Reviews by BDutch

I have a few elderly ladies and read this article because of that. I think it will be very helpful if the day comes one will get too old to get along.

Wonderful setup Dobey.
Need just this one word ‘wonderful’ to describe you’re carpentry, design and ‘novel’.

It took a while to read it all. Mainly because I didn’t get addicted to chickens so much that I want many more bantams and I don’t have a shed waiting to rebuild it. My garden is too small for such a setup either. So whenever I encountered you’re long read I thought: “ I save it for a quiet and lazy Sunday morning. ?

Very good article.
I only don't agree on deworming every 6 months. Deworming medicines are not harmless and i.m.o. should only be given if there is an infestation.
And I mis info on older hens: older hens take longer breaks in winter. Every year they add a few weeks to their winter break.

Great information about industrial eggs and chickens,

In the Netherlands and other countries in Europe we don’t have battery eggs in the grocery store anymore. But there still are farms who have them, they sell to the food industry and abroad.

Nowadays things are changing towards factory farming because there are a lots of discussions about the negative impacts of factory farming (animal abuse , public health , nature issues & environment in general)

Because of this many people don't eat meat/fish every day anymore. More and more people become vegetarian and vegan.

It’s easy to do because in the grocery stores you can choose from a lot of veggie alternatives for meat. Made with (not gmo) soy, grains, lupine, beans, chickpeas etc. Some are made to taste like chicken or bef hamburger. Other are based on arabic recipes like falafel.
And beside that, there are lots of cooking recipes.

Here and in Belgium we had people who worked in the factory farms and meat industrie that have posted films about the cruelty. Children who saw these films refused to eat meat any longer.

And more people are aware that the factory farmers destroy our environment by NOx pollution and that they are responsible for the fires in Brazil for GMO soy to feed the farm animals, Things have to change. Or our world is no good place to live in within one or two decades.
Our nature is suffering allready .
- ¾ of the insects have died
- Some type of birds get sick and die
- Some type trees /plants get dick and die
- There are outbreaks from certain insects because they have no natural enemy.
Plants like wild blackberries flourish and other get extinct,
- People get sick of the poisons used (a proven connection between Parkinson's disease and poidon used in the flower and bulbs industry)

And one way of doing this is to take responsibility as a consumer and stop eating (much) factory farm meat/eggs.

This is a great article. Only the name of the article isn't very is not.

I agree sand is great for mild and warm climates. I dont know much about the river sand used in this article. How perfect the river sand (or other types of sand will be, probably depends on the area where you live.

Where I live I can dig up river sand for free. It's a spot where the river Rhine had it's stream 1000ths of years ago. It also contains lime/clay. And has nearly no pebbles. Sometimes I buy one bag with courser sand to improve the soil.

I use this sand -mix in the coop. Which is great. The sand I use is not dusty at all.

I do have:

• A poop board under the roost
• Chickens that don't like to leave their poo on the sand inside the coop.

So I don't have to to clean the sand very often. And have allmost all the benifits as described.

• I do provide small stones/grit
• the chickens can free range a couple of hours each day
• I made a big pot with and with sand + a little diatom earth for a perfect dust bath.

I have no experience in keeping chickens in hardy climate but nevertheless I loved to read this article, you’re experiments and what you experienced.

I wonder what makes the chickens lay eggs in the 3th winter/ last setting ?

Insulation is a no go in my climate/europe because blood mite infestations are a high risk here and you never get mites out of youre coop if they get into the isolation.

In winter I make wind blockers in front of the north/west/east hwc-parts of the coop-ventilation (roosting area). And it works great to provide straw on the coldest days to give my 8 tiny bantams more comfort.

Great article on using hay and very nice to reuse what a garden or land has to offer.

Hay is my favorite bedding for nest-boxes. Chicken comfort to lay an egg. ? The chickens like to eat some of it when they take their time to lay an egg or hormones make them broody.

I have only 100m2 of lawn to gather grass for hay. But this is enough to make a few boxes ? of shortcut hay. I don’t like it to let it grow higher then 6 or 7 cm, cutting it at 3 cm gives me lengths of max 4 cm. I find the short hay no problem at all.
When the weather forecast are good (no rain ) its the best time to make hay.

I use 2 methods:

• 1. Mow and leave the grass on the lawn to dry. Gather it after it dried (max 2 days) with a rake.

The advantage of this method is that the small clippings stay in the lawn and feed the lawn.

• 2. Gather the grass with the mower. And put the grass in a few mesh boxes they use in garden centres and let it dry/ rake it a few times. The smallest pieces fall through so the hay isn’t getting dusty.

the advantage of this method us that we can use the lawn immediately.

I really like the basics of this coop for a small group of bantams. But I do wonder about a few things: I wonder how you keep the roof from leaking at the hinges? Hoe did you make a poop board and roosts? What about the nestbox?

A few improvements would make it better. Like a window and ventilation openings under the roof top.

It looks like a great place for you're chickens and I love the design. Especially the attached run in the same style, the summer-coop with so much ventilation, panels adjustments for winter and the beautiful footstep leaves.
Great + beautiful.

Thanks for writing this article. It gave me a warm feeling to read it. I hope my English is good enough to express myself in the right way because I’m not English and not a language crack.

As a kid growing up on a farm I learned I was different in my feelings for animals. For me they where living creatures just like humans. My family cared only until a certain point. They were more practical. And didn't ‘waste’ time on sick animals like farm cats and livestock.

e.g. A chick in a flock that had health problems had little chance to survive. My older brother intervened by smashing the little chick against the wall. It broke my heart.

There are more stories like the one above. It made me sad, mad and build my character. And I didn't trust vets anymore.

I have learned there are two kind of people if you could divide them into groups. There are a lot of us who care about their animals, their livestock as some name it.
And there are a lot of people with some kind of ignorance about livestock. That's one of the reasons why its sometimes hard to deal with losses. These people don't seem to understand what you are going through with a loss. The people who don’t care much if they ‘need’ to cull a bird.

Since my childhood years have passed. And my feelings have changed a little over the years ( a bit more practical). If I have a dead fish, rabbit or chick I feel responsible for, I get over it quickly now. I don't feel guilty anymore because I didn't do it on purpose. If I have chicks, I know I can't keep the cockerels and will give them away for free without asking too many questions.

I try to keep my flock healthy. I give them enough space. Let them free range a few hours a day if possible, to make them happy scratching for fresh nutritious bites ? ? ? and eating grasses and herbs of they're own choice.

I rather not buy new chickens, because they can bring diseases into my flock. Instead I buy fertile eggs for a broody, or keep a rooster for that reason until he gets too loud early mornings.

Great article, love the humor too. But of course there are more ways to get the chickens to roost inside the coop.

I have a couple of bantams who preferred (past time) to sleep outside too. But at the moment I have everything under control.
I used you’re 3th method in combination with locking them up in a run to get them inside before sunset.

I don’t give meat but some mixed grains to fill they’re bird-stomachs before they go to roost. Sometimes I give a few dried mealworms too. My coop is covered with strong bird netting, so they cant get out.

Now they always choose to roost inside, even if I am late (dark already) with the treats. Because they’re habit to roost outside has been broken. And if I am home after dark the chickens are safe behind a automatic popdoor.

Maybe it helps too that I don’t let them free range all the time.

Good idea to make a window in the coop. You did a great job without using all the expensive tools. And great colors!

IMO the Bosch set up not optimized. It looks nice. Neat job and the builder gives several good features and tips to build a coop. But its more a ‘how to build with expesive machinery’ and not a perfect home for chickens. Its a very small coop to start with. The ventilation is not sufficient for a healty coop. Its too dark inside. The 2 nestboxes are too much for such a small coop. And you have to rebuilt it as soon as chicken math strikes you.

A very good article if you want to add more (almost) adult chickens to you’re flock.
Very good to warn that adding chicks to a flock is a no go.

But there is another way go get a bigger flock. Let the ladies go broody and let them hatch some eggs. There are articles about natural breeding with fertile eggs (if you have a rooster. Or you can buy fertile eggs from someone who has a great flock or a beautiful breed.

One of the advantages of breeding and hatching eggs is that their are very few diseases that you can bring in to you're flock this way. An other pro is that the mother hen protects her baby chicks agains flock members. A con is that half of the offspring will be male. You have to think about what you will do with a surplus of roosters.

I have had Dutch bantam broody’s hatching and raising chicks on 3 occasions. Tried different things and recognise almost everything in you’re article.

Marking the eggs is a really good tip!

One to add: if you want a broody, let 4 or 5 fake eggs lay in a nest of you're choice in spring. Chances are great you have a broody within a week on the right spot.

And one more: best not to have a stair or steep slide to climb up the nestbox. Chicks have no troubles getting down the stairs but often don't get it how to get up again in the beginning.

My experiences:
1th time I got 3 broody’s on one nest. After one hen started to breed the other two joined in. Cozy but not okay. I split the broody’s over two nests. Two broods on one nest with 7 eggs and one broody on a new nest with 4 eggs. This went all well until the first eggs hatched and chicks came near the other broody
She pecked the tiny chicks. Do I moved her to another spot. Separated from the two mama's with the chicks.

There was no problem to move her because I had a bottom of carton box under the nest. I picked her up complete with the nest and the eggs. MDH helped me to prevent the broody to leave the nest.

Next time I rebuild the coop and added a laying nest for the other chickens and separated the chickens after a few days of trouble. I finally let one broody breed alone on the eggs.


The third time the 2 mothers who did well on one nest did this again, only now on a separate and bigger nestcoop with a run of 6 m2. I separated the two broody’s as soon as it was clear they take their job serious. They did a great job. I had no trouble and mother and 5 chicks had plenty of room to grow up.

This is only safe to keep you’re not flying chickens in the pen. Nice pen under supervision. It is not safe against predators.

A good warning and its true that too many people heat the coop as soon as is freezing day and night.

But we often do need something to heath the water.

To avoid the need of extra warmth by lamps or heath pads, make the wise choices. :

• No young chicks in the end of the summer or in the autumn. So you have only adult chickens when its getting cold.
• Buy breeds that do well in cold climates. (there is a list somewhere on BYC).
• Keep ventilation openings open but protect them from cold winds.
• Its better to use straw and not wood shavings for isolation.

Good description of their behaviour a week or so before they start laying.
My Dutch bantams allways come to get a back-cuddle if they are laying and there is no rooster in the flock. The Millefleur de Tournaise do not (flightly character)

Meanwhile, eggs everywhere, some of them can be rather funky looking, soft or thin shelled, huge double yolked eggs.

Click to expand...

Yes, and fairy eggs too.

Finaly read your article of the fodder tower after reading the hilarious bathroom story.

As you know I’m growing popcorn today.

Maybe you like another idea for spring: make a big fodderpot with a piece of mesh on top it in the run. Fill it with some barley and other seeds and let it grow. Make sure the chickens cant hurt themselves when using hardware cloth. The chickens will love it. This way the fodder lasts longer.

Didn’t do the math, but I love you’re pictures. The are worth 5 *****.

To tell the thruth. I expected to learn abouth an other kind of chicken math. The one were you calculate the color in breeding experimens when crossing different colors.

There is one that does. Its called chicken jungle.

http://kippenjungle.nl/Overzicht.htm