The Bovine Bugle

Shaking things up in the chicken coop

Noah and Justin get to work shoveling the coop.

An unusually warm February day and a broken water main in town proved the perfect combination to get Justin and Noah to help Karen and me clean out the chicken coop. The coop housing the younger hens was in dire need of cleaning. Temperatures today reached a record high in Burlington, and in Franklin a broken water main closed school at noon sending Justin home and cancelling Noah's afternoon kindergarten. The boys were just "thrilled" to hear what they were going to get to do.

The chickens keep a close eye on Noah's work.

The hens refused to wait outside in the snow-covered yard while we cleaned their coop, so they flew and cackled around the inside of the house while we worked. A few flew up into the rafters and kept a watchful eye on our progress. The boys and I had the coop cleaned out in about 15 minutes, and Karen hauled over some fresh sawdust to put down on the floor. One brave hen finally hopped down to check out the cleaning job, and to see how we had rearranged the grain feeder.

With the job done, Justin put away the shovels and broom while I dumped the bucketload of sawdust and chicken manure on one of the compost windrows. The boys then went off exploring in the woods behind the house while I sharpened a chainsaw to use later cutting a load of firewood.

Justin expresses his opinion of the task he was given on a day off of school.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Posted by Blogger Chris at February 9, 2005 04:00 PM