My girls trash the joint too, as chooks do. They move like roadrunners when they see me. My little Barnies peck the calves of my legs so hard it hurts if I'm too slow. Yesterday one gave me a bruise.
I'm sure they understand English because when I yell "grasshopper" they run faster.
I give my girls the cat dishes to clean up for me.
You obviously love your chooks very much. I'm curious how you keep them. I put mine to work composting in their run and digging the gardens.
I fence off the garden I want dug up when the crop is done and pop them in for the day after they have laid. At least I was doing that last season. I haven't planted with this weird weather we've had.
I also put all grass clippings and oddments safe for chickens and compostable in their run. I have straw or lucerne depending on what's available in the coop (deep litter style) and when it's time to clean it out i throw it in a heap in the run for the girls to level and compost further. I throw the thick piles of poo that don't get scratched about straight into a compost bin to breakdown before throwing into the worm farms. I put things not good for chooks in the worm farms or if also not good for worms which is very little in the compost bin. I get loads of great soil/compost for the garden that in turn gives the chooks forage later. They love it. It attracts earthworms in the run. I have to stay on top of the flies in summer but they come after the chook poo more than anything because everything composts so quickly with the girls turning it over so much.
I am thinking of growing mealworms for them.
Good weekend to you and all chook back yarders too.
Good morning again ... your reply was full of good information and most interesting. Especially the composting - I have not dared put a whole heap of compost stuff for the chooks to scrounge in, putting most of the used straw / wood shavings on the garden itself during winter. The reason for my reluctance is that I read somewhere that wet straw / wood shavings and such like can go 'off' and become mouldy which is not good for chickens ? There are so many different theories aren't there. I did put their used straw etc. in the run in the summer months only because it had a good chance of remaining dry. I'd put it in a nice heap, and in five minutes flat it was all over the place. They are wonderful diggers ( better than Ruby, our Golden Retriever !! ).
GREAT idea to fence of a small section ( I have a puppy pen I can use for that ) - and put them to work to dig out the weeds etc. Most certainly
will do that when Spring arrives.
Mealworm growing ? I wouldn't have a clue how to start. Where do you get them from ? I have read that they can be shipped which is expensive, but I doubt they would be allowed into Australia from overseas, so they must be available here somewhere.
Harking back to the potato skins / potatoes and bran. Think I have found a better way of introducing some starch with bran. I cook rice and mixed vegetables for Ruby to add to her dry puppy food ( she is 9 months old ) - so decided to take some rice / vegies this morning, cool it off - added some bran and seed varieties ( scratch mix ) and offered it. They went berserk. It is actually sunny after heaps of rain here, so took the opportunity of offering it to them in a dog bowl outside - which they cannot tip over. The stainless steel dog bowl now belongs to the chooks. !!
To answer your question how I keep my chooks. I was given for my birthday 2 years back a brightly coloured chicken coop hand made by a nephew ( he's a great bloke ) - which weighed a ton and took about 6 men to move around into the back garden. It had some holes in the wood - some of the timber shrank in the hot summer and so it leaked terribly - with our first overnight summer storm !! NOT desirable. That's how I lost my beautiful little Silkie "Moppit" photo of her is my avatar. She became so saturated unbeknown to me, that she ultimately had an upper respiratory infection ( silkies shouldn't get wet as their feathers are so fluffy the rain gets into their ultra-frail skin ) ... took her to the vet who gave her anti-biotics, she recovered and then relapsed. I had her put to sleep before her organs began to shut down, as she was so weak and depleted, and not eating.
Anyway, the coop has now been restored and covered with double tarpaulin - so it is dry. I use straw in their nesting boxes which they instanly kick out onto the floor !! ... and wood shavings on the remainder of the coop floor. The 'upper storey' I keep my little Araucana in, as she gets attacked by the Welsummer. That flooring is paper and straw covered ... and she has a dark nesting box up there - which is where she roosts on a soft cloth covered side-on brick !! She has a toy dog to keep her company and roosts with it.
( Nothing wrong with me !! ). The nesting boxes downstairs is where Mandy Welsummer sleeps, or she roosts and Molly RIR sleeps in the straw just in front of the box - which is where they both lay eggs. Both upper and lower areas have hanging feeders and good sized water containers - self fillling. I change their water every two days, and top up feeders constantly. I clean their coop thoroughly at least once a week - and use Pestcene powder sprinkled on floor and nesting boxes, roosting perches etc. about once a month to kill red mite etc.
I was using a worming mixture in water every 6 weeks, but am thinking of a switch over to sheep drench ( Ivomectin ) ... 1 ml or less according to the chicken size, squirted straight onto their skin between the shoulder blades ( same as one puts flea liquid on a dog ). This kills anything and everything parasitic including worms. Given to me by my Vet - but one cannot eat the eggs for 1 week after doing the job. I have read much on-line about Ivomec for chickens, and the consensus is that it is perfectly safe, however there has been various ideas as to how much to give, and some exceptions - there always is when it comes to medications - even for humans. Will have a good think and more research on it, before using it. I am sure our Vet knows what he is talking about - he's a darned good Vet - but ... ! It is the same stuff that is used in Heartguard for dogs. New heartworm treatments for dogs also now available.
Apart from that - they have runs that they scratch about in - outside the coop. I open the gate and let them into the garden when it's nice enough to do that. Mindy Araucana has a separate run to the other two - as she'd get hurt. I manually transport her every morning to her run ... and then let the other two out. It's quite a business I can tell you, but I have it down to about 5 minutes each morning. Mindy comes over for me to lift her out - and she comes when called to be put back in her 'house' late afternoon. I lost my Barnie Milly a few weeks back to an unknown cause. She lost condition -
continued to eat and drink very well ?? - but became weaker and weaker ... and finally died. Her bowel was odd at times ... the Vet thought kidney failure perhaps, or some intestinal problem. She was not egg bound and had no impacted crop. It was extremely sad. I had watched her like a hawk - particularly with food - and it seemed she was holding her own very well. But it was not to be.
That's about it - boy I do waffle on ... but I think I have covered everything this time round. !!
Have a nice week ... and I hope the weather is being kinder to you than it is to us !!
Cheers ........ AB.
