Pine shavings

Yesterday I cleaned out the chicken coop and decided to give the girls the pine shavings to scratch in, they have been thoroughly poop picked every day. Firstly I emptied the nest box in a heap.

A heap of pine shavings

The girls start scratching

They are getting them spread around

Then I emptied the shavings from the coop into a cardboard box.

This is as near as Bluebell got to the box

I moved the box across to the other side of the run.

Bluebell is the first to take a look

This is as close as we are going to get

Bluebell plucks up the courage to look inside

Dotty joins in

All three investigate

I am giving them as many things as possible to keep them occupied but it’s not helping with the feather plucking. It was a lovely sunny day and when I went in later Dotty was either sat in the sun or in a dust bath and Pepper was settled down beside her gently plucking feathers from her neck. I told her off and she looks at me as if to ask what my problem is. I reached for the water spray but it was too late.

I picked up about six feathers from the run, one was Bluebells and the rest were Dotty’s. I really am at my wits end with this.