Guide for Chicken Shifts

Here is a general guide to help coop members with their shifts. If you have any suggestions, questions, or concerns, please feel free to say something in the chat.

Mornings

While shifts have some flexibility due to the automatic door, chickens do like to eat in the morning, so please try to arrive to feed them at a decently reasonable time. The door should open automatically around sunset.

  1. Start at the supply bin. Sanitize your hands, and if you'd like, put on a pair of gloves and use sanitizer with the gloves on too. Switch into one of the provided pairs of shoes.
  2. Refill waters. This kind of varies by season. In the winter, the spigot next to the chicken enclosure is shut off, so we have to fill jugs by the bin and walk them over to the enclosure. In the summer, you should just be able to use the hose, but try to be careful to avoid making things muddy. If the water container looks dirty, consider bringing it out of the enclosure and rinsing it out where you can do so without making too much mud.
  3. Refill food. Measure about 5 cups of food from the bucket and fill the feeder, then hang it up on the chain.
  4. Check the nesting boxes. You may have some eggs waiting for you! There is a hook that you can use to prop the lid open. There might also be eggs in the little box in the bin from the previous shift.
  5. Inspect and clean. Make sure all 9 chickens are present and looking healthy. Check out the inside of the chicken coop through the larger side door. Consider using the shovel hanging on the side of the coop to pick up chicken poop. Scoop it into the small black pot, and walk that over to the middle compost bin and try to cover it up a bit with leaves. The more often we clean up poop, the easier it is for everyone, and we should get fewer complaints about smell. Consider evening out the pine chips inside the coop and tidying up in there.
  6. Wrap up. If everything looks good, say your goodbyes to the chickens, carefully exit the enclosure, lock it, and use the rocks at the base of the door. Back at the bin, sanitize the gloves again and neatly put them back (if applicable), sanitize your hands, switch shoes, and lock the bin. Consider tidying things up in there if it's getting messy.
  7. Communicate. If the chickens are low on food and you refill the bucket, please put a message in the chat. Also, if you have any questions, concerns, observations, or pictures, feel free to share!

Evenings

The door should close automatically after dark, with a bit of a delay.

  1. Start at the supply bin. Sanitize your hands, and if you'd like, put on a pair of gloves and use sanitizer with the gloves on too. Switch into one of the provided pairs of shoes.
  2. (Optional) Turn on lights. There should be a few battery-powered lights in the enclosure for you to use so you don't have to touch your phone while dealing with chickens.
  3. Check the waters. This kind of varies by season. If the water is still clean, and it's warm out, it's probably fine to leave the waters alone, especially the automatic/gravity water dispensers. If they're dirty (or it's winter - to avoid freezing), we should dump them out.
  4. Dump remaining food into the bucket. To avoid attracting mice, carefully disassemble the feeder and dump any remaining food back into the bucket. Make sure to close the bucket.
  5. Check on the chickens. Open the side door and peek inside to make sure they're all present and look okay.
  6. Check the nesting boxes. The chickens like to lay their eggs during the day, so please leave some for the morning person. Consider taking half of the eggs and leaving the rest for the morning, or placing them in the little box in the bin so the chickens aren't tempted to peck at them.
  7. Turn off lights (if applicable). Don't want to waste the batteries.
  8. Wrap up. If everything looks good, say your goodbyes to the chickens, carefully exit the enclosure, lock it, and use the rocks at the base of the door. Back at the bin, sanitize the gloves again and neatly put them back (if applicable), sanitize your hands, switch shoes, and lock the bin. Consider tidying things up in there if it's getting messy.
  9. Communicate. If the chickens are low on food and you refill the bucket, please put a message in the chat. Also, if you have any questions, concerns, observations, or pictures, feel free to share!