! I've never seen another hen (or any of them) pecking at each other. My half sister (who has a whole bunch of chickens) says it sounds like she is getting broody and she says they will pull out their feathers to make a nest. About 3 or 4 evenings ago I went out to the coop to make a last check (make sure there wasn't another egg). It was dark and they were all up on the roost, like usual, except this chicken. She was in the nesting box. Plus twice this week when I was looking in the nesting boxes (there are 2 of them) there was poop in them. There has never been poop inside the nesting boxes before. My sis, via texting, is assuring me it's just her trying to go broody. I hope that's all it is and not something wrong with her that I don't know about or am not taking care of. I'm sure I'll get a bunch of other opinions and if I text my friend in town, I'm sure she'll give me a different opinion too, LOL. We also discussed dust baths and I just realized they haven't been able to do that last couple of weeks as the ground is frozen. The past few days warmed up and I see they dug a dust bath hole but I should figure out some way for them to do their dust baths when it's so frozen out. My sis says she puts like wood ash in a cat litter box. I don't have any ashes, but will have to figure out something to use that doesn't freeze on them.
My uncle called last night. I guess my mom told him she was worried the Russians were going to hack into her bank account. He said he assured her not to worry. She's never mention anything like that to me before.
TGIF. Trying to get motivated to finish working today, LOL. Then only 2 more days of work and don't go back until Jan 4th. I can do it!
Chickens do lose feathers when the molt. But, it does sound like she is broody. If you keep taking eggs from her, she will give up.
ReplyDeleteGet a Rubbermaid bin that is not too tall and put dirt in it and keep it out of the rain. They will like it.
Make sure the whole cabinet is wood, not pressed wood! I looked at doors and they made the rest of the cabinet from pressed wood.
I thought I recall reading they don't first start molting until they are about 18 mos old and these hens are only about 9 months. Hopefully it's just broody and she will give up soon. If I put dirt in a bin, I'm still worried the dirt will freeze hard, just like the ground does. The cabinets we are looking at are solid wood. We definitely want them to be sturdy and solid
DeleteI thought you were going to put it in their house. I have little to no experience about molting since mine never did that I could tell. When they were older, they might have one feather hanging. Nothing was ever on the ground. I looked hard for molting but never saw it. Sand works for bathing.
DeleteI was thinking of the box of dirt/sand in their coop area where they walk around and it would freeze. I didn't think about putting the box up inside where they roost/lay eggs. That would probably work (other than the mess of them flinging dirt around LOL)
DeleteMy grandfather had chickens. When one of them went broody, he bought fertile hatching turkey eggs for her. Then the chicken became a mom to 2 or 3 poults. It was a fun experience growing up.
ReplyDeleteI don't want anymore birds, haha!
DeleteOh your poor mom - now it's the Russians!
ReplyDeleteI think when uncle talks to her it's early evening and she's just watched the news LOL
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