DLM, for two deeply different reasons. 1) I'm lazy and interested in doing infrequent, heavy work in order to be able to do the work at my convenience. Doing weekly turning of the litter and annual raking out with removal of 80% biomass works for me. 2) The idea of promoting and working with...
Thanks - yes we will probably form some sort of rigid insulation over the boxes, depending on how we can do so without preventing lifting the lid. We are accustomed to the use of seedling mats, both for their intended purpose and for giving a little boost to ferments (continuous brew kombucha)...
I can't honestly commit to any schedule - I work a rotating shift and it's anyone's guess when I will be around and awake. Since you made your own you probably could make a lock pretty easily, I wonder how I will retrofit the galvanized steel to be held closed? Seems as though most that use...
That's very helpful because that's very close to what I'm thinking of. My husband uses those seedling mats for germination in the spring over the past many years, and I have also used them to help with continuous-brew kombucha inside. They supposedly only raise the temp 10 degrees in...
Hi all,
I'm considering purchasing a readymade roll away nest box, such as bestnestbox or similar.
Does anyone who has more experience than I do want to share their wisdom?
I live in MA, we do get very cold and have some issues with frozen eggs even with the traditional, inside the coop...
My Woods-style coop is 6' wide by 10' deep, and has a small window on one side in addition to the top windows and the front windows. I'm in Massachusetts. Over the past 4 years we eventually block the top and side windows with only after the winter storms begin. We do not ever block the...
Her neck feathers are so frizzy! Open up that first picture to look at her closeup!
She just doesn't look like the others did when they were younger. I will get more pictures during daylight tomorrow.
Last time my flock was spending hours each day out and about:
1) Birds: mixed flock including Leghorns, Sex Links, Barred Rocks, an Andalusion, a Light Brahma.
2) Feed: a feeder in the coop was always full of pellet layer feed at all times. Flock trained to come in for kitchen scraps...
Hi! Any thoughts much appreciated!
These birds were bought from McMurrays 3.5 months ago. There were 4 Barred Rock females ordered. One of them is turning out quite a bit smaller than the other three, and has frizzly pointy hackle feathers with a much finer color pattern. Her comb appears...
I imagine the right answer will be very heavily location dependent, and my local ecosystem is very different from yours but for what it's worth:
We just couldn't find anything that worked until we setup a flexible electric fence around the outside of the run. We lost birds to bobcats, hawks...