Cleaning the Hen House

On yet another grey day in a long series of grey days, we seemed to get our energy back. Laurie and Dennis decided to clean out the hen house. This is a recurring task and not a pleasant one. Face masks are required because of flying dust.

Their first step was to lure all the hens out of their house and close their little access door. Then they carried the waterer and feeders outside. Next, they used putty knives to scrape droppings off the roost and the tops of nest boxes, which are favored by certain nonconformist hens. I did not get there in time to photograph these phases, but we can be sure the chips were flying.

Next, a division of labor left the sweeping to Laurie…

and the scooping to Dennis. Here he is tossing a scoopful into the bed of Laurie’s truck.

This dirty task is not without rewards. Not only is there the satisfaction of spreading fresh straw on the hen house floor and in the nest boxes, there are the treasured cleanings, which Laurie will spread on her raised beds. (There it is again: Waste Not.)

This is a rich mix of straw, feathers (the old hens have been molting), and chicken poop, a rich source of nitrogen. By spring this mix will have turned into brown gold, enriching the soil and improving its tilth.

Margaret, our tamest hen, supervised the whole process. Margaret is looking fine in her outfit of new feathers. She has just finished growing them after a rather humiliating nakedness. You can see one of her feathers in the cleanings, along with many from the five Barred Rocks, who are molting now.

I, too, had more energy today. (A person can mope about grey, gloomy days only so long!) I had a pleasant task in the kitchen, baking oatmeal-apricot-date-almond cookies. The reward from that task is pretty good, too.

Copyright 2014 by Shirley Domer