Against the odds hatching thread (with pictures and questions)

[K0k0shka]

First cockerel (6mo) I pressure cooked was show leather.
Was completely convinced when I rested a 30mo hen for 3-4 days, then pressure cooked,
breast was tender enough to slice for a sammich, rather than dicing into small pieces for a soup.

How was the dark meat on both? Any difference? I don’t eat breast so I don’t really care either way.

 

[aart]

How was the dark meat on both? Any difference? I don’t eat breast so I don’t really care either way.

All was more tender.
I usually don't care for the breast meat either, but it was moist and tender....
..plus I put it in a sammich with lots of mayo and steamed broccoli.

 

[K0k0shka]

I modified one of their baby feeders to use as their kitchen scraps + feed + water mash feeder. This is the highlight of their day. They LOVE this stuff! I cut away a lot of the dividers to make room for their grown heads, and gave it legs to keep it from flipping over or having crap kicked into it from the ground.

 

[K0k0shka]

Yesterday was Deep Clean Day - I cleaned out everything from the coop, something I plan on doing twice a year (in the fall, and in the spring). It was also the only cleaning I'd done in the coop in general, in the 5 months I've had chickens in it. Even with no poop boards, I have to say that I'm extremely pleased with how well it held up! The very deep layer of pine shavings, sprinkled with PDZ, did their job and there was never any smell, even as I was shoveling everything out The extent of my maintenance during those 5 months was to re-sprinkle PDZ maybe 3-4 times, and to shake some fresh shavings over top of the old ones once. The laziest setup, but surprisingly effective!

When I was planning and building the coop, I included a "poop flap" in the design. A floor-level flap that would open so I could push all the bedding out easily, without needing to shovel anything. Well... That ended up being one of those "great in theory, not so much in practice" ideas. The flap was way too small for all the fluffy bedding. Also, it would've created more work for me to push it out on the ground, then shovel it up from the ground and into the wheelbarrow. The coop isn't elevated (beyond the cinder blocks it sits on), so I can't slide the bedding out INTO the wheelbarrow directly. What I ended up doing was just parking the wheelbarrow in front of the human door, and shoveling straight into it with a giant mulch shovel. It worked out great and didn't take a lot of time or effort at all.

The oilcloth I'd laid on the floor to protect the wood did its job. The only place where there was any damage to it was underneath the big stump I have in there (for me to sit on when visiting inside the coop ). There was some scraping from the roughness of the wood. But beyond that, the oilcloth was perfectly intact everywhere.

The dirty bedding got buried in the garden. I won't be planting anything new for at least 8 more months, so it should hopefully have enough time to break down by then.

There is one thing I noticed when cleaning out the old shavings. There were some wet spots under the waterer's horizontal nipples. Not soaking wet - the shavings did a good job absorbing - but wet enough to form fist-size clumps of wet shavings. I thought the whole point of nipples was that they eliminate leaks and spills... I put a large bucket lid under the waterer, hoping to catch the drips there.

I also finally set up the nesting box in there, with cozy hay nests and a couple of fake eggs. The hay was sold in balls of tangled very long strands, each ball about the size of the nest, so it was the perfect size and shape. And because the strands are long and twisted around each other in a ball, hopefully the girls wont be able to kick them out easily. I may put a couple of short stumps in front of the openings, to make it more comfortable for them to get up and down, even though the openings aren't that far off the floor. The girls are 22 weeks old, but not showing any signs of readiness yet, and I haven't had a chance to see their reaction to the nesting box yet because by the time I wake up, they're already outside, and stay there pretty much all day.

 

[Flockincrazy]

Yesterday was Deep Clean Day - I cleaned out everything from the coop, something I plan on doing twice a year (in the fall, and in the spring). It was also the only cleaning I'd done in the coop in general, in the 5 months I've had chickens in it. Even with no poop boards, I have to say that I'm extremely pleased with how well it held up! The very deep layer of pine shavings, sprinkled with PDZ, did their job and there was never any smell, even as I was shoveling everything out The extent of my maintenance during those 5 months was to re-sprinkle PDZ maybe 3-4 times, and to shake some fresh shavings over top of the old ones once. The laziest setup, but surprisingly effective!

When I was planning and building the coop, I included a "poop flap" in the design. A floor-level flap that would open so I could push all the bedding out easily, without needing to shovel anything. Well... That ended up being one of those "great in theory, not so much in practice" ideas. The flap was way too small for all the fluffy bedding. Also, it would've created more work for me to push it out on the ground, then shovel it up from the ground and into the wheelbarrow. The coop isn't elevated (beyond the cinder blocks it sits on), so I can't slide the bedding out INTO the wheelbarrow directly. What I ended up doing was just parking the wheelbarrow in front of the human door, and shoveling straight into it with a giant mulch shovel. It worked out great and didn't take a lot of time or effort at all.

The oilcloth I'd laid on the floor to protect the wood did its job. The only place where there was any damage to it was underneath the big stump I have in there (for me to sit on when visiting inside the coop ). There was some scraping from the roughness of the wood. But beyond that, the oilcloth was perfectly intact everywhere.

The dirty bedding got buried in the garden. I won't be planting anything new for at least 8 more months, so it should hopefully have enough time to break down by then.

There is one thing I noticed when cleaning out the old shavings. There were some wet spots under the waterer's horizontal nipples. Not soaking wet - the shavings did a good job absorbing - but wet enough to form fist-size clumps of wet shavings. I thought the whole point of nipples was that they eliminate leaks and spills... I put a large bucket lid under the waterer, hoping to catch the drips there.

I also finally set up the nesting box in there, with cozy hay nests and a couple of fake eggs. I may put a couple of short stumps in front of the openings, to make it more comfortable for them to get up and down, even though the openings aren't that far off the floor. The girls are 22 weeks old, but not showing any signs of readiness yet, and I haven't had a chance to see their reaction to the nesting box yet because by the time I wake up, they're already outside, and stay there pretty much all day.

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Thats awesome i am doing a deep cleaning next weekend I hope it goes that smoothly for me i have linoleum on my floors and deep clean 4x a yr when it thaws beginning of summer end of summer and before it freezes so we will see yours looks great

 

[K0k0shka]

Thats awesome i am doing a deep cleaning next weekend I hope it goes that smoothly for me i have linoleum on my floors and deep clean 4x a yr when it thaws beginning of summer end of summer and before it freezes so we will see yours looks great

Thanks! Good luck with yours!

 

[Flockincrazy]

Thanks! Good luck with yours!

Thanks im not doing it my kids are they want money for toys lol my 8yo wants a new bike so he has been saving all summer we just bought him one last summer he says it's too small already so he is buying the one he wants i said what ever goofy kids

 

[aart]

There is one thing I noticed when cleaning out the old shavings. There were some wet spots under the waterer's horizontal nipples. Not soaking wet - the shavings did a good job absorbing - but wet enough to form fist-size clumps of wet shavings. I thought the whole point of nipples was that they eliminate leaks and spills... I put a large bucket lid under the waterer, hoping to catch the drips there.

They drip/splash a bit when they drink...and that will freeze in winter.
I just stir the shavings around it, spread out the wet stuff, the let the floor dry...chickens will spread more shavings there. I have vinyl floor so no worries

Couple of my HN's were leaking at the threads last week. Luckily I was able to give them a 360° turn and they sealed back up.

 

[adirondak5]

Wow , 22 weeks old already . Shouldn't be long for the eggs now . Mine all started squatting before they started laying and they started exploring the nesting boxes about a week or two before the first eggs .

 

[My2butterflies]

Very nice and clean set up!
Im due for my deep cleaning in the coops in the next few weeks. I try to get as close to snowfall as I can, but still decent outside.