I can't help you wen it comes to ducks..I don't raise them. Someone else will be along that can. As for "scaring off" dogs? I don't think so. If you free-range you are letting yourself open to predator attacks, which include dogs.
You don't need to use straight all PDZ in your poop trays. I laid a full bag of play sand in the bottom of my tray and then the PDZ on top....works GREAT!
I use the horizontal water nipple system. This winter we got down to -18 for 3 days in a row. With my mini stock tank heater setup...no freeze-ups whatsoever.
At their age they should have a little container of "chick" grit available to them 24/7....they will consume what they need. If you have a lawn take a hand spade and "cut" a small (2-3" squarish) piece of it, dirt and all, and place in their brooder...they will have so much fun pecking at the...
It would be highly unusual for a chick that young to have impacted crop. As you said, her crop feels soft, not hard, so it could be she just ate too much that day. Remember, too, that toward the end of the day their crops will appear larger than normal from the feed they've consumed during the...
You're quite welcome! Just make sure you use a 3/8" drill bit and screw them in "straight-on" to the surface of the bucket...that way they get a great seal. Best of luck!
I would put more nipples than what you stated...here's a few pics of my setup:
This is a 2-1/2 gallon bucket with 5 nipples on it. I have a small flock of 4 hens.
If you're using 5-gallon buckets I would put at least 6 nipples per bucket...that should do it.
I use horizontal water nipples also, along with a mini stock tank heater (aka bird bath heater). I'm wondering why yours iced up on you. We got temps down to -18 and had no problems, water was actually quite warmish. This is a pic of the water heater I use...it turns on automatically at 38...
Here is how I built my roost bar/poop tray setup:
What it is, is 2 x 4's "double-stacked" so-to-speak, with a section of 1/2" plywood sandwiched in between....make sense? The 'tray' that is formed from the top set of 2 x 4's (I used "true" 2 x 4's) I filled with 1 bag of play sand on the...
No onions, which contain a toxin called thiosulphate hat destroys red blood cells. Excessive amounts can cause jaundice or anemia in your hens or even death. Some claim that onions will taint the taste of your eggs as well. We can't validate that claim because we don't feed them to our chickens...
How funny that out of one side of your mouth you rant at me for being an advocate of S-S-S and out the other side you praise my photo album of my coop and run. Hmmmm....
I've been following the recent posts to this thread and thought I'll put in my two cents here. My poop tray is 5' wide by 28" in depth. As you can see from the pic below when I built my roost bar/poop tray I used true 2 x 4's and sandwiched in between a 1/2" piece of plywood. This gave me a true...