Spring Cleaning and An Unexpected Visitor...

FINALLY!!  Mother nature gave us milder temperatures yesterday.  What to do?  Play outside?  No...  Clean up the yard?  No...  Oh that's right....a good Spring cleaning of the old chicken coop!  After all, now that those ladies are laying eggs on a regular basis it is especially important to keep them healthy and happy. 

Now, with the enclosure finally cleared of snow, the little chickens would finally travel further than the ramp leading from the coop.  They spent the day happily picking and scratching at the mud left behind.  Laverne, Shirley and Betty even dedicated some time to picking the ice off of the chicken wire...their version of cleaning the windows I guess??

They were all quite willing to spend the day out in the enclosure until we decided it was time to give the interior of the coop a good Spring cleaning...then the all pushed and shoved at the door fighting over who was going to get in there first to see what was going on.  Luckily I managed to get my little digital camera switched to video in time to catch Jack's fancy footwork...no wonder the ladies are so impressed with him!

They love their freshly cleaned quarters so much, they actually started laying eggs this morning instead of their usual afternoon schedule.  There is no other feeling like reaching in and finding that egg so fresh that it is actually still warm!  It's going to taste mighty yummy on that freshly baked bread sitting in the kitchen.

I have always said that unexpected things happen on a farm....problem is, some of the unexpected isn't always appreciated or wanted!  As I said in an earlier post, the boys stall has flooded this spring (very unappreciated) and our poor boys have been relocated to the center open area of our barn which seems to qualify as 'higher ground'.  We have a man-door that leads directly from their stall to a covered outdoor storage area.  We had screened off this door from the outside so that we have a door we can open for ventilation but still allows us to keep the boys safe inside the barn.  Perfect for those warm rainy days.  My thought, with these warmer temps, was to open up the door in the hopes that some air flow would help dry out their stall.  That plan was cancelled due to an unexpected and very UNWANTED visitor!

VERY UNWANTED VISITOR

I was very happy for that unexpectedly flooded stall yesterday!  If it wasn't for that flood,  all that gorgeous fleece I have been waiting all winter to get my hands on would have been just inches from our stinky little visitor!  Needless to say, we took the LONG WAY around to the barn door yesterday!  We were very happy to see that the little guy had vacated this morning.