Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[Anniebee]

I know I am knew to this group but can everyone please hold a good thought for our special little chick Carla, who is at the vet this very minute getting fixed up after a dog bite.

The next 48hrs are crucial. At only 4wks old she is the friendliest calmest chick who comes when you call her. She already has my young daughters totally in love. THANK GOODNESS, they were not home when it happened.

That is sad to hear mooandmcgee ... and I know Carla is very special to you. However, a dog bite, depending I guess on where the bite is located and how deep, is fairly easily fixed in regards to bacteria introduced from dog teeth - that's fixed easily enough with anti-biotics.

As she is so docile and willing, and close to you, perhaps when she comes home, you could do a lot of nursing and gentle cuddling of her - to help her over whatever the results of the bite are. De-shock her ( in a way ). Not knowing the degree of damage it is difficult to say, but I would think she would respond positively to a lot of attention from you - if you don't have to work etc. At only 4 weeks old, she is small - but hopefully very resilient. Also, if you have a crate or cat carrier, she might do well in recovery, inside that, indoors - away from anything whatseover that might frighten her into a relapse. With soft bed padding underneath, a small water trickler and some food - she would get used to the confined quarters quite quickly. AND she would feel safe.

Was the dog your own, or a stray ?

Best of good wishes to you and little Carla ... for a complete recovery.

Cheers ......

 

[LuckysMum]

I know I am knew to this group but can everyone please hold a good thought for our special little chick Carla, who is at the vet this very minute getting fixed up after a dog bite.

The next 48hrs are crucial. At only 4wks old she is the friendliest calmest chick who comes when you call her. She already has my young daughters totally in love. THANK GOODNESS, they were not home when it happened.

Hi I am new to this site too but everyone is great and I know all are waiting for news on poor Carla. So sorry to hear she got bitten hope its not too serious and she heals really quickly. The photos you posted earlier are great can't wait to see grown up photos.

sjturner79 loved the pics, it looks like chicken heaven your cat looks happy too.

Teila love the jungle coop its really coming on. Did you manage to get everything done that you wanted. I seem to spend time outside looking at my girls and not getting much else done. They always seem to be doing something funny. Porter sound delightful I hope he stays.

Ashburnham I agree with your coop idea simple is easy. Our coop is and old walk in aviary we have adapted to chickens and it has a concrete floor that I am constantly cleaning. It opens out to a enclosed area then has a trap door that opens to a run. I have never tried deep litter do you only do it in the coop or should I have deep litter in the enclosed run too. I have read everyone talking about deep litter and thought I might give it a go.

 

[Anniebee]

As far as coops are concerned, I agree with Ashburnam.

Concrete ( or very close fitted bricks ) and deep litter allowed to increase.

The beauty of this is, ( apart from not having to laboriously clean everything out almost every day ) .... is it is very close to nature at its best. Microbes instal themselves into the woopsies, and break it down - consuming unhealthy bacteria in the poop, and leaving healthy bacteria there. They have help from the chooks who stamp down the litter - mixed with wood shavings, which I top up once every week or so.

Here is a copy and paste from a site re. deep litter : http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com.au/p/deep-litter-method.html

" by not removing the waste, good microbes come and make their homes in the litter.
These microbes actually eat and break down the feces and consume unhealthy bacteria,
leaving good bacteria behind! The microbes also help prevent infestations of lice and mites in your flock.
(They won't clean off a bird already infested - use wood ash on infested birds - but can help prevent new infestations from occurring.) "
​

I swear by the method myself. There are many many sites devoted to this method, but a lot of those refer to pasture for cattle etc., and the pros and cons of that. Also water consumption - that being water used ( as run off ) from deep litter concentration in the soil. But that is not going to bother too many people here - and would not apply.

The entrances to both my coops are the same for the birds as for me - which is ( during the day ) an open door, not exactly human height friendly. And early-ish evenings, those doors are closed and bolted shut. The doors have fine bird wire ( not chicken wire ) on their doors - with plenty of ventilation, plus some small tarps over parts of the doors to stop rain and wind. The little tarps are attached with clothing pegs to the wire - so easy. ( yeah - I know - it is all very early 1900's stuff

). The doors are large.

My big girls have a roosting cross pole - but prefer to cuddle up in what was once made to be a nesting box !!! They still rarely roost, while little Mindy Araucana would NEVER go to bed without roosting ( on a half brick

covered in soft towelling on top of an old half open credenza which for a while also acted as a nesting box ). She gave that away when I sprinkled Pestene in there with new straw ( I think I overdid the Pestene ) -

" You can shove that garbage Mum " and she forever after laid ( or dropped ) her eggs onto the thick wood shavings on her concrete brick flooring. She stopped dropping eggs, when I cleaned here dear little fluffy butt ( I so love those fluffy butts too ) .... and clipped some feathers, so's she wouldn't get eggs stuck on them - to fall off and break, when she walked. That cured the problem of broken eggs ( which worried me for a time, with some chatter from me on here, about it all ). Apart from a couple of balloon soft shells, she was dropping eggs - they were not soft shelled at all. ( someone here told of her chicken dragging an egg behind her across the garden - so eggs getting stuck in woopsies does happen ).

Anyway, as usual, I have rambled on waaaay too long, but this was mainly for the people considering coops etc., and for newcomers here to this great site thread.

Cheers all - have a wonderful weekend ........

 

[LuckysMum]

As far as coops are concerned, I agree with Ashburnam.

Concrete ( or very close fitted bricks ) and deep litter allowed to increase.

The beauty of this is, ( apart from not having to laboriously clean everything out almost every day ) .... is it is very close to nature at its best. Microbes instal themselves into the woopsies, and break it down - consuming unhealthy bacteria in the poop, and leaving healthy bacteria there. They have help from the chooks who stamp down the litter - mixed with wood shavings, which I top up once every week or so.

Here is a copy and paste from a site re. deep litter : http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com.au/p/deep-litter-method.html

" by not removing the waste, good microbes come and make their homes in the litter.
These microbes actually eat and break down the feces and consume unhealthy bacteria,
leaving good bacteria behind! The microbes also help prevent infestations of lice and mites in your flock.
(They won't clean off a bird already infested - use wood ash on infested birds - but can help prevent new infestations from occurring.) "
​

I swear by the method myself. There are many many sites devoted to this method, but a lot of those refer to pasture for cattle etc., and the pros and cons of that. Also water consumption - that being water used ( as run off ) from deep litter concentration in the soil. But that is not going to bother too many people here - and would not apply.

The entrances to both my coops are the same for the birds as for me - which is ( during the day ) an open door, not exactly human height friendly. And early-ish evenings, those doors are closed and bolted shut. The doors have fine bird wire ( not chicken wire ) on their doors - with plenty of ventilation, plus some small tarps over parts of the doors to stop rain and wind. The little tarps are attached with clothing pegs to the wire - so easy. ( yeah - I know - it is all very early 1900's stuff

). The doors are large.

My big girls have a roosting cross pole - but prefer to cuddle up in what was once made to be a nesting box !!! They still rarely roost, while little Mindy Araucana would NEVER go to bed without roosting ( on a half brick

covered in soft towelling on top of an old half open credenza which for a while also acted as a nesting box ). She gave that away when I sprinkled Pestene in there with new straw ( I think I overdid the Pestene ) -

" You can shove that garbage Mum " and she forever after laid ( or dropped ) her eggs onto the thick wood shavings on her concrete brick flooring. She stopped dropping eggs, when I cleaned here dear little fluffy butt ( I so love those fluffy butts too ) .... and clipped some feathers, so's she wouldn't get eggs stuck on them - to fall off and break, when she walked. That cured the problem of broken eggs ( which worried me for a time, with some chatter from me on here, about it all ). Apart from a couple of balloon soft shells, she was dropping eggs - they were not soft shelled at all. ( someone here told of her chicken dragging an egg behind her across the garden - so eggs getting stuck in woopsies does happen ).

Anyway, as usual, I have rambled on waaaay too long, but this was mainly for the people considering coops etc., and for newcomers here to this great site thread.

Cheers all - have a wonderful weekend ........

Thanks for the info. Ours roost on perches. I have one hen who's laying soft eggs and someone's eating them and one of them laying long eggs, but I don't having anyone dropping them thank goodness. We have tarps and shade clothe too. My granddaughters love my backyard with the fruit trees and veges and lots of edibles. They asked my son if they could have a backyard like that but not as messy. Haha as you can see from past photos it was my baby chicks run that makes it a mess and that was for their benefit too. lol
As too clothe pegs aren't they the best they are what hold my shade clothe down everywhere.
Hope everyone has a relaxing weekend with their girls and boys.

 

[smelltheposies]

Thank you

 

[Teila]

Good morning folks

Chook Newby I agree, your coop is great as a first coop and your girls look quite happy in there. I will say that for the kit coops, they definitely did stay dry inside the whole time we had them; no leaks.

Fancy that is a pretty cool tunnel.

mooandmcgee I am so very sorry to read about Carla; how is she doing today?

Well, we are close but not quite finished .. gave up on torch light construction when the mosquitoes invaded

Anyways, they did get to spend the first night in their new digs and I was surprised to see that Crystal [bottom of the pecking order] was the first to tackle the ramp. I did not have to coax or carry anyone up the ramp and they all managed to find the roost. There are two roosts in there which each easily hold 6 bantams. I thought they might spread over the two, but it was kinda cute and rewarding to see all 6 sitting on the higher roost with room still to spare.

We still have one more small door to put it and a window, finish the wiring, put some roosts in the run, add the human door and some final finishing touches.

PS: While I have never minded the morning routine of cleaning the coop floor; there was an extra big smile on my face this morning when I got to do it standing up and if they could talk, my knees definitely would have said thank you

The old and the new:

 

[mooandmcgee]

@Teila WOW!!!! That looks AMAZING!!

Your chicks are living like KINGS!! We started our cook yesterday and my goodness it is no where near that size or that amazing.

Might have to rethink it a bit.

Carla made it through the night!!!

The dog was a friends who came over and had forgotten we now have chicks. The dog got poor Carla in the bum, but seeing that it was a big dog that got her it could have been a LOT worse. So poor little Carla, she is just happy to be back home.
Thank you everyone for your well wishes. I will keep you posted on her recovery.

Question: Any suggestions as to how I can encourage her to drink water? It has her antibiotics in it and she needs as much as possible.

 

[Fancychooklady]

@Teila WOW!!!! That looks AMAZING!!

Your chicks are living like KINGS!! We started our cook yesterday and my goodness it is no where near that size or that amazing.

Might have to rethink it a bit.

Carla made it through the night!!!

The dog was a friends who came over and had forgotten we now have chicks. The dog got poor Carla in the bum, but seeing that it was a big dog that got her it could have been a LOT worse. So poor little Carla, she is just happy to be back home.
Thank you everyone for your well wishes. I will keep you posted on her recovery.

Question: Any suggestions as to how I can encourage her to drink water? It has her antibiotics in it and she needs as much as possible.

Good to hear. If you think that she isn't drinking enough, you may need to draw some up into a syringe( no needle ) and give her some a drop at a time. It's very easy to aspirate a chick , so a drop at a time and let her swallow before continuing. Alternatively, you could mix some of her meds in with some cooked rice and raw or scrambled egg. Some will gobble up bread that has been soaked in the medicated water too.

 

[mooandmcgee]

Little Carla happy to be home!

Back in the flock!!

 

[User395221]

PS: While I have never minded the morning routine of cleaning the coop floor; there was an extra big smile on my face this morning when I got to do it standing up and if they could talk, my knees definitely would have said thank you

It's fabulous, isn't it, having human height instead of chook?

The coop is fabulous, I'm sure the girls love having it, too. I especially love how you've accommodated the height by having a platform for the ramp. I can't wait to see it finished.

You'd mentioned before hoping it would fit in with your garden. It does, it looks like it's always been there and fits the tropical theme to a T.

(You've got me planning a new coop, BTW..... LOL)