...cleaning up the brooder.
Ducks shit more than any other animal on the face of the planet. Thus, the pea gravel had become poop gravel.
My poor chickens were having to live in it and I was having to smell it. I put it off last night because I was too tired to finish the job and I knew if I cleaned the poop there would just be more poop the next day. Boy was I right.
But today I rolled up my sleeves and set to work. I scooped out alllllllll the pea gravel, rinsed it off and put it into a trashbag. We can use it somewhere else. I poured a new bag into the duck brooder because for them I think it is the best litter. Then I gave them food and water and put them in their brand new brooder.
They were thrilled. Wouldn't you be?
They had the cleanest brooder of them all plus fresh water and food, and perhaps not a ton of space, but probably the same as they had if you count all the chickens that were in there with them.
But they weren't happy...
They were upset and didn't stop shrieking for a good 30 minutes. And almost immediately they pooped three times. Then they huddled in the corner and Sweet Lucy got stuck behind the water dispenser with Howard smooshed up against her.
You'd think I was trying to kill them. But I wasn't. Yet.
In the tween chicken brooder, the sand turned into cement, so that's just there forever unless we can chip it out someday. And there was water in the crevices from the ducks.
I decided to put pine shavings in there instead of putting the rocks back in, because I figure the shavings can absorb the water and next time I change it out maybe things will be back on track. The chickens are much neater than ducks... there are some shavings in the water, but the water isn't everywhere and the feed isn't everywhere and I don't see poop everywhere. The Queen is pleased.
The baby chicks are easy. I changed the shelf liner, and done. Next time I'll switch to pine shavings, but they're still so little they think everything is food. And it helps me see their poop, which is not something I normally aspire to see (especially as much I've seen lately), but it lets me know if anyone is having issues. That, and inspecting their vents... had one little guy with pasty butt. Wet q-tip to the rescue!
And this little guy is so stinkin' cute! He was the last chick we took in. He's so sure footed now, toddling around with his buddies.
I also put the eggs in the brooder. Still working the humidity out, but the temp is good and humidity doesn't matter so much at the very beginning. The green eggs are Ameraucanas or Easter Eggers, the big brown eggs are Australorps, and the tiny white egg is my Sebright.
By the time I finished all that, the ducks had produced three more splats of poop.
#*@%^!!!!
Among other accomplishments, I unclogged the bathroom drain and created three more postcards.
So now I'm sitting on my royal butt and watching crap tv instead of cleaning crap... Nice change.
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