Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Oh look, a goat named Spider-Man

Adorable! Is he your new addition?

I know this is probably a really dumb question for you experienced chicken keepers, but being new to it all, i would like to know the answer. When you have raccoons, fox, etc kill your chickens, when/where does that occur? Are the foxes/raccoons getting into the coop at night when it is locked out? Or are they taking the chickens at dusk before they are locked up for the night?

My foxes always came in the early morning, but I am in the suburbs. I free ranged in my fenced in backyard, but locked them up almost every night and only let them out after the sun was up. My attacks happened more frequently in the fall, probably when food was scarcer.

Does it make me a bad chicken owner so say that I would rather let them free range and take the chance of losing them?I currently have all my chickens in an enclosed run, and obviously locked into a secure coop at night, but once they reach adult size I planned on leaving them out to get bugs and fresh greens during the daytime hours, and locking them into the coop at night, using the enclosed run only if we will be away and unable to let them in and out

I let my girls free range during the day, but they had plenty of cover from Hawks and the foxes only seemed to strike in the early morning. Again, that was in the suburbs.

Niko's set of hatchlings due tomorrow! Bridget is broody now. And I think the roosters are going to freezer camp. This is ridiculous. I do not need more birds. Yard is too small.

You always need more birds!

Hi! Does anyone know where I could get some Swedish Flower Hens? Chicks preferably. They difficult to find since they are so limited. I want to add to my flock and I think they are the way to go!

Pickering Valley Feed has them in the spring, not sure where you are located.

 

[Chaos18]

Adorable! Is he your new addition?

Yea he's the newest addition. Will be getting him a friend tomorrow.

 

[BullChick]

 

[Chaos18]

 

[chxmama]

Hello all. It's been a while since I've been on but I have a question I need help with.

I am currently using dirt/stray as my floor for my coops. I am thinking of using sand. Does anyone else use sand? I'm up by Erie and wonder if this is not a good idea being how cold it gets up here.

Thanks

@Zanlm - we use sand in both our coops and runs. Love it. It works great and seems to keep things relatively clean for a chicken coop. We have poop boards in our coops filled with sand & sprinkled w/ sweet PDZ that the kids scoop each day and then sand on the floor. It worked really good in the winter and as long as you have a dry coop that doesn't leak water, you should be good. During the blizzard, we moved the water into the coop and the girls were a bit sloppy splashing water onto the floor/sand around the waterer. It froze and I tried to get it cleaned up as I was able, but it didn't present a problem, although I guess the potential was there? We're working on fixing up different areas of the coop and I'm thinking I might try pine shavings on the coop floor just to see how it compares and how I like upkeep/maintenance using that instead of sand.

The only thing I do NOT like about sand on the coop floor is sifting it. I used to be OCD about keeping poop off the floor and scooping it out every few weeks, but I hate the dust from sifting. It lays all over my clothes, hair, face, skin, inside my nose, etc (if I didn't wear a mask). The chickens really don't poop very much inside the coop since they are outside all day and we have the poop boards for night roosting, so there isn't a lot of poop on the floor. I could probably just not sweat poop on the floor and shovel out the sand into the run once a year to keep maintenance sweet and simple.

Ha, ha, all that to say that sand has worked great for us in both summer and winter! Hope that helps!

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Hi! Does anyone know where I could get some Swedish Flower Hens? Chicks preferably. They difficult to find since they are so limited. I want to add to my flock and I think they are the way to go!

I was looking into those but I didn't do any search as of breeders though.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=swedish+flower+hens

 

[BullChick]

When all is said and done, I like straw best. The sand I got never did thoroughly dry out before I had to start using it. It was already in the fall, and I went away for a week for Christmas. It was a mess when I got back. I do think it would not have been bad had it been dry from the beginning.
Sand is heavy when using it in a 12x12 coop. It was cheap thogh.
Pine chips are OK, but they are not very easy to muck out.
Straw. Ahhhh, straw! One bale lasts me quite a while. Because of its size, it is easy to turn over with a pitchfork. Mucking it out of the coop is also a lot easier because of its size.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

When all is said and done, I like straw best. The sand I got never did thoroughly dry out before I had to start using it. It was already in the fall, and I went away for a week for Christmas. It was a mess when I got back. I do think it would not have been bad had it been dry from the beginning.
Sand is heavy when using it in a 12x12 coop. It was cheap thogh.
Pine chips are OK, but they are not very easy to muck out.
Straw. Ahhhh, straw! One bale lasts me quite a while. Because of its size, it is easy to turn over with a pitchfork. Mucking it out of the coop is also a lot easier because of its size.

my sand was free I got mine out of the small stream it all piles up every time it rains. and what size if straw bale do you get? we get those tiny bales and they only last about a week because I have been cleaning out the coop every 3-4 days since the poop just piles in huge clumps. I would get a round bale but those are hay bales.

 

[dheltzel]

Hello all. It's been a while since I've been on but I have a question I need help with.

I am currently using dirt/stray as my floor for my coops. I am thinking of using sand. Does anyone else use sand? I'm up by Erie and wonder if this is not a good idea being how cold it gets up here.

Thanks

I use sand in some of the runs, much better than the dirt/mud that would be there otherwise. Inside, I use dried tree leaves when I have them, otherwise straw or older hay that the cows won't eat well. I have started using dried grass clippings in the nestboxes, they seem to work well, as long as the hens leave them in there.

Do not use leaves, straw, hay, grass clippings, etc in outdoor runs. You won't like the way they retain water long after a storm. Bare dirt is better than those.