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Anyone want to trade tips or tricks they use to make chicken care easier?

post #1 of 15
3/9/12 at 12:45pm
Thread Starter 

I've often thought people come up with the best ideas to make life easier. Maybe we can all share what they found works for them and share. I'll go first.

 

Use an old nylon, fill it with poultry dust and use it as a powder puff on hens for mite control. It makes dusting chickens a breeze.

Apple Orchard plus... 300 assorted chickens, 1 goose, 30 sheep, 3 llamas and 2 dogs.

"Green acres is the place for me...Farm living is the life for me...land spreading out so far and wide...Keep Manhattan, just give me that country side." lalalala
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Apple Orchard plus... 300 assorted chickens, 1 goose, 30 sheep, 3 llamas and 2 dogs.

"Green acres is the place for me...Farm living is the life for me...land spreading out so far and wide...Keep Manhattan, just give me that country side." lalalala
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post #2 of 15
3/9/12 at 12:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dkosh View Post

I've often thought people come up with the best ideas to make life easier. Maybe we can all share what they found works for them and share. I'll go first.

 

Use an old nylon, fill it with poultry dust and use it as a powder puff on hens for mite control. It makes dusting chickens a breeze.



how smart is that.  is poultry dust the same as de?  here in Texas the weather is so variable & my coop is constructed w/heat in mind. i'm using old curtains and drop cloths strung over wire (like clothes line) it is inside a hoop house, so the "curtains" don't get wet.  i can adjust their coop to the variable weather (today is 43 & mon is supposed to be 83) just by pulling the "curtains" back & forth.  my chickens are chicks (5 wks) so they're a little susceptible.

 

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post #3 of 15
3/9/12 at 1:02pm
Thread Starter 

Poultry dust is permethrin. I also use DE but I put it in their dust bath holes.

 

To make my DE last longer I add wood ash from my wood stove.

Apple Orchard plus... 300 assorted chickens, 1 goose, 30 sheep, 3 llamas and 2 dogs.

"Green acres is the place for me...Farm living is the life for me...land spreading out so far and wide...Keep Manhattan, just give me that country side." lalalala
Reply
Apple Orchard plus... 300 assorted chickens, 1 goose, 30 sheep, 3 llamas and 2 dogs.

"Green acres is the place for me...Farm living is the life for me...land spreading out so far and wide...Keep Manhattan, just give me that country side." lalalala
Reply
post #4 of 15
3/9/12 at 6:42pm

I have to say....authomatic waterers CHANGED MY LIFE!!! 

 

No more messing around with waterers and making sure they're full/not dirty....no more need to scrub with a toilet bowl brush and bleach...no more filling up waterers in August in the 95F+ heat of Florida!

 

Now - all I have to do is give the a swoosh once a day to remove debris....and I'm DONE! 

 

LOVE it!

One Norwegian Fjord,  4 British Shorthair cats, One darling husband............and getting ready to start a new life in N.C. mountains (summer 2014 when youngest graduates from high school).

 

..............and (drum roll)...........one brand new Papillon puppy who joined us in November!!

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One Norwegian Fjord,  4 British Shorthair cats, One darling husband............and getting ready to start a new life in N.C. mountains (summer 2014 when youngest graduates from high school).

 

..............and (drum roll)...........one brand new Papillon puppy who joined us in November!!

Reply
post #5 of 15
3/10/12 at 9:12am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelly G View Post

I have to say....authomatic waterers CHANGED MY LIFE!!! 

 

No more messing around with waterers and making sure they're full/not dirty....no more need to scrub with a toilet bowl brush and bleach...no more filling up waterers in August in the 95F+ heat of Florida!

 

Now - all I have to do is give the a swoosh once a day to remove debris....and I'm DONE! 

 

LOVE it!


Did you make your own or did you purchase it? I'm thinking of doing it too. If  you made your own, could you post a picture?
 

 

Apple Orchard plus... 300 assorted chickens, 1 goose, 30 sheep, 3 llamas and 2 dogs.

"Green acres is the place for me...Farm living is the life for me...land spreading out so far and wide...Keep Manhattan, just give me that country side." lalalala
Reply
Apple Orchard plus... 300 assorted chickens, 1 goose, 30 sheep, 3 llamas and 2 dogs.

"Green acres is the place for me...Farm living is the life for me...land spreading out so far and wide...Keep Manhattan, just give me that country side." lalalala
Reply
post #6 of 15
3/10/12 at 9:18am
My suggestion, give them as much room as you can stand. I find the more room I give them, the more flexibility I have to deal with problems and the less hard I have to work.
Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought....Abraham Lincoln (Freedom carries responsibility)

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.....Judge Learned Hand  (The more sure your are that your way is the only right way, the more likely you are wrong.)
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Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought....Abraham Lincoln (Freedom carries responsibility)

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.....Judge Learned Hand  (The more sure your are that your way is the only right way, the more likely you are wrong.)
Reply
post #7 of 15
3/10/12 at 3:11pm

I use sand instead of wood shavings in the coop.  That way I can scoop it out with a reptile scooper daily (u don't have to do this daily) I just find that 10-15 minutes a day keeps my coops nice and clean and also I only have the poop to compost and not all those shavings all the time. Less waste to dispose of and much cleaner coops. I do still use shavings in the nest boxes.    

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post #8 of 15
3/10/12 at 3:57pm



 

Quote:
Originally Posted by dkosh View Post



Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelly G View Post

I have to say....authomatic waterers CHANGED MY LIFE!!! 

 

No more messing around with waterers and making sure they're full/not dirty....no more need to scrub with a toilet bowl brush and bleach...no more filling up waterers in August in the 95F+ heat of Florida!

 

Now - all I have to do is give the a swoosh once a day to remove debris....and I'm DONE! 

 

LOVE it!


Did you make your own or did you purchase it? I'm thinking of doing it too. If  you made your own, could you post a picture?
 

 


I used the LIttle Giant (red cup type)....I'm not good at making anything much more than a mess!
 

 

One Norwegian Fjord,  4 British Shorthair cats, One darling husband............and getting ready to start a new life in N.C. mountains (summer 2014 when youngest graduates from high school).

 

..............and (drum roll)...........one brand new Papillon puppy who joined us in November!!

Reply

One Norwegian Fjord,  4 British Shorthair cats, One darling husband............and getting ready to start a new life in N.C. mountains (summer 2014 when youngest graduates from high school).

 

..............and (drum roll)...........one brand new Papillon puppy who joined us in November!!

Reply
post #9 of 15
3/10/12 at 8:06pm

Here's the innovation I'm most proud of that saves several pounds of feed from going to waste on the ground every week. It's a feed catcher I sewed out of naugahyde. It fastens with an elastic band and a quick-release belt fastener you can get in the camping and hiking supply section at Wal-Mart. The catcher is made rigid by a heavy gauge wire threaded into the seam, gathered just slightly to form a bowl. Once or twice a day, I unfasten it and dump the feed the chickens have "beaked" out back into the feeder. Not a drop gets wasted. It goes off and on in just seconds,

 

By the way, the turtle neck sweater was crocheted by my neighbor at my specifications to protect my Buff-Brahma Joyce's bald neck until the feathers would grow back in.900x900px-LL-a89f2cc7_P1010005.jpeg

One matronly, yet regal, Light Brahma hen, two Silver-laced Wyandotte hens, two Gold-laced Wyandotte hens, one Black Cochin hen, three Ameraucana hens, one Buff Brahma hen, four sassy Speckled Sussex hens, one Buff Brahma roo, and one nineteen-year old cat who's scared of all of them, especially the roo.

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One matronly, yet regal, Light Brahma hen, two Silver-laced Wyandotte hens, two Gold-laced Wyandotte hens, one Black Cochin hen, three Ameraucana hens, one Buff Brahma hen, four sassy Speckled Sussex hens, one Buff Brahma roo, and one nineteen-year old cat who's scared of all of them, especially the roo.

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post #10 of 15
3/10/12 at 8:11pm

Where do you get your sand? A garden center? I'm toying with the idea of sand in my coops, and pea gravel surrounding them.
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by azygous View Post

Here's the innovation I'm most proud of that saves several pounds of feed from going to waste on the ground every week. It's a feed catcher I sewed out of naugahyde. It fastens with an elastic band and a quick-release belt fastener you can get in the camping and hiking supply section at Wal-Mart. The catcher is made rigid by a heavy gauge wire threaded into the seam, gathered just slightly to form a bowl. Once or twice a day, I unfasten it and dump the feed the chickens have "beaked" out back into the feeder. Not a drop gets wasted. It goes off and on in just seconds,

 

By the way, the turtle neck sweater was crocheted by my neighbor at my specifications to protect my Buff-Brahma Joyce's bald neck until the feathers would grow back in.900x900px-LL-a89f2cc7_P1010005.jpeg



 

http://orumpoultry.wordpress.com/ - new blog!

 

Production Reds, Clarets ( 2 colors ), Greys, Hatch, Black Australorps, Easter Eggers, Silver Spangled Hamburgs, Red Sex Links, Assorted Bantams, Guinea's, Blue Slate Turkeys, Horses, rabbits, and much more!

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http://orumpoultry.wordpress.com/ - new blog!

 

Production Reds, Clarets ( 2 colors ), Greys, Hatch, Black Australorps, Easter Eggers, Silver Spangled Hamburgs, Red Sex Links, Assorted Bantams, Guinea's, Blue Slate Turkeys, Horses, rabbits, and much more!

Reply
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Uncle Sam Expects You To Keep Hens and Raise Chickens!!
BackYard Chickens › BYC Forum › Raising BackYard Chickens › Managing Your Flock › Anyone want to trade tips or tricks they use to make chicken care easier?