A little maintenance

[Sono]

I built a 12 inch holding well for litter inside my coop, so I can have up to 12 inches of litter in the coop before it even reaches the bottom of the pop door. Nothing gets kicked out.



Sorry to hear about your illness. As an RN, I encourage everyone to get the vaccination. Our local hospital was full of COVID patients a month ago, over 95% were not vaccinated.





I live in northern Minnesota. I have a 3 gallon metal water fount sitting on top of my metal base heater inside my coop. The 3 gallon waterer will last my 7 hens more than 10 days. When I need to refill the waterer, I just walk it over to my house outside spigot and fill up the container. I put my garden hoses away usually late October and they stay in the shed until May. There is no way I could use a garden hose in our winters.

If you get a lot of freezing water where you live, I will say that I am very happy with my metal base heater and metal water fount combo. The heater has a built in temp switch and turns on about 35F and keeps the water from freezing. I think they advertise ice free water down to +13F, but I can tell you that my heater base has kept my water from freezing down to -40F last year. I kept my waterer inside the coop where it is not subject to the blowing wind outside. I think that makes a big difference. The heater turns itself off when it senses about 40F, so you don't have to spend money making hot water. Of course, my heater is on for almost 5 months, but in a warmer climate you might only see it kick on a few times during the coldest part of the night. It's only a 125 watt heater. For my electrical costs, that is about $10 per month running 24/7. Well worth it.

In any case, nothing is more important than fresh water for the birds. No way at my age am I going outside 3 times a day to give them fresh water in a pan. The metal base heater and metal waterer were worth every penny I spent on the combo.

My 5 gallon jug lasts them about a week. There is 3 water nipples plumbed inside this coop and 3 outside that I turn off in the winter so the pipe dont freeze and break with a drain plug on it. with the bigger coop Im going to build with the barrels I will need a heater in the water for those as they will probly be outside unless I design the coop to house them as well ( which I should do otherwise the pipes will need heat tape as well ) A friend of mine got me 6 of those 20 gallon jugs with screw on lids from his work I keep feed and scratch in, its critter proof and water proof, easier than hauling it back n forth, they just sit around the run for now, Im looking to buy their feed in bulk to fill the containers instead of buying bags all the time. $10 for 40# egg layers feed at farm supply , Local Feed supply is $13 for 50# and they will start doing bulk when they get their mill , 1500# is their current bulk minimum... I dont need that much at once.

 

[Sono]

Today has been 14 degrees with a bit of wind chill, all my birds are staying in the coop today it looks like so far... with one standing guard ( all fluffed up and sitting in the doorway ) went out to check everything and all is good, water is no frozen and they all seem happy as usual. The neighbors free ranging chickens are out running around, they usually flock around my run looking for scratch my chicks kick out occasionally. I sometimes throw a handfull or so out along with some bread and other goodies when I treat mine just so they have a snack when they come to party LOL