Coop and Poop

"I'm going to pee on these feathers and flush the toilet" my husband said in a very matter of fact way.

It was a chicken intensive kind of day. The feathers in the toilet were poopy hen feathers. I'd noticed a bloody egg two days in a row. Fearing that somebody's vent (butt/egg hole) was injured,  I donned a headlamp and wandered down to the coop after dark. Everyone's butt seemed intact, but I did notice some very poopy rear ends. I grabbed the hen with the nastiest bum and brought her into the house. I threw a towel over the majority of her body and head and she went to sleep. I then warmed some rags with hot water and went to town. Some of the poop could not be loosened so I clipped those feathers off. They later made their way into the toilet. Her vent did look a little sore so I applied some A&D ointment. I then blow dried her butt so she wouldn't get sick in the cold coop. I returned her to the coop and clipped a couple more butts. I wondered, do factory farms trim their chickens butt feathers when they get poop caked? Somehow I doubt it. That's kind of gross.. On the topic of poop, here is my favorite poop story.

I was 24 or so and I was visiting one of my dearest friends in Seattle. We had just gone to a show or something and were riding the city bus. We rode the bus for a few stops when someone got on smelling undoubtedly like feces. The odor was so dominant that people were looking around at each other, wondering what could or should be done. "Is that dog poop?" someone asked.

"That IS boo-boo" an older black woman resounded. "Mmmhmmm, you can't do that! You need to wash yourself, take care of yourself! You can't be walking around with boo boo on you!" she lectured to the riders of the bus. Finally, the bus driver pulled over. He turned around in his seat and addressed us all: "What am I supposed to do?? I can't stop the bus! What am I supposed to do??" he pleaded. I'd never seen a bus driver so shaken before. I don't remember how it all ended. I think we got off the bus shortly after. But forever engrained in the vernacular of my friend and I was the phrase: "That IS boo-boo!".

Prior to the sand. One of these creatures is not a chicken. 

In other chicken news I filled the run and the coop with sand today. It will help to keep the coop well drained and dry.

Sand in the coop

The girls can take dust baths, and hopefully keep their butts a little cleaner. We'll see how it goes.

Now the girls have a sand box run

I got the sand from a quarry. They had every kind of rock and sand imaginable. The quarry itself reminded me of the Grand Canyon. It was interesting.