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Chickens poop a lot when they are sleeping on their roost, so you don't want them tempted to roost on or above your nest boxes. Also make sure it is set lower than the roosts for your birds as chickens will roost at the highest point in the coop they can. If the nest boxes are the highest point...

Sorry, not sure I followed the conversation. Where was this at? Thanks.

Search the forums here for DLM or "deep litter method". A lot of the threads will point you to http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/388/litter-quality-and-broiler-performance And at a higher level explanation DLM is basically letting litter build up in the coop over time with a high carbon...

I'd suspect it works. Just in my four days of having chickens and using a little bit of scratch to work on hand feeding and dropping it in the yard I have seen squirrels and birds getting the left overs. Also scratch grains seem to be generally broken up enough where you wouldn't overly worry...

I am personally using fine pine shavings, but have only had my coop and chickens for a few days. However, I am a resident composting expert and I guarantee you pine shavings mixed with a high nitrogen item like chicken poo is going to compost just fine. I have an electric chipper shredder that...

Good thing our chickens don't become dogs... though having had my backyard flock for only two days (9 week old hens) it definitely seems they enjoy doing the same things... such as eating stuff that makes you go "what..." and digging holes.

Thanks. I didn't want to do too much forceful handling in the first two days, but may try and place them up tonight. I also had a chuckle as my wife asked "won't they get pooped on?" since they were huddling right under the RIR that was using the roost bar. And honestly I have no idea if they...

I brought home 4 pullets this past weekend (9 weeks old). The first night they all headed into the coop without issue but they insisted on roosting in the doorway and on the ramp. A little encouragement got them in the coop and 3 out of 4 made it on the 7 feet of available roost bar...

Thanks to jonsccm I brought home our first backyard chickens this past weekend. Pictures are over on my post in the coops forum: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/930810/my-first-coop Now if the torrential downpours can stop so I can enjoy them a little more :)

Definitely will be posting updates as I expand. I am still debating how I am going to secure them in the compost area as it goes up against the back our our property and would be an easy jump into unfriendly neighbor dog territory using the compost piles as a ramp. Yes, 4 birds that are...

No problem. I consider that I did not build "by the book" but rather "by the forum" as I really researched long and hard around BYC for the consensus (which I came to 8" roost space per bird, 4sq feet per bird). I am also attempting to the DLM and there is 12-16" of floor space to...

Definitely understand where you are coming from. There is only 4 hens. The "6-8" was the age in weeks, though I've confirmed they are actually 9 weeks old. Roost set up has one going each direction in the coop (7 total feet of roost space). Breeds are (2x Speckled Sussex, 1x RIR, 1x Salmon...

A few shots of my first coop.

We picked up our first 4, 9-week old hens today. Below is my coop. It is 4'x8' and 6' tall in the center. On this side you can see the door to the next boxes and then the entire lower half flips down to allow full access to inside the coop. In the picture below you can see that...

Every time I've seen this asked someone links to http://livingthefrugallife.blogspot.com/2010/10/acorns-as-chicken-feed-revisited.html The short answer is yes after you break them up. Also keep in mind not all acorns are equal.

Don't have chickens yet but have done a ton of research and reading on the forums on this topic. From my understanding the estimate is 15% of the diet from free ranging (not just grass; need to consider items like bugs, acorns, other plants). More than that and the nutrition is unlikely to be...

Won't pretend to be an expert on this, but from my "common sense" perspective it would be logical to NOT feed chickens to chickens. To me, the better use is composting with wood chips. I look at sustainable farms like Polyface (Joel Salatin) and they compost instead of opting to feed it back...

Just curious why DLM w/ poop boards? Seems like you still have routine cleaning duty when the biggest draw to me of DLM is not having to invest so much time in cleaning.

Thanks, definitely gave me some ideas.

I am a veteran of a dozen internet forums and I hate when "newbs" post things that I know are easily searchable for. However, this is a case where I find the shoe on the other foot as I am the "newb" to BYC (and chickens). I am looking at search results and at the Learning Center and trying to...