My grandparents had a dairy farm when I was a little girl and I loved the henhouse. I always felt so proud and grown up when I, at age 6, was able to gather a basket of eggs and actually walk them into the house and not drop them. Good thing I am neither blond or like to chew gum.
We have had flocks of birds through the years here on our current farm, since 1986. We have always purchased from Murray mcmurray, always had a half rigged coop so we had predator problems. Every few years we would have to replace the whole flock due to our poor workmanship on our part that allowed a coon to decimate the entire flock.
Now we have a well made, *hopefully* predator proof coop. If anything needs to be stressed, build the biggest and best coop you can afford. Make it user friendly. Make it easy to clean. We put in a "backdoor" that is full sized and makes it so much easier to clean the coop. If we didn't have the backdoor, it would be a different story altogether.
No matter what, your precious birds will get worms if their feet touch the ground and they feed off the earth. Set up a regular schedule. Your birds will be thriftier and healthier if the parasites are taking their fair share of food. And no, DE, ACV won't keep them wormfree. IF they aren't symptomatic yet with weight loss and sickness, they will eventually do so when their immune system is compromised by the parasites.
We put up gutters on our henhouse and diverted the water away from the henshouse. It has made a huge difference on water not getting in the pens and the runs.
I have subsequently purchased more expensive, breeder sort of birds. Do I like them any better than my MM birds. In reality, not really. But I haven't seen the offspring yet or seen how they lay over a several year period. Time will tell if the extra cost was worth it. But they sure are pretty to look at.
But in the end they are birds to me. I live on a farm. We actually do raise alot of our own food, have cows, and process meaties once a year. We plan to get a couple of hogs next year. My dtr wants to get a milkcow and then we can use milk and whey for the chickens and hogs. That would be awesome, but I don't have the time to take on such an endeavor since I still work full time as a nurse.
I don't believe in fru fru pets, saddles, bras or the such. I haven't had to cull any this year, but have done so in the past, especially a mean roo. He is given but two or three chances and he is dinner or swimming with the fishes.
I don't begrudge the person who treats their chickens more as pets and want to carry them in their purses. Each to their own, my grandma would say.
We have had flocks of birds through the years here on our current farm, since 1986. We have always purchased from Murray mcmurray, always had a half rigged coop so we had predator problems. Every few years we would have to replace the whole flock due to our poor workmanship on our part that allowed a coon to decimate the entire flock.
Now we have a well made, *hopefully* predator proof coop. If anything needs to be stressed, build the biggest and best coop you can afford. Make it user friendly. Make it easy to clean. We put in a "backdoor" that is full sized and makes it so much easier to clean the coop. If we didn't have the backdoor, it would be a different story altogether.
No matter what, your precious birds will get worms if their feet touch the ground and they feed off the earth. Set up a regular schedule. Your birds will be thriftier and healthier if the parasites are taking their fair share of food. And no, DE, ACV won't keep them wormfree. IF they aren't symptomatic yet with weight loss and sickness, they will eventually do so when their immune system is compromised by the parasites.
We put up gutters on our henhouse and diverted the water away from the henshouse. It has made a huge difference on water not getting in the pens and the runs.
I have subsequently purchased more expensive, breeder sort of birds. Do I like them any better than my MM birds. In reality, not really. But I haven't seen the offspring yet or seen how they lay over a several year period. Time will tell if the extra cost was worth it. But they sure are pretty to look at.
But in the end they are birds to me. I live on a farm. We actually do raise alot of our own food, have cows, and process meaties once a year. We plan to get a couple of hogs next year. My dtr wants to get a milkcow and then we can use milk and whey for the chickens and hogs. That would be awesome, but I don't have the time to take on such an endeavor since I still work full time as a nurse.
I don't believe in fru fru pets, saddles, bras or the such. I haven't had to cull any this year, but have done so in the past, especially a mean roo. He is given but two or three chances and he is dinner or swimming with the fishes.
I don't begrudge the person who treats their chickens more as pets and want to carry them in their purses. Each to their own, my grandma would say.
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