hello friends in chickendom
i have a new coop and run, and the ladies are loving it.
any thoughts on how to clean poop in the run, whose floor is small pea gravel, and how often?
advice/experience appreciated as always
Anne Marie
Hi, thank you for the response.
I've just brought her in, and checked her. There's nothing obviously wrong, and she's breathing fine. But clearly ill and not moving.
I'll report back in a while.
Thanks again,
Anne Marie.
Hi, I have a group of 10 chicks, all about 5 weeks old. They're out in the coop/run and I gave them people food for the first time yesterday. Chopped celery and chopped strawberries. They've been getting grit as well.
All of them seem fine, active and usual selves, except for one. This morning...
Thanks, all. I should clarify. I live in Silver Spring, Md. The brooder is indoors (inside the coop) where it's warm and dry. We've hit 100 several times, and nighttime temps are in the 80s. Temperature isnt an issue. I'm just wondering if they're too little to be fully "out" in the coop, or...
Thank you (again) gritsar. You are always so helpful.
They do go out every day, so I'm pretty sure they're getting grit naturally. They go outside for several hours (2 or 3 hours, maybe) a day. But, I don't know 100% for sure how much grit they're getting.
Should I try offering them small...
Hi all--Another question re my four-week olds.
They are currently installed in the outdoor brooder (inside the coop) as of last night. Doing great.
My question deals with outdoor playtime: Their adjoining run is ALMOST finished, the only thing I have left to do is the apron (skirting the...
Hi, I have my four-week olds out in their new outdoor brooder (located inside the coop). Should I start giving them commercial grit? I have only been feeding them starter crumbles, and my sense is when I send them out to play out in the garden, they probably get grit naturally...but let me know...
Hi guys.
Phew, they made it to college. My four-week old rascals are settling into their outdoor brooder which is inside the coop (it will actually be their future 'droppings pit').
A few questions about this awkward teenage phase:
1) How long are they in there, before they graduate on to living...
Hi All. I've spent all day in the heat 'sewing' the seams of the hardware cloth on my run with 24-gauge (thin) metal wire, kinda like a whip stitch. It looks very tight. I was just stepping back and admiring my work when I started wondering if a critter couldnt maybe chew through this wire? Mind...
...around the permiter of the coop...it needs to be attached securely all the way around, right? The thing is, I have the cloth up around the chicken run. Can i attach the 'skirt' by sewing it (the new mesh) with some wire to the existing mesh on the coop? or can it be loosely attached on the...
Thank you! It's a work in progress; I will post pix when I'm done. It's a garden shed and I've segmented off the back portion as the coop. It's a small property in a quasi-urban suburb, but I want the coop and run to be an integral part of the entire garden. I'm hoping it will be beautiful.
Hi again...
Here are some pictures. My boo-boo from last weekend was skirting the mesh from out-to-in (it's underneath the stone walls and gravel). This coming weekend, i'm going to reverse the skirt from out-to-in. I don't have to remove the under-the-stones/gravel skirt, do i (which would mean...