Recent content by wyododge

You can view our system on my page. 5 gallon bucket with a bird bath heater works perfect. Had no issues at -30F. There will be a little ball of ice on the metal post, but once 'tickled' it will fall off and water will flow normally. We set up an auxiliary storage tank with a pump to avoid...

If you use pipe and the power goes out, you will lose your entire system. You can view our system on my page. Essentially a 160 gallon Polly tank in insulated box with tank heater, submersable pump, self draining water line to five gallon bucket with nipples and bird bath heater. If power goes...

If there is ice and snow on the ground, you don't need to water the chickens. Thats the best water available.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/550428/why-no-citrus/10#post_8243026

Yep all of them will die, guaranteed. So will you and I. We feed our chickens everything. Heck I spilled a beer and they pushed me out of the way to get at it. Mold, dirt, rot, fresh, dry, wet, stinky, slimy. They really don't care. I saw one swallow a petrified mouse that fell out of a...

Yes Lots of debate on this one thing for sure there is a tremendous variety of minerals in it, calcium included. Yes 2% by weight. There are a million threads about it on here. Search and you will be able to read just about every pro and con you could imagine.

Ummm, couple issues I see here. We use deep litter as well. First, chicken poop is wet, when its cold, it freezes. But before it freezes, the liquid absorbs into the litter making it all wet. No amount of natural ventilation is going to stop your littler from turning into frozen blocks. When...

Most likely yes, you have a venting issue. HOWEVER, your bedding may be damp as well, which does not necessarily reflect a venting issue. My coop is pretty wide open, but when it is -10 to -20, everything freezes (and HOLY CRAP is chicken poop hard at -10!!!). As it warms, things get wet first...

r4eboxer - If you are worried about selling processed chickens, sell 'live' ones and offer to take them to the processor that you use. You can charge a fee to take them to the processor, and a fee to deiliver the finished bird. But all you did was sell a live, breathing, pooping bird. If you...

We've only gotten down to -15f, but they were running around outside like the little idiots that they are. Currently we are experiencing 30 to 40 degree temp drops from day to night. I took the window back out too. We get a nice breeze through the coop that way. Makes me long for the days of...

DE is diatomaceous earth. ask around for it, just make sure to get food grade. Ventilation is simply air movement or replacement in your coop. You simply can not have enough ventilation as your birds have evolved to live out doors. Drafts are air flow(s) which are directed onto or in close...

Quote: Yep there is a bit of a mess, we put a 55 gallon drum lid under ours to catch the majority of the splashed and missed drops.

We use a bird bath deicer to keep the water from freezing. And would never go back. We have a pretty good set up we designed out of necessity. You can see our solutions to common issues on our page.

Might be too hot inside the coop. You can be assured they will sleep where more safe, more comfortable or both. Either the air quality is better, the temperature is better, or there is less fighting for space. You can pretty much be guaranteed they will go where they think it is best for them...