Recent content by gandalf_of_chickens

Not sure what the etiquette is on bumping old threads but I had this same question and it doesn't seem like there's a clear answer to the original question. My state "requires" candling if you are selling to a store because candling is apparently how you establish grade - by looking at the air...

We have 8 golden comets that we bought as "pullets" not yet laying back in late November/early December. At first they weren't laying at all, then they started to lay more and more until we were getting seven eggs/day fairly consistently. Then suddenly over the past 2-3 weeks we've started to...

Hi all, wasn't sure of the right forum to post this question in. I'm wondering about hygiene with regard to: hands shoes tools Do you all have strict rules/regimens about how you keep yourself and your things clean? "Always wash hands after feeding the chickens or collecting eggs," "have one...

Thanks, my run is the same with bird netting on top. We have a paper shredder but don't use often enough to do the entire run floor in shreds. I will try to do a mixture of spent coop bedding (pine shavings), shredded paper, weeds, and whatever else I can find. Could I use bagged mulch? When the...

Thank you so much for the encouragement! I'd like to do the compost idea. The run floor is dirt and I was planning to do deep bedding. What material would you recommend for a large outdoor space? Still pine shavings?

The sides have hardware cloth and chicken wire. The top is covered by bird netting

Thanks for the ideas. Will try a little of everything. Also it's not just homesteading blogs and social media! Here are some studies: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7980284/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8899211/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23033816/...

I've been reading about potential benefits of feeding chickens crushed red pepper flakes (anti-bacterial/worm properties of capsaicin, and yolk color). Does anyone do this? If so, how do you do it? We have a 10lb feeder in the run for 8 hens and I'm wondering if I should just dump a bottle of...

@gtaus can I just fork old/dirty coop bedding (we're using pine shavings) into the run?

7 eggs from 8 hens today! Best yet

Thank you all for the replies! The day went pretty well. We visited the hens a lot and gave them some extra scratch grain. The feelings of relief I got when I would have that regular "where are the chickens??" jarring thought and remembered I knew exactly where they were was really nice...

Last year we moved out of city limits onto 2 acres and got 8 hens in December with quaint dreams of the chickens free ranging around the property while we were out working "alongside them." The coop that I built was from a design I found online and only had a small-ish (8' x 4') run. After a...

Hi all, Three of our eight hens have started to lay in the past week. We've gotten 3 eggs on a few days, 2 eggs on a few others, and unfortunately just 1 egg today. I have a question about letting chickens out in the morning, since ours that are laying seem to be doing so between 7am and noon...

I've been wondering about this part because we're having a fairly heavy rain with some intermittent lightning and thunder today. I was thinking we might just go through some scratch into the coop and keep them in there until the storm passes. Are there no sanitary issues here if they are...

Thanks, I will take some better pictures of my coop tomorrow. For now, it sounds like I need to look into: pull off the existing ridge shingles and add a ridge vent add covered vents to front and back of coop where there's not much roof overhang on the sides where there is more roof over hang...