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Good Dogs and Up-cycling

My view from the car when we got home - Atlas sitting at the gate. Good boy, Atlas! — My view from the car when we got home – Atlas sitting at the gate. Good boy, Atlas!

As I mentioned in my previous post, we made a quick overnight trip to Atlanta for Jackson’s IronKids Alpharetta triathlon. My folks were generous enough to volunteer to get up early Saturday and Sunday to take care of chicken/dog duty for us while we were gone.

I am so excited to report that Atlas did GREAT while we were gone! As of today, he is on Day 4 of ZERO crate time. Yes, he still has moments where the flitty hens will catch his attention, but he is maturing enough to stop. He runs, but is clearly not running to chase, or more importantly, catch! It’s more like he does this bunny hop play move to entertain himself as much as anything. It is so nice to be able to relax a little about the activities in the yard during the day.

Livestock Guardian in Training - Too LGiT to Quit! — Livestock Guardian in Training – Too LGiT to Quit!

I wanted to go ahead get a post out today, as I feel very much like I am sitting in the calm before the storm. We got notification that our 6 originally scheduled chicks were shipped Monday morning. Since they didn’t come today, I expect them tomorrow. The ladies at the post office are to call me when they get there.

We are excited and anxious and nervous and really just looking forward to their arrival. BUT, after a relatively calm week, critter-wise, I do acknowledge that we are introducing yet another variable into our equation.

On the plus side, these 4-week old girls will have separate quarters for a while. The original plan was to have them in the original coop that we built. But that has pretty much been taken over by laying, and soon-to-be-laying, hens. So, we found ourselves in need of a way to keep these gals separated but still in the yard so everyone could get used to everyone else while the littles finished filling out their feathers and size.

I was planning to build a simple A-frame chicken tractor, something like this:

But, my mom remembered that my brother had a spare truck camper shell – turns out to have been from a truck that Jerry’s Uncle Don had – that would make a nice topper for a chicken run. So, we put our pens to white board and started working out how that might work. Upcycling is the in thing now, right??

Camper shell loaded and on the move to the "building site" — Camper shell loaded and on the move to the “building site”

I will tell you, I almost bailed several times during this project. What seems like a simple concept can get tricky in the implementation. In hindsight, it would have probably been simpler to go with the chicken tractor, but if we had we wouldn’t have the all-in-the-family CamperCoop™. Ultimately, we want wheels on it to be able to move it around in the yard, but for now, it just takes a few strong folks to move it around. It is designed to easily separate camper shell from base so that it can be removed from the yard and stored once the chicks are out and about. If it does become a more permanent structure in the hen yard, it definitely needs a coat of Barn Red paint in order to have it not stick out SO much like a piece of backwoods yard art. 🙂

But, it should do the job – giving these 6 chicks plenty of room to scratch around and stay safe from an overly playful livestock guardian and overly friendly (?) established flock.

Here are some pics of the CamperCoop™ project.

Jackson learned how to man the rivet gun when we installed the roof vent.

It's all in the family: Ryan and Grandpa attaching hardware cloth to the window frames — It’s all in the family: Ryan and Grandpa attaching hardware cloth to the window frames

Ta - da! Almost complete enough for the chicks to arrive. — Ta – da! Almost complete enough for the chicks to arrive.

Until the next adventure…

Caught Up… For now.

01-20140908_103826 — Growing, growing, growing…. Yes this doggie’s growing!

This has been a good week. We actually got caught up on all of our school work so that we ended the week “on schedule.” The boys worked really hard and we were able to be much more efficient since I was able to put Atlas in the crate when he would start showing too much playfulness towards his charges. It really helps with our productivity to be able to remove the distraction of having to go check on them every few minutes! As much as I truly enjoy just sitting in my chair in the yard watching these critters, there is schoolwork and housework and farmwork to be done.

By the end of the week, Atlas had earned much longer stints out of the crate and out among his birds. In fact, Friday, he only went in for a short period in the morning and then was out the WHOLE day without incident. Good boy, Atlas!

What a good dog! Out among the chickens... doing his job nicely here. — What a good dog! Out among the chickens… doing his job nicely here.

I’m typing this as we are headed down to Atlanta for Jackson to compete with his Aero Youth Triathlon Club in the IronKids Alpharetta. He has worked so hard this summer and improved so much! I am excited for him to have this opportunity. To be honest, at the beginning of the week, I wasn’t sure how we were going to do it. I am so grateful to my parents – they are going to take care of things for us as we make this super-fast trip. I just pray that Atlas will cooperate. When we left this morning, he was out and just napping while the ladies were out doing their typical scratch, scratch, peck, peck. Hopefully, the day will continue, and they won’t cause any drama for the Grands 🙂 Update: Just got a text from home… everyone is accounted for and tucked in for the night! SUCCESS!!!

I am grateful to have a flexible nature! When we initially planned this trip, I was going to leverage my homeschool flexibility and head down to Atlanta early in the week to hit some Civil War historical field trip opportunities. That, however, assumed that the new chickens weren’t going to be so “new” to Atlas and be seen as such a novelty. Once I realized there was going to be more integration training necessary I realized we’d just have to make it a quick trip. C’est la vie.

I did make an important observation about the interactions of my farm critters this week. The new hens don’t do themselves any favors. Atlas, the Livestock Guardian in Training (a.k.a puppy) likes to play. When they go flitting across the yard flapping their wings all willy-nilly, it is sort of like calling “Hey Atlas, catch us if you can!” Of course he’s going to run after them! Yes, he has to be corrected, but it is easy to see why these new birds have presented such a training opportunity. They are also loud. Lots of chattery cackling going on when they are in the yard. SO different from the other two.

Meet Lightning - Ryan's name for the other bird hurt in the initial introductory melee. Teaching Atlas that us holding the birds does not make them toys is another challenge in and of itself! — Meet Lightning – Ryan’s name for the other bird hurt in the initial introductory melee. Teaching Atlas that us holding the birds does not make them toys is another challenge in and of itself!

The old guard are very laid back and pretty quiet. Except, they (especially the red one) are definitely making it known they are higher up the pecking order. “Red” will make a beeline across the yard sometimes when the other hens are at the feeder. No drama, just when she shows up, they scatter. And, they stalk Atlas’ food dish. They both do it. When they hear the food rattle in the pan, they come just as sure as Atlas (if not more). They will pace around while he eats, and the moment he leaves they are in. I pick it up when he’s done because I think it would get expensive to feed the chickens dog food. Thanks to Elaine’s suggestion, I started feeding him at night after all the hens are up so he can eat in peace.

Boldly going where no chicken should really go.

Stalking for the good stuff... puppy kibble is wayyy better than this chicken feed she gives us! — Stalking for the good stuff… puppy kibble is wayyy better than this chicken feed she gives us!

This week will be yet another learning experience… we are expecting our original chickens – 6 4-week old juvenile birds: 3 buff orpingtons and 3 rhode island reds. They’ll be in a separate run/coop in the yard which should make it easier. “Should” being the operative word… If I’ve learned nothing else, it is that nothing ever goes as planned/expected 🙂 But, you know, life is still better when you’re up with the chickens!

Have some more pics to close out this post…

: Chickens doing what chickens do

: Ryan and his new friend Lighting

: A big dog needs a big stick

: Happy birds

: Atlas loves it when the boys come play

: Trying to work those puppy teeth out is harder than it looks

: All four of the black stars are regularly taking to the yard now

: That is no badger marking on Atlas’ back… that’s what happens when you roll in chicken poo!

Abominable Snow Dog, Chicken Hospitals, and More

Sorry for the cliff-hanger, folks! Ever since the night of the missing bird, so much has happened. Where, oh where, to begin?!

Well, I can summarize the past several days with a cartoon. Imagine my livestock guardian-in-training Atlas as the Abominable Snow Man:

I know that he’s just a puppy, and I know that he just wants to play with them. However, his play results in serious chicken damage. Besides, “George” is a crummy name for a hen.

To catch you up, the prodigal hen DID return! Wednesday morning, when I went down to feed the critters, I was SO surprised to see her down in the lower part of the yard. Turns out she was INside the yard, but before I could get to her Atlas had started chasing her up the fence line. By the time I got back in the yard I couldn’t find her. Crazy.

After more searching, it turns out she had taken refuge in the doghouse. She looked like a mere shadow at the back corner. I woke Ryan up and had him come help me since he could actually climb in the dog house.

Penelope the Prodigal Hen taking refuge in the dog house.

Got her out and separated her into a dog crate outside the yard to give her a chance to settle down and relax.

Whew!

Crisis averted. Or so I thought.

When we went out to check on the chickens at their bed time, I couldn’t find her. Finally, she was located under the dog house. (Jerry had let her back in while we were gone to my Mom’s in the afternoon thinking she looked ok.) We had to raise the dog house to get her out, and she was a mess! She had a good patch missing from her neck and her back feathers were seriously plucked.

I was in shock, and I had no idea what to do – in hindsight I should have been more prepared for chicken emergencies. So thankful for another “phone-a-friend”. Elaine talked me through it and I cleaned her up with some peroxide and got her into indoor hospital quarters in the garage. If she made it through the night, she would probably be ok.

That was a rough night. If I was struggling with my chicken-keeper credibility before, now I was really in a mess. I tried to run the next morning, but it just was a walk. I mentally couldn’t handle anything more. I had no idea whether I would go downstairs to a survivor or to having to figure out how to dispose of a dead chicken.

Well, she was alive! And when I cleaned her up I could see that she was truly healing like a champ. Amazing creatures, these!

Things get a little blurry after all the drama with Penelope (yes, in case you’re wondering, the way you get a name in this hen yard is to go through a major trauma and survive). Now we’re at Thursday I think. By the end of that day, I had one more in the infirmary – not as bad though. Just her back feathers plucked pretty good.

It turns out that Atlas was getting INTO the coop via the ramp door. We thought we had made it small enough, but clearly not. His curiosity seems to get the best of him when all of the new chickens are in there, and he goes in and drives them out. In the process of their clucking and fluttering to get away from him, his puppy play gene takes over the protector gene.

After another phone-a-friend to Heather, I decided to use the crate. When I couldn’t be down with a leash to directly supervise his time in the yard, Atlas was going to have to be in the crate. He was NOT happy about this, and when I put him in there Saturday morning he showed me that he can do an excellent imitation of a dog hung in a trap. Sorry dude, not working on me.

We are still crating for now, but he is getting some non-leash time when he can be supervised. Plus, Jerry measured his shoulders and reduced the coop door entry to the point that we are pretty sure he can’t get in now. The chickens did a double take when they got to the door, but they fit just fine.

Atlas figured out the crate is a nice place to store his bone for safe keeping.

I am looking very forward to his next little maturity spurt to match his physical growth. We are at 3 1/2 months and he is getting bigger every day!

This chicken thing is definitely turning out to be much more of a challenge than I ever dreamed. I imagine I got a little over-confident after Atlas was doing so well with the “old guard.” I underestimated the impact the new chickens would have on the dog. I was more worried about how they would interact with the other two.

As for that, imagine two cliques of high school girls that just tolerate being in the same general space. The red one from the old guard is pretty stingy about the feeder under the coop. If she is half way across the yard and notices one of the new hens eating there, she comes on a beeline up to the feeder and they run to some other place to scratch. Nothing violent, just asserting her place in the pecking order.

As we start a new week, I am hopeful that we will find a turning point so that Atlas can start having more freedom while the girls are out and about. I am grateful that the two hens seem to be well on the mend. They are very bedraggled, but they are alive. And perhaps someday they’ll give us eggs 🙂 With all of the chicken drama and a lot of extra curricular activities this past week, we struggled getting all of our school done. Grateful for the flexibility, but now it is time to start getting back on track. I am looking forward to a productive week!! Here are some more photos from the week’s adventures: