strangeanimal
Songster
Hi everyone ,
My chickens already at day 1 did not lay in their nestingboxes , so I was looking at some footage of how they used to live in the cages and where their nestingareas where but I did found this : NOTHING , so where did they lay their eggs then ??? how are those nestingboxes build ( if there were ! ) , one of the hens laid her first egg just where she was eating , right in front of the other ones noses and just on the ground in the grass instead of hiding . Now they are a bit more acting like a chicken and still they refuse the nestingboxes ,
the box is just build on the coop on the side over the fenced run so that I can easily get the eggs out without disturbing them inside of the run and coop , so to give an idea of this the coop is inside of the run so they'd be safe from predators but I made sure the coop is not just on the ground and is build like a hutch (lifted ) and just the area where I made their nestingboxes hangs over the fence , it is just the usual nestingbox you see in almost every coop , in hight , depth and they have their space due one piece of scrapwood that has been placed in the middle but the chickens seem to be scared to go in there ??
Bedding : no hay because I do not like to use this as it is messy , and it can easily trick their legs , so I use woodshavings from real wood , not storebought , sawdust and woodchips I got from a local tree industry and I use this as fertilizer for my vegetables too plus it keeps it all clean , I added herbs in the mixture : lavender , sage , and all kinds of herbs that would keep it more clean and keep flies , mosquitos etc away , also I assumed it would have been nice for them to lay in there but they keep refusing to go in even when you put an egg in there they lay on the floor ?
so now I got this idea to use a temporary solution of using an old rabbithutch , which is lower to the ground as I have experienced the girls hate climbing up the ramp ( or are still a bit too weak or sore in their legs perhaps ) .
The rabbithutch is about 90 cm in lenght , 55 in depth and 60 in hight ? it is with roofing and has a small fence in front of it which I was planning to replace in wood to make it darker and weatherproof with an open door as well but there have been rabbits in this about a year ago now and I am not so sure that I can use this as those rabbits had a deasease back in time + it once has served for a chicken to be seperated that was broody and that was the time all my chickens suddenly got runny noses and caughed and sneezed a lot and got the respitoryy disease after having them checked . So here is my question ( better said is the biggest question ) :
it is not been used now for about a year so is this clear from any infectious things as it has been standing outside ? Secondly is there like a way to clean it out for sure to make this safe ? at this point their coop doesn't seem to work out for them , also I am still doing a lot of building and am in need of proper materials as there is a delay in delivery of wood and all other things I have ordered ... So how about using bleach ? amoniak ? I dont know just a bit how I can make sure this is safe .. Some advice would be strongly welcomed !!! thx in advance from the girls and myself !
My chickens already at day 1 did not lay in their nestingboxes , so I was looking at some footage of how they used to live in the cages and where their nestingareas where but I did found this : NOTHING , so where did they lay their eggs then ??? how are those nestingboxes build ( if there were ! ) , one of the hens laid her first egg just where she was eating , right in front of the other ones noses and just on the ground in the grass instead of hiding . Now they are a bit more acting like a chicken and still they refuse the nestingboxes ,
the box is just build on the coop on the side over the fenced run so that I can easily get the eggs out without disturbing them inside of the run and coop , so to give an idea of this the coop is inside of the run so they'd be safe from predators but I made sure the coop is not just on the ground and is build like a hutch (lifted ) and just the area where I made their nestingboxes hangs over the fence , it is just the usual nestingbox you see in almost every coop , in hight , depth and they have their space due one piece of scrapwood that has been placed in the middle but the chickens seem to be scared to go in there ??
Bedding : no hay because I do not like to use this as it is messy , and it can easily trick their legs , so I use woodshavings from real wood , not storebought , sawdust and woodchips I got from a local tree industry and I use this as fertilizer for my vegetables too plus it keeps it all clean , I added herbs in the mixture : lavender , sage , and all kinds of herbs that would keep it more clean and keep flies , mosquitos etc away , also I assumed it would have been nice for them to lay in there but they keep refusing to go in even when you put an egg in there they lay on the floor ?
so now I got this idea to use a temporary solution of using an old rabbithutch , which is lower to the ground as I have experienced the girls hate climbing up the ramp ( or are still a bit too weak or sore in their legs perhaps ) .
The rabbithutch is about 90 cm in lenght , 55 in depth and 60 in hight ? it is with roofing and has a small fence in front of it which I was planning to replace in wood to make it darker and weatherproof with an open door as well but there have been rabbits in this about a year ago now and I am not so sure that I can use this as those rabbits had a deasease back in time + it once has served for a chicken to be seperated that was broody and that was the time all my chickens suddenly got runny noses and caughed and sneezed a lot and got the respitoryy disease after having them checked . So here is my question ( better said is the biggest question ) :
it is not been used now for about a year so is this clear from any infectious things as it has been standing outside ? Secondly is there like a way to clean it out for sure to make this safe ? at this point their coop doesn't seem to work out for them , also I am still doing a lot of building and am in need of proper materials as there is a delay in delivery of wood and all other things I have ordered ... So how about using bleach ? amoniak ? I dont know just a bit how I can make sure this is safe .. Some advice would be strongly welcomed !!! thx in advance from the girls and myself !
