Chicken (Poultry) Addiction Anonymous *Chat Thread*

[Miss Lydia]

I also do cleaning 2X a year. If you do the deep litter then using DE or lime you don't have to worry about cleaning more often I'll go see if I can find the link with info on it. I do stir the bedding daily though.

 

[featherz]

Quote:
I do as well, if the chickens don't do it. One group is great at it, the other not so much so I do it.

I need to go get more shavings tho - not thick enough yet for winter. The 'pre winter' cleaning is easy as the chickens are free ranging most of the time so less poo, but by spring cleaning I have 8-12" of shavings in there to shovel out. fun fun.

I dumped shavings from one coop into the compost, the other I layered on the dead garden area and they are rooting around in the old shavings.

I am not entirely sure my shavings are poopy enough to make good compost, but we shall see. I don't even have a poop board.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Quote:
I have some pics of the button babies I used to have..I'll post them later on if I have time.

They're all doing good so far. The LCOs are a little bit crowded, but that can't be helped. Yesterday my White Orp hen acted like she was egg bound so I brought her inside and soaked her in warm water, rubbed her tummy, squirted some olive oil up her vet etc. After letting her walk around the kitchen a couple of times she pooped 2-3 times and seemed better. Today she seems just fine. No egg, but I'm hoping she wasn't really egg bound.

Don't give up on the eggs yet. I just had a EE chick hatch last night that was 5 days overdue!

~Aspen

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quote:
I do as well, if the chickens don't do it. One group is great at it, the other not so much so I do it.

I need to go get more shavings tho - not thick enough yet for winter. The 'pre winter' cleaning is easy as the chickens are free ranging most of the time so less poo, but by spring cleaning I have 8-12" of shavings in there to shovel out. fun fun.

I dumped shavings from one coop into the compost, the other I layered on the dead garden area and they are rooting around in the old shavings.

I am not entirely sure my shavings are poopy enough to make good compost, but we shall see. I don't even have a poop board.

I don't have a poop board either, I use the litter from ducks an chickens on my blueberry bushes and straw berries. Also spread around outside where they keep it muddy. It helps. I know what you mean about 12" of bedding but I never take all of mine out, this is one book that I had to have
http://books.google.com/books?id=o0...&resnum=2&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Quote:
The thought had crossed my mind, but these guys take FOREVER to grow out so I decided I will keep them, and if I still have them next spring, and if I have a big pen for them I will buy them some grown peahens. There is a lady near me that is getting out of peafowl and is selling quads and trios of peas all the time.

I'm thinking about building them a coop up in the tree since they like to roost in the tree so much. I think I might even raise them up thee in the coop in the tree as soon as they're feathered out, then when they get grown just feed and water'em up in the coop and have done with it!! I think this is a pretty good idea, your thoughts?

~Aspen

 

[Miss Lydia]

A tree coop how cool, you'll have to show us step by step how you do this. But it sounds like a great idea.





Here is the other link about Deep litter for anyone might be interested. http://www.plamondon.com/faq_deep_litter.html

 

[featherz]

Quote:
I clean out to the floor on two of my coops because they actually have floors - not ideal for deep litter, but it's worked well so far. However, I have one new coop this year with a dirt floor. I think I will try only doing partial changes on that one and letting the rest compost into soil. I am not even cleaning that one out much for winter, as it's just been in use about two months and needs more litter to replace all the dirt we took out when building.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Both of my coops have wood floors then I put vinyl on top of them deep litter does good. my small coop has wood floor with vinyl but can't do deep litter in it they wouldn't be able to get into if I did, but thats where most go to lay their eggs anyway so don't really need too deep of litter. I really like the pine shaving too, much better than straw. especially for the ducks. lol

 

[moodlymoo]

I havent really posted here because Im still in denial but...how do you figure chicken math out??? Please explain. I just cant stop NEEDING new birds and well, I have an odd numbered flock and I cant have that so I may have to get 3 more tomorrow plus one of my chicks who is 4 weeks is a roo so I will need another after that so I have an even 20. So, what is chicken math

 

[Cass]

Quote:
There are a couple of threads on here that explain chicken math...But let me tell you how I figure the number of chickens I have.
I have 4 D'uccles. They are a bantam breed so they each count for 1/2 a chicken. So I have 2. But one of them isn't laying, she's broody, so subtract 1 from that so I have 1 chicken.
I have 3 chicks. Chicks don't count, cuz they are too little. So I still have 1 chicken.
I have 4 LF hens. 2 were free, from a friend so they don't count. Only one of the other 2 is laying so subtract a total of 3 from the 4.
So my flock is only 2 birds. I need more birds. End of story. I think I'll contact a few people this week to set something up.