We are at mid-August in New Hampshire and while we still have (sweltering and humidity-packed) summer heat, our evenings are starting to cool down.
And of course that means that we have a very big muck-out coming our way in the next few weeks.
Although we’ve been taking out the old wood chips over the summer, we’ve also been added new chips each week. This has resulted in some parts of our coop being covered in a high layer of chips. Not necessarily the worst thing in the world until they push against wires or get in between door hinges.
See the buildup? If we don’t remove that before it freezes, we’re going to have a lot of wire damage.
The first cool weekend that we have this fall (I’m guessing mid-September) we’re going to have an old-fashioned muck-out in the hen house, you know, out with the old in with the new. In preparation for winter (when we only add chips and do not remove any) we are going to take them all out and put down a fresh, clean layer on which to add.
While we’re at it, I think we’re going to border up the overhang under the coop. In hind site, although it sounded like a good idea (the chickens can get out of the rain and wind) it’s turned out to be a constant headache. Sick chickens like to crawl under there to die (and then they have to be retrieved), chickens go there to lay eggs (which we can’t find because they are so far back) and baby chicks (when we have them) hide in the back-most corners frightened of their own shadows causing someone (Trevor) to crawl under the henhouse to retrieve them one by one.
I might even start with the mucking this weekend as the weatherman tells me that the humidity might break. I could at least get some of the side yard done.
In any event, it looks like a grand-old mucking and cleaning out is in our future as we start looking to the eventual arrival of winter in New Hampshire.
Perhaps we’ll celebrate at the end of the job with a hot shower and a piece of pie. (yes, this weekend, we’ll be trying our hands at a homemade pie and I’m going to use that Vodka (?!) crust recipe that was left in the comments.)
