This is my friend Tim. He and his wife, Diane, are crazy chicken farmers. I got an email from them last week to come save some of their chickens. I’m a chicken doctor, so I get those sort of emails all the time.
Don’t you just love corrugated metal? Tim has built some of the prettiest chicken coops I’ve ever seen. He has a lot of chickens, but only one white one. One of these chickens is not like the others, one of these chickens just doesn’t belong.
I took this photo of some of the chickens that were inside of the coop. That giant plasitc thing in the front is a water fount.
Tim and Diane have named all their roosters, but I can’t remember this guys name. I’m going to call him Reggie. Hi Reggie!
This is their garden. It makes my garden look like crap on a stick. Tim and Diane are real gardeners, they sell their produce to real people. I’m a fake gardener, I sell my produce to fake people.
They use these plastic mats in their laying boxes instead of hay. It makes cleaning out the nest much easier and the eggs are cleaner.
This is one of the nesting boxes. The chickens like the bottom boxes the best. It’s funny, no matter what you do, chickens always seem to pick one spot they like to lay and ignore all the rest.
This is another nesting box with that lovely corrugated metal.
Here comes Tim with my first two patients. I’ll fill you in on all the details in my next post.
Don’t you hate it when people don’t finish a story?
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I don’t get the plastic mats. Have never seen that before and I’m not seeing how they’re “cleaner”. Also not too environmentally friendly ifyouknowwhatImean. Do they throw them away when they’re dirty or try to wash them? Hay is cheap. Free around here. I ’spose the eggs wouldn’t roll around on the plastic though. What do the chickens think?
April, check out the video of my kiln on fire! I’m unloading tomorrow.
Well, Tim likes them because he can shake them off or hose them down. The chickens don’t seem to dislike them. Since Tim and Diane are dealing with such large numbers it makes their job a bit easier by not having to haul hay (which is not free around hear $4/bale, gag) or spend a lot of time cleaning dirty eggs. I don’t think I’ll ever use them, but I don’t think I’ll ever have three chicken coops either.
Who knew that being a chicken doctor could be so very very exciting?
Better than becoming a witch doctor, I suppose…
I love the corrugated metal too.
we are waiting with baited breath!!
You crack me up…
They do have one heck of a garden…ours is close…as in we have dirt and veggies planted in the dirt..
But I bet they don’t have their neighbors sheep dog burying unidentified objects in theirs…HA, I win.
Oh my! You made a house call! How “fun!” Hope you got those chickens back into shape quickly!
Yes, I hate it when people don’t finish their stories! Shame on you. Now I have to wonder all day…do the chickens need medicine or did you have to push their innards back inside??
So what are you too CHICKEN to finish the story?
April can I come hang out with you for a day or so? You make everything interesting.
Yes Gladys, come on over!
#1~The pictures are awesome!
#2~I hope you get paid well for your Chicken Doctor expertise!
Those are beautiful coops. Do they have gravel on the floor? They rake it to clean up? That beats our dirt floors that gradually get higher and higher (and are often like bogs). And I think the plastic nest mats are brilliant. Where’d they get them?
April, do you have ducks? A friend is looking for duck eggs for Thai cooking. Know of any in the area?
I want to come hang out too!
Martha,
I don’t have ducks……yet. And I don’t know anyone that sells ducks eggs….yet.
Are you really a chicken doctor? If you are, did you go to K-State? If you aren’t did you go to K-State?
K-State! K-State! Get back satan! I’m a KU girl. Rock Chalk Jayhawk Go KU!
Honestly, I should have gone to K-State and I should have majored in Chickenomics.
If you’re fixin’ to do some chicken spoinking, no need to photodocument the innards. Just sayin’…
And here I was ready to leave my husband and family and come home to Kansas and live with you – even though you didn’t ask. But our relationship would be doomed from the start. Because I really am that shallow. Not really – I turn into a ginormous KU fan during March Madness, unless K-State is still alive during that time which REALLY makes me shallow – gah.
Already I’m a little nervous for the poor chickens. I hope they saw your gloved hands coming and got better immediately.
For the record– your “fake” garden looks much more natural (read: real) than their “real” garden. Hurkin’ lotta plastic they use…
Can’t wait for the chicken story…
I had no idea when I woke up this morning that I would learn so much about chickens. Thanks!?
crap on a stick. hehe
Ha ha ha, he he he, “Like crap on a stick”! I haven’t heard that said in YEARS! Thanks for the morning chuckle
I secretly want chickens in my suburban backyard. (And I love galvanized metal.)
A friend turned me onto your blog and website, awesome stuff! I am referred to locally as “The Chicken Lady” and our 4-H office is always giving people my phone number when they have questions about their chickens.
Given my black thumb, I do not garden. I have friends who do, and trade them eggs for their produce. Works for me!
Lately I’ve had so many eggs that I’ve been selling the extras on eBay as hatching eggs (I raise Buckeyes, which are rare.) Beats having to hard boil the extras and feed them back to the chickens!
Thanks for such a cool site, I know I’ll enjoy reading the rest.
A girl pig that is not bred yet or is bred for the first time is called a “gilt”.
My husband pasture farrowed hogs for over 30 years—pig stories—I got em! Never a dull moment!