Recent content by MaryOos

I got a huge produce box from Costco free. The ones they have onions and potatoes in. I laid cardboard over the 2 ends and a piece of welded wire over the center top to help keep mice out and to keep them in when they began flying (which doesn't take long). The heat lamp hung from the garage...

My 5 MI girls are confined to their coop and enclosed pen in the winter months. I grow jars of sprouts and run the sprouts through a food processor with fresh kale, oats, fresh garlic and dried herbs for them. I usually mix up enough for 3 days. I deliver this treat daily in a pie plate. I also...

my nest boxes use to be up off the floor and the roost / poop table was above that.I found the chickens preferred to lay their eggs on the floor below the nest boxes. I also had problems with bumble foot and injured tendons. One bird actually got knocked off the roost while she was sleeping with...

"As a side note I noticed my infrared lights on my camera was waking the hens up way too early so I now turn them off at night and they sleep right up to lights on time." The infrared on my camera is but a tiny red dot. It's visible to the girls but it doesn't actually cast any light. My girls...

In my first flock of 7, 2 polish and a silkie turned out to be roosters (which I am not allowed to keep in the burbs). They had to be rehomed. Another silkie was put down at 1 yr when I could not clear a blocked crop (early spring grasses) and she had gotten too weak and was suffering too much...

It is better to keep your roost to just 18" - 24" off the floor. Hard landings from the roost can cause ligament injuries in the legs and bumble when they land on the bedding and get a poke.

Welcome to Le Chic Chalet De Poulet! Enjoy your tour. :frow https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/le-chic-chalet-de-poulet.71969/

I have a covered pen which gets polycarb panels screwed to the sides late fall for a fully enclosed pen. I also put straw down on the floor of the pen to make it extra cozy and to give them something to forage through. They have a peck-o-matic feeder and 2 dust baths in the pen - one concrete...

Lid on the bucket? Smell? When I was fermenting it was a big jar on the counter. No lid, no sour smell. Just a towel over the top to keep flies out.

I tried fermenting last fall - spring. I kept a dry feed bucket out at all times but brought a dish of fermented out to them every day as well. They cleaned up the fermented feed every day. A little tougher in the winter because if they didn't eat it quick enough it froze in the dish. The...

Thank you so, so much!

Sorry, struggling getting photos to go in, in order. Cleared out and will start fresh tomorrow. Trust me, there are many photo's, LOL.

Well first my Frizzy turned out to be a rooster. I thought Rudy would be the next to crow. But instead, Polly Peepers suddenly got stringers on her perfect head puff and started crowing. Last but not least, my darling Rudy could not keep his beak shut any longer. Poor little Freckles the only...

Winds blowing through? Chicks that froze? Common sense???? Sounds more like that example was "actually" outside rather than outside in a cozy coop or outside in a garage. Either that or it was a very poorly enclosed, drafty coop. My tunnel will be outside in a garage in a big, bulk size...