Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[appps]

Thankyou, it's about 10 degrees cooler today and they seem much happier, I have a hose and sprinkler long enough to reach the coop on order, gave them ice cold lettuce yesterday and I quick splash down and the same again today, I also had trouble finding a timer that does short periods like that, couldn't find any at bunnings

Sorry to hear you lost your birds

I bought the bunnings timer that turns on and off, costs $60 for a double hose fitting one but they come in single too. It can do as little as a few minutes each hour.

I have a couple metres of black watering system hose with a hose connecter on one end and misting heads along it. I've got it cable tied to the top rail of our fence behind a big tree they use for shade. On those really hot days I just plug the hose in and let the timer turn it on for ten minutes every hour. Amazing how much cooler it makes the air under their tree.

 

[Fancychooklady]

appps - with hindsight I would go for pavers around the outside of the coop.  If nothing can dig under then I figure that you don't need wire under the coop or run.  We used the really fine vermin mesh for the botton half of our coop and it's not very strong.  Something fell against the wire and ripped a small hole.  The larger avairy mesh is much stronger. 

I agree. I bought 6 square metres of the 20cm grey cement pavers for $70 on gumtree. As for chicken wire, you get what you pay for. Waratah have a very sturdy small gauge galvanized , reverse twist wire that we went with because unlike most of the rubbish on the market , it is made to last. It is a couple of hundred dollars for a 50m roll though.

http://www.waratahfencing.com.au/Product/Fence-wire/Netting/Galvanized-Netting.aspx

 

[appps]

Well just ripped my old wire floor out, this is welded wire after 10 yrs buried under floor. didn't even need to cut it I could rip it apart with my bare hand very easily

Top half looks like new still.

 

[tandykins]

Hi everyone,

Today has been ONE OF THOSE DAYS. I feel like folding myself into a little ball on the floor and not getting up again. Amongst other things, today:


* I found Red Mites right through my isolation pen. I presume they must also be in the main coop - although the main coop is about 100 metres away. Maybe there is hope....?

* My RIR hen who has been treated with antibiotics was obviously feeling better, so escaped back into the main flock where there are SIX other identical RIR's. Who's egg is who's now?

* ANOTHER hen went broody on me. Fifth this season, with two doing it twice.

* I saw the brown snake in the coop. AGAIN. It hid itself before hubby got there. AGAIN. I swear, every time I see it I feel like vomiting.

Honestly, these chickens are so much work sometimes.....

- Krista

If it makes you feel better (or at least less alone) Krista..

* My coop is infested with poultry lice and feather mites. I keep my coop obsessively clean so this really burns me.

* I have four broody hens at the same time and since my Anconas and Hamburgs haven't started to lay yet - this means I get 2 eggs a day from 11 hens. -_-

* One of my new hens has bumblefoot. I did surgery on her foot about a week ago and it looks as though it's healing well but I still have to catch her every day to check on her toe.

* My roosters pulled their No Crow collars off and my police officer neighbour came over all angry over the noise.

* Two of my brooding hens are sitting on 25 fertile eggs and I thought that I'd set them under the hens on the 14th of December. I'd been worried because we had none hatch yet and wondered if it had completely failed. So I've been candeling the eggs too often and disturbing my hens too much out of sheer worry. I finally went through chat logs and realized that I placed the eggs under then hens on the 20th, not the 14th so instead of being day 24 it's actually day 18. -_- On top of that, I had a hard time keeping my other chickens from continuing to sit on the backs of the brooding hens and just laying eggs ON TOP OF THEM so some of the eggs in the box are as early as day 7. I finally (around that point) worked out that I should just put an old birdcage over the top of that nesting box with food and water inside for the brooding hens. So...in summation, I have 25 fertile eggs in wildly varying stages of development that have been constantly manhandled (but are still alive, thank goodness) and I don't have a clue how it's all going to work out. Both chickens brooding the eggs have raised chick before but not since I've had them so I don't know what to expect. Frankly, this is why I wanted to hatch via artificial incubation before under a hen and I'm feeling extremely regretful for letting my husband talk me into skipping that step. :/ I think my gray hairs have doubled since we started brooding the eggs.

So hang in there. You're -definitely- not alone.

 

[Fancychooklady]

If it makes you feel better (or at least less alone) Krista..

* My coop is infested with poultry lice and feather mites.  I keep my coop obsessively clean so this really burns me. 

* I have four broody hens at the same time and since my Anconas and Hamburgs haven't started to lay yet - this means I get 2 eggs a day from 11 hens. -_-

* One of my new hens has bumblefoot. I did surgery on her foot about a week ago and it looks as though it's healing well but I still have to catch her every day to check on her toe. 

* My roosters pulled their No Crow collars off and my police officer neighbour came over all angry over the noise.

* Two of my brooding hens are sitting on 25 fertile eggs and I thought that I'd set them under the hens on the 14th of December. I'd been worried because we had none hatch yet and wondered if it had completely failed.  So I've been candeling the eggs too often and disturbing my hens too much out of sheer worry.  I finally went through chat logs and realized that I placed the eggs under then hens on the 20th, not the 14th so instead of being day 24 it's actually day 18. -_-  On top of that, I had a hard time keeping my other chickens from continuing to sit on the backs of the brooding hens and just laying eggs ON TOP OF THEM so some of the eggs in the box are as early as day 7.  I finally (around that point) worked out that I should just put an old birdcage over the top of that nesting box with food and water inside for the brooding hens.  So...in summation, I have 25 fertile eggs in wildly varying stages of development that have been constantly manhandled (but are still alive, thank goodness) and I don't have a clue how it's all going to work out.  Both chickens brooding the eggs have raised chick before but not since I've had them so I don't know what to expect.  Frankly, this is why I wanted to hatch via artificial incubation before under a hen and I'm feeling extremely regretful for letting my husband talk me into skipping that step.  :/  I think my gray hairs have doubled since we started brooding the eggs. 

So hang in there. You're -definitely- not alone.

Lol, the ups and downs of chicken raising. I've lost 2 chicks to the goss hawk and countless ducklings. Just ran out in my bare feet to shoo him off . King George was standing out in the open, left eye up , staring him down. Hang in there, it gets easier.

 

[tandykins]

Lol, the ups and downs of chicken raising. I've lost 2 chicks to the goss hawk and countless ducklings. Just ran out in my bare feet to shoo him off . King George was standing out in the open, left eye up , staring him down. Hang in there, it gets easier.

I am apparently ridiculously fortunate to live out in the country and have never had a fox, hawk, eagle or snake bother my chickens. Apparently all of my neighbours have had problems but I somehow have not. Fingers crossed. Everything crossed. CROSS ALL THE THINGS!

 

[cwrite]

If it makes you feel better (or at least less alone) Krista..

* My coop is infested with poultry lice and feather mites. I keep my coop obsessively clean so this really burns me.

* I have four broody hens at the same time and since my Anconas and Hamburgs haven't started to lay yet - this means I get 2 eggs a day from 11 hens. -_-

* One of my new hens has bumblefoot. I did surgery on her foot about a week ago and it looks as though it's healing well but I still have to catch her every day to check on her toe.

* My roosters pulled their No Crow collars off and my police officer neighbour came over all angry over the noise.

* Two of my brooding hens are sitting on 25 fertile eggs and I thought that I'd set them under the hens on the 14th of December. I'd been worried because we had none hatch yet and wondered if it had completely failed. So I've been candeling the eggs too often and disturbing my hens too much out of sheer worry. I finally went through chat logs and realized that I placed the eggs under then hens on the 20th, not the 14th so instead of being day 24 it's actually day 18. -_- On top of that, I had a hard time keeping my other chickens from continuing to sit on the backs of the brooding hens and just laying eggs ON TOP OF THEM so some of the eggs in the box are as early as day 7. I finally (around that point) worked out that I should just put an old birdcage over the top of that nesting box with food and water inside for the brooding hens. So...in summation, I have 25 fertile eggs in wildly varying stages of development that have been constantly manhandled (but are still alive, thank goodness) and I don't have a clue how it's all going to work out. Both chickens brooding the eggs have raised chick before but not since I've had them so I don't know what to expect. Frankly, this is why I wanted to hatch via artificial incubation before under a hen and I'm feeling extremely regretful for letting my husband talk me into skipping that step. :/ I think my gray hairs have doubled since we started brooding the eggs.

So hang in there. You're -definitely- not alone.

Tandykins I live in dread of an official visit of some sort over our baby rooster called Baby. After my 4:30am run around the garden trying to catch him he has been sleeping in the cat box in the spare bedroom overnight. No more crowing, but he REALLY needs a new home. My veggie hubby has refused to despatch him.

 

[K Spot]

I'm fortunate that my coop structure was there when we bought the place, my husband and I just converted it into the coop it is today; it has a concrete base so it's easy to clean.
For the run, we dug down and filled the perimeter with stones and concrete so the little blighters can't dig under it. The whole run is completely un-roofed though, so the flock don't really have protection from aerial predators, but I have only seen small hawks around my place and I doubt they are going to mess with my big girls.
I've never seen a fox around my area and I live on acreage, but I have seen hares and feral rabbits, so they are probably out there somewhere. I've also only had the one snake too, that was back in 2013; my coop and run are not snake-proof however.

My Ara pair went to their new home yesterday. They are the start of their new owner's flock, so for now they get the whole place to themselves.

 

[Steampunked]

For coop cleaning, the best thing I find is the karcher pressure washer.

I shovel out the droppings, etc, into a bucket. They don't smell and are clean, as I mix zeolite and diatomaceous earth into the bedding under the roost. They dry up neatly, which is worth it! Both of those items are compost safe, so it all goes into the compost.

Then every weekend that it is sunny, I pressure wash the whole coop. As long as I've shoveled it out, it's clean, and it has a concrete floor, which makes that a breeze.

I let it try out, and then I sprinkle in zeolite and diatomaceous earth, and clippings from my wormwood plants. Wormwood also smells nice. I make sure to toss plenty of more edible weeds in there so they don't go crazy.

It's honestly not that much work, maybe 20 minutes, and I get to have silkies who always have clean fluffy feet. I'm sure I'll get parasites one day - there's simply no way to avoid it. I need to worm all of them actually, just in case...

Here is one of my silkies showing off her blowdry:

 

[Steampunked]

You know, if the police turn up looking for my cockrel due to noise issues, I would be sad, but okay with it as long as they'd also take away the teenage guys next door who scream violent expletives at their poor girlfriends when they come visit.