Recent content by Magnolia76

I do have a ton of wild birds as I live in the woods but I have to keep the chickens in the run and the birds cannot get into the run.

Why do so many people used to treat the chickens. Are you of the opinion that using nothing it’s just as effective to prevent mites and lice

currently I use DE Sprinkled on the floor of the coop along with sweet PDZ and then I put the bedding on top of pine shavings. I understand a lot of you don’t like DE but I’ve never had a problem with it no one I know has had a problem with it and I used it on chickens for several years when I...

How many do you have? I made the bars spaced out like this with 2x4s and can lift in and out now. I put them about 19-20” high. My 10 week olds can jump up to them and there’s the needed 12” per bird ( I have 11). No idea how it’s gonna be when they are full grown. I stir the bedding up...

If I put a bunch of material in there how am I to clean it out? Just keep adding material and then raking it out every week? How do you “clean “your run and how often?

So in my situation I don’t let them out because I’m surrounded by national forest plus my neighbors would not appreciate the chickens getting into their yards. You clean your coop and run every day!!?? How do you clean your run? I was just thinking about if I keep raking out out debris there...

Thanks for the reply! So would adding material for them to dig through not increase the chances of bad types of bugs? If you don’t use DE what do you use to make up your coop bedding? Just pine shavings or something else? So if I’m understanding your reply you don’t do anything except keep it...

I read a lot about how to get rid of the mites and lice but how can one prevent them altogether?! Any good habits or techniques? New coop and new run. I plan on changing bedding every week or two. Pine shavings, DE (yes I know it’s controversial but I’ve used it before many times and like...

I am still very new to raising chickens and for me personally I would scour the forums looking for advice on cold weather and can my chicks handle it. Well, as it turns out my chicks can handle a lot more than google articles leads one to believe! I wanted to just update everyone on what my...

Thank you for all of the sound advice! I wanted to update so other newbies can see to stop worrying lol. It’s 31 degrees. They had no heat, no heated pad either. They roosted in a row and their bodies were warm. They are up having breakfast and doing just fine! They’ve now been outside of my...

Definitely! I went against Google and turned the heat lamp off several weeks before I was supposed to just because they seemed fine and I wanted them to be tougher albeit they were in my bathroom. Google and my head aren’t jiving with these chickens lol. Thanks so much! I need them to be tough...

Wow thank you so much for this post! I love the area you live in! That’s a great idea to use the floor vents so you can close or open!! Y’all definitely get a ton of snow there! Everything you stated is what my gut says and you’re right my mom worry has taken over. About an hour ago I actually...

So I went ahead and got this k&h heated plate last night. It’s the highest level of fire risk I’m willing to take. It’s just a hard shell pad. It only got down to 48 last night. I had it propped against the wall next to their roosting bar. Nobody moved over to it. The temp inside the coop is...

Thanks for the tip! I definitely am going to revisit my venting before winter. This coop kit has beams up high so not a ton of places to add more venting but I had planned on adding more where I could. I actually could just cut a hole on the one side soffit and make that bigger instead of the...

I love these babies lol. It’s been so fun watching them come out and explore earth for the first time! After this weekend passes and they are OK I will be so much better because I will know they are fine with age on their side. I really need them to be tough because winter here can get rough.