I think if I had it to do over, I would make a poop ramp under the floor at a 55+degree angle and have the ramp end in a trough which hinged on one end into a bucket. Anything which stuck could easily be scraped down into the trough with a shovel.
I did, it works great, my hens are just fine, the poop does pile in areas so make your pull out drawer deep and clean often. I also used a 1/2"x1/2" hardware cloth to cover my ramp up to the coop, they travel with ease and I didn't need to make a fancy ladder. The coop did get heavy, I would...
I got a wide variety of laying hens to raise for meat/eggs. the plan was to eat the loud ones and keep the quiet layers. It turned out that the australorps were the loudest, followed by the RIR and the BO...the cornish whites dressed out the best of all the layers and the NNT and BO were...
I ordered some day old ducklings for her, they arrive friday. Will stuff them under her at night.
I've never done naturally raised ducklings before and I wonder if I need to put out special food/greens, waterer etc.my other ducks will just dirty the water/eat the food, or the Goose will...I...
I have a very committed, highly broody/determined goose sitting on a ton of her own+ adopted eggs. Its been weeks and I figured I'd see how committed she really was. None of the eggs are fertile...just-eeeewe-rotten I'm sure. They are in a tough to reach place-under their raised coop in a back...
sounds like this is a long process type thing unless I use the front lawn- I want to use the chicken tractor now of course. Is there a way to dig up my front yard do you know-do they rent machines that make sod or do we have to dig up every little bit? I think my husband won't like doing...
We are putting in a lawn in the backyard.
we need a lawn in back because we have chickens who need to graze something while in their tractor and the dirt gets muddy when it rains, making it undesirable to walk on or let my toddler play out back. When dry, I have hard packed dirt with some lovely...
so we have our game plan now and we are going to give her a month to calm down...I really do want to give her a chance-I definitely appreciate her daily egg contribution...My husband says these are the best eggs he has ever had and we buy only organic pastured chicken eggs fresh...so the...
yup-same song...my bird starts out loud and then graduates to shrieking & then cuts off. Its quite odd. she still hasnt laid today-she just talks about eggs all day-like my 19 month old. He loves getting eggs in the afternoon-he begs all day to get eggs. Well, I am going to change their feed...
I think she must be singing for the other hen's accomplishments too. I will keep her a little while and distract her as much as I can but if free ranging and treats don't calm her down enough-she'll have to go or be dinner. she isn't particularly friendly or unique-except that she'll lay for...
I got several breeds of laying hens to make sure I could have at least a few quiet birds in the end. I researched the typically quiet breeds-breeds that are friendly and bear confinement well (chicken tractor inmates)...So I got an Australorp, a red and black star layer, a cornish and a rhode...
ok-I HAD to tell everyone as I think this is highly unusual and amazing! This morning I went to check on the silent invalid and there was the biggest chicken egg I've ever seen in her cage-almost as big as my bigger duck eggs. It was a monster! The prolapse was gone, but it had to be the size of...
ok, I looked it up in the forums and it says you can use Prep H or honey-even sugar. so I used raw honey (as the point for using honey must be that it has natural enzymes in its raw state that are antiseptic or antibacterial) and it literally sucked back in! I washed it with warm water first of...
My birds are finally beginning to lay and I don't know if this particular hen pecked red star is doing the laying but I noticed she is more henpecked than usual and was standing rather oddly. I checked her out to see if the pecking had led to blood and I saw a really nasty red blob coming out of...
ok, so i am raising regular breed chickens vs the cx for this reason specifically. ugh, i didnt choose these turkeys, I just gave them a home. its terribly sad, it cant even stand up now. i am giving it a few days, but i think I'll process him if he isnt able to stand again.
so bourbons are...
ok, this may be a dumb question, but would this problem affect the quality of the processed turkey? I mean, I try to do totally organic and I fed my birds the top of the line foods and I want to use the bones to make broth and be happy with my end product, but these issues with the health of the...