Getting the Flock Out

The week has finally arrived. This is the week that the foster flockers will go to their forever home at their Feather Father's house in the country. They've grown so much in even the past week; gaining all of their first feathers and losing the last of their down. The heat lamp that provided warmth and security to the little flockers for the first 5 weeks of their lives has been turned off for the past week and a half and they now go to sleep and awake with the setting and rising of the sun-- being helped somewhat by a blanket draped over their Clucker Crib to help block the noise and light that their Foster Mama and other house residents make into the hours of the night that ordinary birds are usually snuggled deep asleep.

Gone are the nights where peeping woke all of us at 2:30am and hushes were uttered (well, perhaps it was a little stronger than that) for the birds to settle down and rest. The Clucker Crib was a big adjustment to the birds just a few short weeks ago and now they've mostly taken up the space in the medium sized dog kennel-- constantly tipping over their waterer and soaking pine shavings that have to be changed out almost daily now so that they aren't standing in damp bedding. They are incredibly voracious eaters-- needing to have their pint jar feeder filled twice a day. They are growing up and the time has come for them to move on.

I've always looked at people who foster dogs and cats with awe how they are able to raise an animal and then let it go, seemingly without any tears or worry to a great new home. I've always avoided fostering-- fearing getting too close and wanting to keep the animal permanently. I'm learning that my fears were founded with this little flocker crew. It's going to be difficult to rise in the morning to not uncover the Clucker Crib and change the water and fill the feeder. I'm going to miss the little trills that the flockers make each day and their little personalities that are starting to show through even more now that they're moving from teenage flockers to young adult cluckers. It is three days from now that they go to their forever home and I have a feeling this is going to be difficult.

To keep my mind focused on other things than the departure of the feathered crew, I've started another building project, the Koop 2.0 or "Mini Koop" as I like to call it. I am still waiting on my two lavender orpingtons to arrive from the hatchery so I thought I would start to build a little home for these little ones before they arrived so that I won't have the stress of introducing very young birds to my established adult cluckers. I thought this build should be easier since it will be much smaller than my Taj MaCoop and instead of a peaked roof, this one has a slanted covering. Easy. Right? Uh, not so much.


Supporting posts on Koop 2.0

If you've read any of my other blogs, you know that I'm not comfortable with measuring and measurements. I have no idea what the problem is and why I can't seem to get it right, but this time-- I measured three times when I was building the roof for this Mini Koop. I put the boards into place to fit around the supporting post 2x4's and then lifted the finished roof frame to set it on top. Yeah, it didn't work at all! The first set of boards fit perfectly around the first set of supporting posts, but the second and subsequently the third were WAY off. Double cluck!

Needless to say, trying to finish fitting the roof frame required unscrewing the boards that I had worked so hard to set into place and re-setting them-- note to any potential diy coop builders out there, always use screws because they're easy to re-set when you make a goof! I did finally manage to get the roof on the supporting posts and the covering over the roof frame with the whole thing painted with primer/sealer before this next set of three rainy days. Three rainy days that give me more time to think about sending away the foster flockers.

I don't know if I'll cry when the little ones leave on Saturday, probably, dance with joy that I won't have to clean up bedding messes and the dust level won't have to be controlled on an hourly basis, also probably. All I know is that after Saturday the flock will be out and I'll look forward to my next adventure with new little flockers which should be happening in the next month or so. Until then, I'll keep building the new Koop and hope that maybe I'll finally get a measurement right--the first time.



The Koop Inspector, Henrietta