Recent content by josh117

I use granular PDZ and sand on the poop board - no problems over 3 years. I've seen them peck at it occasionally. Because of the poop board, I only replace the coop shavings once per year (and it really doesn't need to be changed!).

The coop is 4'x4', and the run is 4'x14'. Three 2.5 year olds, and two 6 month old hens. The run has a few roosts where the younger hens will "hide", but as soon as they hop down for a drink, they are punished. For the past 4 months, the two younger hens have lived in a separate coop that I...

I am trying to get my Silver-Laced Wyandotte, Prudence, and two other hens to be friendly to my new girls and hopefully integrate them, but the older hens keep pecking and terrorizing the new girls. I decided to turn to the Pinless Peepers. They fit on my other two hens, but not on Prudence. She...

I love, love, love the ADOR1. It is the single best investment we made for our coop. It opens flawlessly each morning. The ladies were occasionally impatient for it to open for the first few months, but not any more. It is installed on the outside of the coop (never on the inside!) 4" above...

My year-old Buff Orp decided to go broody for the first time. We were on vacation for a particularly hot week. Maybe our chicken sitter didn't remove the eggs from the nest frequently enough, or maybe our hen just heard voices from above. Whatever, she spent about 10 days being broody until I...

Our eggs are so boring compared to those posted here! Light brown eggs from our 4 ladies (BO, PBR, golden-laced Wyandotte and silver-laced Wyandotte). Occasionally one will be speckled, but that's about as exciting as it gets around here.

So far, so good here in Philadelphia. Lows at night in the single digits, but our four girls seem happy each morning. Replacing their frozen water 3-4 times a day, and preparing a warm mash of feed with some corn and mealworms mixed in seems to be a huge hit! They haven't eaten their pellets...

I'm having the same problem: some eggs get cracked when laid on the bare plywood. I have 4" of shavings on top of a layer of sand, but they insist on scratching a nest down to the wood. Should I lay some carpet down? (Kidding.... sort of.)

In my 4'x14' run with attached tiny coop, I lost one of my four new pullets the other night. No sign of a predator attack... just vanished. After a few minutes of contemplation, I noticed poor Prudence's tail feathers sticking out of the top of the feeder! She got stuck head-first in the...

I built our coop and run over the past month, and our 4 girls arrived two weeks ago. The coop is 4'x4' and the run is 4' x 14'. The kids are absolutely enamored with our new pets. Though a lice and/ or flea outbreak has quash the enthusiasm a bit! Added some DE and wood ash to their dusting...