Chicken repellant???

[WalkingOnSunshine]

OK thanks for the tip. It is the same consistency as the scratch (crumbles), so they should be good with it. I feel bad I took that ghetto farm lady's advice, i should have researched that a bit more. I ended up buying a few more pullets (3 wyandottes) from a different farm a couple weeks after that and he had nothing but bad things to say about the original farm I got my first chix from...
I did subsidize them with free ranging, yogurt, table scraps, and meal worms so they did get a little extra protein...

Well, all I can hope now is that I didn't cause any long term health issues or stunted growth from their recent malnutrition?

You don't have to wet crumbles.

Only time will tell how your original babies lay, but they will probably do fine. As Alaskan said, chickens are tougher than many people give them credit for.

 

[peterjarmo]

Good to hear, thanks for all the replies folks. This site is a very valuable resource for the rookie chicken keeper...

 

[LaLa Chickie]

I saw an article on a moveable enclosure that you just relocate each day as they use up an area. I used portable fencing for mine as chicks and moved it around daily...now they just roam the whole acre!

 

[hedz82]

Hey peterjarmo,
I came to this site as a newbie just like you a few months ago! a lot of great tips. And your chooks will teach you every day! Just watch their habits and behavior and you'll understand their likes and dislikes! Mine go running to eat lawn in the morning (they sleep in a metal aviary with a little wooden coop for predator safety and free range on our 2 acre garden all day) after they eat some pellets, and I ve had to put a fence around my veggie garden. But the most destructive is definitely the dustbathing, and as someone mentioned, they find a spot where the soil is moist in summer, cool, and fine, and shady and that's that for the landscaping there. Mine have about three spots around the garden they favor because of the texture of the soil, one of them was the veggie garden (also because it was always well watered and cool). The other spot is in the flower bed by the house under the trees. They've dug a nice pit there. (By the way, I have THREE chickens)
So I compromised, fenced off the veggie garden and gave them part of the flower bed. I keep the spot contained by putting big rocks around it so they don't take over the whole area.Now they have a nice dust basin there. Depending on how much you are willing to compromise with your chickens, I would see where their favorite spot is and then incorporate the sandpit into your landscaping with some nicely arranged rocks around it and some (chickenproof) plants maybe. Otherwise you'll have to put fencing on the floor. I use the green plastic chicken wire because its less obvious. Remember they will move to another spot then though and as much as you try and coerce them to go to a certain place YOU want, they will never use it but always find their own.
Good luck.Let us know how it works out..

 

[can you hear me now?]

I would definitely suggest the pine tar to stop picking if it doesn't stop on its own. The only way tostop them in spots of the yard is to physically keep them out. An earlier poster said they would worry about the pine tar killing grass, i agree there. Yeah scratch is great to keep them going but as a treat. I like to give them popcorn sometimes too because they just love it. Hope all goes well. It seems like you are doing just fine to me.

 

[annspot]

As long as they are just eating the grass and not scratching the roots out, the grass will grow back. Perhaps they are scratching and not eating it? I have found that my chickens will scratch in certain areas, especially when there are worms and/or grubs in the area, and kill the grass. I recently figured out that if I lay the a piece of wire fencing down flat on the surface I don't want them to scratch in and pin it down with landscape fabric staples they won't scratch in the area. I use this strategy in my garden as well to keep them from scratching around delicate plants. It eliminates having little fences all over the lawn and depending on where you are using it you can cover with mulch or continue to mow over. Good luck!

 

[peterjarmo]

Annspot that's kinda what we,d been doing, putting metal screens down which kept em off certain areas, fencing flat on the ground sounds good too since the wafter will still get in...
I did find a repellant though; it involves the pecking solution. Well the wound kote worked great, they left that one alone but ended up pecking another of the wyandottes tail feathers till the quils bled. Just as an experiment I tried just rooster booster pick no more on that one which worked just as good and neither one has been pecked since. It gave me an idea tho, I went back to the feed store and got another rooster booster bottle and squirted it all into a spray bottle and diluted it to 500cc total with water and shook it up real good. Then I sprayed it on our overgrazed spots and let the chix out to free range. Sure enough they'd go to their favorite spots but after one or two pecks they'd just move along....
So I did find a "repellant" although I think it'd get a bit expensive reapplying this stuff a couple times a week so it probably isn't realistic but still figured I share it with you all. It would work great on an area that didn't get watered much, but us watering the lawn frequently jut washes the rooster booster away...
The feather pecking has stopped though, thanks for all the tips. We switched to the layena feed and with the wound kote/rooster booster all is calm on the western front....

 

[Alaskan]

Yeah! Glad to hear it!

 

[kichens]

there is a motion detecor sprinkler that you can buy... sprays the chix everytime they come by and they hate it; but it will also spray you everytime you go by! If you turn it off and think the chix have learned their lesson, you'd be wrong... they just keep coming back to same place whether sprinkler is on or not. Kinda fun to watch the birds take flight at first sprinkle! Will protect your garden though.