Cin & Pup Homesteading on a small scale: TGIF!

Wow! What a week! I'm so glad it is Friday and the weekend is here.

Sheldon didn't make it through the night. We found him dead this morning. Several lessons learned in the process.

Make the coop more secure.
Don't get attached to the chicks. Sheldon was the only one I was really attached to in any way and of course he is one of the ones that got attacked.
Be aware of "pets" getting too close to the coop and chickens. I had seen Topper exploring it, I should have paid attention. Now he gets sprayed with the hose whenever he comes close to it. The same goes for Havoc and Cinder. They have no business around it.

Steaks on the grill and squash fried up with onions and bacon. I lit about 6 or 7 torches for the deck to try and deter the deer flies slaughter upon my skin. It seemed to help, thank goodness. They have been sooo bad this year!

Puppy visited the Farm supply store and acquired a new feeder for the chickens. It seems like we buy one every couple of weeks. It is a learning process but I can say that we are prepared for all ages of chicks now....or should that be so far?

They were wary at first. This BR hen was pretty sure it was a monster there to wreak havoc.

Food! Well if the monster has food it can't be too bad! Food is good.

We have it hanging by a chain so that they cannot climb all in it as easily. It is about 3 inches off the ground and we might raise it a little more.

Pup and Gavin added pallets all around the lower portion of the coop to try to deter invasion/attack. It will make it a little harder for predators (Topper) to reach into the coop through the wire and grab a chick.

Pup also bought Scratch to toss in to the chicks. Scratch is cracked corn, I think. That's what it looks like anyway. They seem to love it. Also another bag of feed.

This is another view of the new pallet walls.