Preparing to Change Over the Chicken Run, With Rabbit Assistance.
I was hoping to have a dTube video up with this post, but alas, after a long upload I just got an error message. Probably because I'm working from my tablet and some things just don't seem to like android.
Today I got the house to myself, so I didn't have to worry about sorting anyone else out. I spent a leisurely day in the garden doing a few bits I'd been wanting to do for a while. I have been really lax on getting new carrots started, so I fished out a pack of harlequin carrot seeds and put them in a planter. They aren't very generous with seeds in those packets. One plant can probably produce enough for a couple of dozen of them. I really need to be more vigilant at seed saving.
The main job of the day was getting the run ready for the chickens to go into. Yesterday @realtreebivvy and my dad got fencing up around the little orange tree in there, so I just needed to make sure the grass was trimmed. If chickens eat grass that is too long, it can tangle up in their crop and cause a blockage known as impacted crop. I enlisted the rabbits' help, putting them under cage tops on the areas with the longest grass, while I trimmed the other areas, collecting what was left to keep them going overnight.
Poor Snow, the youngest bunny, was a bit hormonal today and complained about being picked up in a squeaky, grunty voice. She forgave me in the end though and enjoyed the feast.
All the time I was trimming the grass, the chickens were complaining because they wanted to be in there. So you can imagine they were pretty excited when I opened the coop door to that run. It didn't take them long to all find their way in. Ginger, as always, went a bit crazy and went to roost for the night with a packed crop that needed a bit of massaging to help it start moving on. Fingers crossed she shifts it through okay before morning.
They love their greens, so run change over is always a fun time.
I love that the chickens are staring at Snow like, "Why do you get to be in there and not us right now?!" LOL
Jealous! Lol! They got their turn in the end though.
I'm not sure I'm going to be good at chickening.
I understood most of your post, but what's their crop?
Hehe, I got caught out on this too a few MSH chicken posts ago and had to ask the same question. It's a sack around their necks which can fill with food and, if problematic, can cause the food to get stuck, rot and ferment. This then requires massaging (or a hen-bra). Did I get it right MSH?
Yup. It's basically the place where the food gets softened before moving on to the stomach, which is actually a muscle that grinds the food up by rubbing it together with the grit they eat. This is why they need to eat grit. The stomach itself is quite solid and the muscle it consists of looks similar in colour to heart muscle.
@mattclarke in this post I wrote a bit about how the crop works and issues you can get. Thankfully, the issues aren't too common.
Your rabbit is adorable! I had a rabbit for 9 years but it was like a fifth her size. She looks very cuddly.
Really? So small! This is a mini lop, so she's not huge. She's probably heading towards dwarf size though. My daughter has a little boy (Crunchie) who is quite a bit smaller and he's 8 now. I call him the little old man and my other daughter, who can't believe he's still alive, calls him the zombie rabbit! 😆
Do you know what breed yours was?
My lil buns (she was named Clark Gable) was a dwarf Netherlands. We adopted her when she was so small that she barely filled the palm of one hand. She didn't like being held that much unfortunately but if you got a towel and put her on your lap and started doing long pets starting at her ears she'd go into a happy rabbit trance... and then pee on you, hence the towel.
😂
Lol for me it is a first to see a rabbit being used in a Chicken run
Some people keep rabbits and chickens together! :D
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