All Cooped Up

When we have a long weekend and no fun & exciting getaway plans we always end up doing the same thing. That is, we always end up getting around to the boring, yucky, no-fun tasks that get lost during the hectic weekday shuffle.

This weekend we tackled the chicken pen. And by we I mean, of course, my husband and kids. They had coop duty and I was there to document it all. You know, for posterity. And also so my hands were too full to actually help scoop chicken litter out of the boxes.


Chickens, we've found, are no more messy than any other animal you might have as a pet. But, they're no less messy either. And luckily (or not) all their mess gets concentrated in one specific spot.

On a bit of a side note, I have just one thing to say to you all: Clean your eggs.
(Okay, so the ones you buy at the store are most likely bleached and sanitized, but Lord knows I will never be able to think of eggs the same way again after seeing where some of our girls end up laying theirs.)

What does it take to keep a coop in good shape? Glad you asked.

We clean out the chicken boxes (I'll spare you a before photo) and put the litter in our compost bins to decompose into some nice healthy soil to use in our Spring garden.

We put down some fresh wheat straw in the boxes to keep the chickens warm in this super cold winter weather.


Finally, we spread the remaining hay stray all over the coop for the chickens to pick and scratch at.



All in all, it's not that bad. Kind of like cleaning a big cat box. But, actually, a bit less disgusting and perfumy smelling.

Thankfully, our ladies (and Rooster McLovin) now have one lovely freshly cleaned coop to lay all those beautiful brown eggs in. And if we're really lucky it will stay that way for at least a day or two.

That's what we tackled this week. To see what other folks around the blogosphere have been tackling visit Tackle It Tuesday over at 5 Minutes for Mom!

And just so you don't think we spend our days forcing our kids into deplorable child labor conditions, here are a couple of pics of them actually enjoying (I promise!) spending the day outside with their chickens.