What would make caring for your flock easier?

[3KillerBs]

I am pretty sure the only way to keep duck waterers, pools and ponds clean without doing it myself would be to hire a pool boy

Maybe if you have a good-sized natural pond with a sound ecology on the property?

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Maybe if you have a good-sized natural pond with a sound ecology on the property?

I might actually try getting a beefy pond filter that has both UV and Bio filtering. If it doesn't work I will have a nice ugly pond ornament.

 

[3KillerBs]

I might actually try getting a beefy pond filter that has both UV and Bio filtering. If it doesn't work I will have a nice ugly pond ornament.

I asked once if one could do aquaponics with ducks and it turned out that you can, but only for non-food crops because of the salmonella problem.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Overall I'm pretty pleased with how mine evolved but it looks a lot different than when I started. My goals with chickens have evolved too. Expect whatever you start with to change some, either with your goals or physically. I play with genetics for fun. My main laying/breeding flock is one rooster and between 6 to 8 hens. I hatch or buy around 45 chicks every year, keep some replacements, and eat the rest.

I started with an 8' x 12' coop and a 12' x 32' run. I free ranged for three years then had two dog attacks that cost me 13 chickens so I got electric netting to protect against ground predators and enclosed over 3,000 square feet. Those dogs were dropped off in the country for the good life. I really hated shooting them because it wasn't their fault.

I put in a frost free hydrant and ran electricity to the coop area before I got chickens. I had reasons other than the chickens for wanting water and electricity there. The coop and run were on a slight rise at the bottom of a sloped area. I added a few inches of dirt to the coop floor and put in a berm/swale on the uphill side of the coop and run to keep rainwater runoff out. The coop stayed bone dry. The covered run still got wet when the weather turned wet and rain blew in from the side but it drained reasonably well. When you are looking at a coop and run location I strongly suggest you look at drainage as a top priority.

I made my nests 16" cubes. That was partly to match the framing of the coop but also if you cut a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood or 8' board into 16" pieces there is no waste. Those are a good size to hatch chicks in and I often have three hens sharing a nest. Those are big enough all three can sit on the nest bottom and not literally lay an egg on top of another hen. I did not know that when I started. When I built my first two nests I provided outside access, then never used it. I understand many people love their outside access, if you have one of those small elevated coops that is necessary. But I prefer walking into the coop to collect the eggs. I go inside anyway to lock up. By going inside I've seen a few things I could have easily missed otherwise. Things like a dead chicken, a few snakes, and a live possum that came in through the pop door. If you do provide outside access I recommend you arrange it so you can see into the nest before you reach in. It's hard to think of anything more thrilling than blindly reaching in to get eggs and feeling a snake instead.

Some of the changes I made in the coop. I installed a permanent 3' x 6' brooder under the main roosts. The top was a flat sheet of plywood which served as a droppings board. The brooder was elevated and had a 1/2" hardware cloth floor. The poop dropped through to bins I put underneath. The brooder was very dry with no cleaning involved. The sides were 1" welded wire but if I were to rebuild it I'd use 1/2" hardware cloth. A 5' rat snake big enough to eat a chick could get through the 1" mesh but could not get back out. Since that brooder had a wire mesh floor it made a great broody breaker if I did not have chicks in it. I could isolate a chicken in there if I needed to.

I integrate a lot of chicks, either broody-raised or brooder-raised. I was having problems with juveniles sleeping in nests when they were too young to sleep on the main roosts with the adults so I put a juvenile roost over the nests with the flat top of the nests acting as droppings boards. This area of nests evolved, the top of the nests were not all at the same elevation or connected. It would have been easier to clean if the top of the nests were a continuous sheet of plywood.

Mine is arranged so I can get into the coop through a human door that was inside a shed so I did not have to stand in the rain to unlock the coop door, especially when my hands were full. I kept feed in a metal trash can with a good lid in that shed, really handy. I had a human door that led to the run on the opposite side of the coop. Having that human door into the run from the coop was really handy.

I installed a 4' x 8' grow-out coop on the opposite end of my 32' run and fenced off 8' of that run so I could close the gate if I was growing out chicks and give them their private run. That was really handy for integration. And since the grow-out coop was elevated and had a wire floor it could serve as a broody buster if the brooder had chicks in it.

The way the coop, run, and electric netting was set up if I needed to get to the grow-out coop I had to walk from the coop and around the electric netting. That was a long walk when I had to carry water and feed over there. If I were doing it again I'd build a human gate on that end of the run. But things evolved and it did not get done. Before the electric netting it was not a problem. In general, I find providing easy access for you to be important.

I also strongly agree with those that have mentioned having extra room is important. I find the more I crowd them the more behavior problems I have to deal with, the harder I have to work, and the less flexibility I have to deal with things that crop up. If you notice these are for your comfort and convenience but the chickens also benefit.

I don't know what kind of coop and run you are planning to build or how you are going to manage them. If you are building one of those small elevated coop in a suburban area most of this probably won't apply to you. If you don't hatch or brood chicks stuff won't apply. Your goals, flock make-up, and management methods have a lot to say about what kind of coop you should build. But maybe you or someone else can get something out of this.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Following this thread with great interest.... as we are planning a move to another farm over the summer, with setting up new run(s), fencing, access to water, electric service, moving the coops, and everything else. Prime time to modify or install new systems.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Maybe if you have a good-sized natural pond with a sound ecology on the property?

I actually did consider ducks because we're naturally set up for it... so well set up that we have wild ducks routinely raising babies here each year as well as a resident heron. But because there's no way to fence it off and keep the wild birds away from the domesticated ones, we opted not to do ducks.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Hi! What type of issues/annoyances/problems/lack of know how do you encounter seasonally/monthly/daily/yearly/whenever in relation to chicken keeping?

Oh gosh - worst seasonal one for me would probably be coop doors that fit too tightly into the frame when closed! I know we all want to minimize gaps in our secure coops, but if the design doesn't allow at least some wiggle then the wooden ones get stuck fast by long rains that expand the wood and frost heave pushing on the bottom boards. Both wood and metal doors that fit snugly can also get iced shut from freezing rain. Last winter I had to do a lot of door kicking and heat gun work. I found workarounds this year that mostly involve covering the edges of the doors with a combination of tubs and shower curtains but redoing the doors to either have a gap or just close differently is going to be the long term solution.

 

[theamericancorvette]

Hi! What type of issues/annoyances/problems/lack of know how do you encounter seasonally/monthly/daily/yearly/whenever in relation to chicken keeping?

Or what are some things you've dreamed of having (doesn't have to even exist!)?

I'm working on a personal project and need some feedback in this area.

Thanks!

Spring is the time of migrations. Be on the look out for migrating hawks. Resident hawks will always be a problem, but in spring and fall migrating hawks may find your flock as an easy meal. Don't forget to look up!

 

[theamericancorvette]

So something like this doesn't work? I don't have ducks so trying to understand..

For those who have ducks: I have a giant horse trough for them to swim in, a smaller trough for them and a large kiddie pool and a very small kiddie pool, for them(they can swim in them all). It is very hard to keep them as fresh water(I also have chickens). Cleaning them out or just letting clean water run in the ones you can't flip( I try to flip each as often as possible but the big ones are hard) has been good, I rake out the debre regularly, mostly leaves, and just let the fresh water from the hose clear the water, plus the ducks love the overflowing water. I also have those plug in bowls to keep the water from freezing that I clean and replenish regularly, although as soon as I clean it they love putting dirt filled bills in it.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

It can't get any easier, food, water and secure coop with plenty of free range.