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

[Fancychooklady]

This falls under the "things I have simply accepted" headline. XD Pretty okay today. One dead chick this morning (same one I already mentioned, crushed by mum) and one new hatchling this arvo. I heard cracking when I went to glance at them as I put thehens to bed so we may have another tomorrow. I'm trying not to disturb them so that I don't cause any more tramplings....but the hens have pooped in the box with the chicks in it - they don't want to leave at all right now. Should l I just leave them alone or move everyone out and clean the box? I'm assuming it's probably the former...

Sounds gross , but I'd put on a disposable glove and just just remove the poop. The less you disturb them at this time the better. The hens ' muscle down ' on the eggs when they feel threatened.

 

[tandykins]

Sounds gross , but I'd put on a disposable glove and just just remove the poop. The less you disturb them at this time the better. The hens ' muscle down ' on the eggs when they feel threatened.

Doesn't sound as gross as you might think. This is how I clean my coop most of the time.

I found out a while ago that I only had to power clean (power wash and completely strip my coop from top to bottom) once every 8 weeks or so if I went in daily and picked up poop with a gloved hand and used poop boards religiously.

I hose the poop boards daily, scrape off the roosts daily (hose them every couple of days provided it's dry enough for them to dry afterward so...not the last few. -_-) and pick up all the poop off of the surface of the bedding. Then I toss in a few handfuls of fresh bedding. Much less wasteful, fewer flies, fewer problems with mites. Before this I was just tearing the whole coop down once every 1-2 weeks. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Of course, this begs the question of why I didn't think of that in the first place. Probably because when I Derp, I Derp hard. >.>

 

[Fancychooklady]

Doesn't sound as gross as you might think. This is how I clean my coop most of the time.  

I found out a while ago that I only had to power clean (power wash and completely strip my coop from top to bottom) once every 8 weeks or so if I went in daily and picked up poop with a gloved hand and used poop boards religiously.

I hose the poop boards daily, scrape off the roosts daily (hose them every couple of days provided it's dry enough for them to dry afterward so...not the last few. -_-) and pick up all the poop off of the surface of the bedding.  Then I toss in a few handfuls of fresh bedding.  Much less wasteful, fewer flies, fewer problems with mites.    Before this I was just tearing the whole coop down once every 1-2 weeks.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Of course, this begs the question of why I didn't think of that in the first place.  Probably because when I Derp, I Derp hard. >.>

Pretty much what I do, but instead of poop boards I have some old drawers from a wardrobe we chucked out. I position them under the perch to catch all of the poop. I've been trialling straw on the ground in the main coops and I must say, so far so good. The birds love scratching it around so your feed needs to be elevated. Mine are on billets of eucalyptus about a foot high. The straw seems less inclined to attract mould and is certainly less dusty.

 

[peep peep peep]

Thanks! I got it a while ago, It is awesome! How are you? Any of my Aussie friends raise rabbits? :]

Cool. Yeah I'm pretty good, yourself? How are all your animals going?

I'm okay. They are doing good but they can't wait till we get summer. All we have for weather is slush . I like a ton of snow or none at all not in between. I think the animals do too.

I love having my chickens roam the backyard and im fairly sure they love it to. But do they HAVE to poop everywhere? Aim for the grass girls not my patio!

This falls under the "things I have simply accepted" headline. XD

How is everyone?

Pretty okay today. One dead chick this morning (same one I already mentioned, crushed by mum) and one new hatchling this arvo. I heard cracking when I went to glance at them as I put thehens to bed so we may have another tomorrow. I'm trying not to disturb them so that I don't cause any more tramplings....but the hens have pooped in the box with the chicks in it - they don't want to leave at all right now. Should l I just leave them alone or move everyone out and clean the box? I'm assuming it's probably the former...

Oh no! super sorry..

 

[birdman55]

well today had a bad turn.....and a good one....well bad one was that my favorite chicken got sick and is in the house and im tube feeding it....good thing....is that some chickens should be hatching tonight and tommarow

 

[tandykins]

Tried to clean the e poop out of the coop with a gloved hand and found that the bedding under the eggs is pretty well entirely saturated with it. It's gross. The hens were displeased with me trying to get the poop around them. I think that my options are to change out their nest completely or to just leave them alone. This little baby was sitting on top of a pile of poop so I scooped her up and held her against my chest while I did the cleaning. I got a picture before putting her back.



I also came home to this which I found when getting some bedding for the brooding box.



Looks like someone thought they'd have a sit on the edge of an empty milk crate and it tipped over onto them into an unfortunate position.

I slow-clapped while the chicken glared and growled at me. Then I let her out. She'd only been in there a couple of hours but was quite thirsty.

 

[Fancychooklady]

If there is that much poop in there I'd replace the hay. If the bacteria levels get to high you are risking all kinds of health issues for the chicks. Just be sure to place the eggs gently back in the way same way up. If they have internally pipped and you roll them chances are they will drown.

 

[tandykins]

If there is that much poop in there I'd replace the hay. If the bacteria levels get to high you are risking all kinds of health issues for the chicks. Just be sure to place the eggs gently back in the way same way up. If they have internally pipped and you roll them chances are they will drown.

Will do! I'm amazed at how quickly those hens produce poop...

 

[tandykins]

Well the mums didn't precisely enjoy that but it was less fuss than trying to reach under them. In the end I got a brooder set up for the chicks and a new brooding box with fresh bedding ready. I picked up the mums (one was out and eating with the chicks so it was a decent time) and chucked them unceremoniously outside. They were irritated but took the chance to get a drink, have a poo and do a little preening.

I quickly put the chicks in the brooder, took the waterer out, swapped the eggs carefully to the new box, swapped the new box in, added the chicks and opened the door for the mums. The whole process took less than 5 minutes. The mums immediately got back on the eggs and all seemed well. Once I had that done I cleaned the waterer, refilled and rehung it.

...so that worked well.

I went about the rest of my chores cleaning poop boards and roosts - this being the first quite warm day in several days.

Then I decided to give my chickens a bit of scratch mix for a treat. ....and the broody mums JUMPED up out of the box, chicks and eggs be ******, and started freaking out, wanting their share. XD I should have closed the coop door. I was spotted. >.>

I was amused that the transfer went so well but oh if we see food...it's every chicken for themselves.

 

[Fancychooklady]

I had to move a rather obnoxious coronation hen and her eggs yesterday. When she was off doing her ablutions earlier in the day I found a little yellow wing in with the eggs. I can only assume that one had hatched and the rotten ravens fought her for it. So she has now been relocated . The same ravens pulled a duckling through the wire and when I went out to see what the ruckus was this morning , there they were 3 of them, one on top of the cage and one on either side trying to scare the ducklings away from gemima . I thinks it's time to get the slingshot out.