I was asked to chime in, lol. Happy to as we are in our 2nd year now with our 5 hens. We had a roo, but he became too aggressive when he hit puberty and in our size pen, it became too hard to do chores and enjoy my girls. We culled him, and not to waste, I forced myself to make a delicious dish with wine and garlic and white sauce. My son and husband had no problem gobbling it down, but I admit I had a harder time, lol.
All our plans and coop changes and water and feed have gone so well. We even made it through their first molt, kind of scary looking etc.
The best thing I did was making that poop board and using PDZ in it. We use a cat scooper that looks like a sieve and cleaning the poo takes only 2-3 minutes. I dump it in a bucket by the pen and have a rubber door mat with a brick to keep it dry. When full, it goes on the compost or around the yard where it will do some good.
Our auto door was our other great choice- we used the one from Omni and it performs perfectly. Only once, we had a problem,
View attachment 3827430View attachment 3827431View attachment 3827432View attachment 3827433 but taking it off we found a buildup of sand and hemp stuff, cleaned it and its back to perfect. Worth every penny.
Our newest challenge is that we can no longer free range them. We used to only give them an hour or two late afternoon and they would return to the coop and put themselves to bed. We limited it because they get in so much trouble, wreaking too much havoc on plant beds, but unless I babysit them, broom in hand to shoo them, they have been going into the neighbor's and ruining his beautiful landscaped yard. A fence is out of the question because that side of our yard is 200 yds!
I have landed up the idea of a long moveable chunnel that will attach to the pen via a door. One end must be flexible so I can angle the chunnel onto new grass every couple weeks and mow. I plan to start a thread to see how others have done it.
Thanks for Backyard Chickens and the great community here who never fail to help out with advice and experience!
