Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Dead Rabbit]

i have similar problem. all the rain water runs off paved driveway towards my barn. and the chicken yard catches it all. but i have rabbits too and their waste exists the barn hence the smell is intensified. i helped with problem with guttering off barn and buried drain pipe outa the yard.
id say your idea with building the ground up is best option. you need to use fill material that drains extremely well though. sand is good. but im wondering if some large gravel as a base would help too. im not familiar enuff with this type of thing to have any great ideas.

i know a french drain helps drain off areas that are lower and hold water.

 

[JenellYB]

When building up an area for better drainage, used crushed rock, angular shapes, not gravel, round shaped. The round shapes of gravel sink into the ground much worse. Best I've found is a small sized "road bed" grade, like they often use when asphalt/rock paving a road. It is better than gravel not only at not sinking down into the ground, but supporting anything on top of it. I've seen people use gravel or crushed rock fill under paving stones for walkways or even kennel runs, the pavers sink down into the gravel much worse than into crushed rock.

 

[galanie]

I know one thing. My coop is on the highest ground on my property and when I move, I plan to wait till a heavy rain to see where the high ground is to build the permanent one. No way I'm hauling stuff. And if there is no place then I'd think I got some pretty bad bottom land.

 

[WI FarmChick]

I started reading this thread about a week ago. (It has 248 Pages and 2473 posts at this point)

I was finely going to get the correct answers to my questions from OT's That have been there and done that, And Not read out of a book some where...I Could DO that. Don't need that...Not looking For that.

I wasn't going to post anything EXCEPT a question IF I had one at the end. I have only 2 yrs chicken husbandry under my belt, SO I am not in a position to give advice.
Beekissed... I couldn't take it any longer I had to give my thumbs up

to your post I just read.
(AND MANY OTHERS) I will be finishing my reading and skipping thru the newbie post that aren't questions and all OFF the topic posts as well.

And Taking All the OT"s Advice To Heart. Thank you OT'S I have the UTMOST respect for your years of Experience.


so sad that this thread went OFF like it did. I am Grateful to you for starting this thread. Lisa

I don't find that to be proof whatsoever....maybe proof that someone is not pairing natural deworming with the other things that make this type of deworming effective. Even Salatin pairs his natural deworming of his cattle with judicious culling and breeding for parasite resistance. Anyone serious about natural animal husbandry is going to take the time to choose breeds with natural resistance, select from those breeds in the flock who thrive on natural methods, cull those that do not and then breed for animals that carry that natural resistance along to their offspring.

One cannot just throw some herbs at a group of animals and then pronounce it doesn't work if the whole flock or even ANY of the flock just doesn't do well with those methods. If I tell you that I've never seen worms in any of the chickens I have killed and ate...and that is a full on plenty...that were raised with all natural methods, does this mean that it proves that it DOES work? Probably this would not be conclusive evidence for you. You would want to try it. But...if you also didn't spend years developing and refining your flocks to suit your methods, you probably would find that you too would state that "natural" deworming doesn't work.

There is more to natural husbandry than what you throw down an animal's throat or what you spread on their backs. If you want an easy method to raising some chickens, then buying something off a store shelf and placing it in the water seems like the best route for you. If you want to grow animals that don't HAVE to be given medicine in order to live out a year, then you want to put in a little thought and deliberation into your husbandry practices.

Easy methods pay off for short term results.

A little less easy, more thought, more planning....well, that pays off in the long run and in the long run it gets easier and easier.

You'll never see me posting how my whole flock got wiped out with some disease~has never happened and I don't attribute that to luck, but to hard won hardiness in my flock. You'll also never see me posting about my whole flock or any of it, getting wiped out in a predator attack because I've free ranged...I've taken the not so easy route so that my long term predator program is assured. I didn't just turn out my birds and cross my fingers that they will be safe...I've paired my free range with several safety measures.

I use the free range example because it is much like the natural deworming...someone throws some birds in the back yard, doesn't fence them with perimeter fencing, doesn't offer protection in the form of a dog or other protection animal, doesn't give them anywhere to hide, no rooster to give a warning....then they will come on the forum and emphatically state that they tried it, lost their birds in a tragic predatory attack and would NEVER free range a chicken again and anyone who does obviously doesn't care about their birds. I've seen those kind of posts over and over on this forum and each time it makes me want to scream.

With natural deworming, one has to use multiple approaches. Some of these include: Free ranging your flock. Culling for non-thriftiness(poor condition, performance, etc.). Multiple natural methods/sources of deworming(garlic, soap, wood ashes). Offering probiotics like UP/ACV to improve digestive and intestinal function and health. Non-medicated feeds always, from day one. Deep litter in the coop, summer and winter. No disinfectants for the equipment or housing. Good, whole grains and freshly milled feeds instead of prepackaged, pelleted feeds from bags that have been milled for some time and sitting in warehouses awaiting delivery.

Proof that I have done it properly is in the fact that I don't show up at the vet with a sick animal. That I don't even know what the symptoms of coryza are, nor any of the other diseases. I've never even researched them for educational purposes. Why? Because I don't intend to have them in my flocks....and I simply work on my husbandry until every bird is a picture of good health. Period.

You might just say I've been lucky but I believe in my husbandry methods and I feel that it isn't luck...it took determination to get there. Luck is when you do nothing and get good results. When you actually put time and effort and get good results, it should simply be called "successful". Calling something like that luck is like saying an Olympic gold medal winner is merely lucky.

 

[WI FarmChick]

This was the first page I read.

After seeing Nifty's poll on years of flock management, it seems there are enough old timers here to compile some good, old-fashioned and time-honored tricks of the trade....anyone care to share their philosophy on chickens and all things pertaining?

Now then, I'd like to ask folks to be respectful of one another when the methods of husbandry aren't the same....naturally this is going to happen.

THREAD WARNING: The old-timers are just that, nothing more and nothing less. Their speech may be to the point, sassy, and no-nonsense~this does not mean they meant to offend you or each other. This is just how old farmers talk.

If you are very sensitive and offend easily, it may be time to turn your car around and head back to where the couches are soft and the music is soft and dreamy....this is where the rubber meets the road and only the strong survive.


****A suggestion has been made by a newbie that we all place our relative years of chicken husbandry next to our location on our profile....I think this is a good idea and will sort the wheat from the tares, so to speak. Get yer years up there and show yer ages in doing so....we won't laugh...much. ********

 

[Beekissed]

I'm so glad you like it! This thread seems to provoke strong reactions~either folks really like it or they really, really hate it. Either way, it lets them know right away whether they should read further or just give it a pass....I like that feature in a thread. I hate to read an entire big thread only to find that it never really got to any real good content that applies to my situation. I tried to make the first page indicative of the rest of the thread so that folks could stop there or travel on, so to speak.

 

[WI FarmChick]

I just loved it! I wish it would have been more on topic at the end. not many OT's answering questions.

I do Have a question for the OT's

If there are any out there..................

I was wondering If anyone has had any experience using a "Half Monitor" Coop Before?

How well did it work for them?

Ok that is two I can count sorta.

 

[gardendufus]

WIFarmchick..........well, I certainly am not an old timer, nor had I ever heard of a half-monitor house, so I certainly can't respond to your question. BUT, being the inquisitive person I am I googled it and came up with this BYC link: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/half-monitor-chicken-coop a very interesting page on a woman who has one of these.

Her pics immediately reminded me of my very favorite coop on this site, created by JackE, who started a thread about his coop here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/445004/woods-style-house-in-the-winter

If you haven't already found these you might be interested in taking a look. At the time, I spent a lot of time bemoaning the fact that I didn't have the room, building skills, or money to have one for myself, and I am convinced by their reviews of their coops that it is one of the best designs around.

I also am saddened that the OT's don't seem to frequent this thread much anymore (Beekissed, you are the ever faithful one), but actually I think they said most of what they had to say in the early part of the thread and maybe if someone posted an original unanswered question, they would pop in to help. But most topics have already been covered, and as an OT in years, if not in experience, I suspect repeating themselves over and over to people who would not bother to read through the whole thread became somewhat of an irritation.

By the way

, a coupla months late, but still heartfelt.

 

[WI FarmChick]

Thank you for your warm welcome.

and Thank you for your reply.

I did see those posts before I started my coop. I decided on this coop, as my first coop (10 or so yrs ago) did not work out so well.
I did not at the time know what my chickens needed. I have also learned a lot form this thread. more than any other one here.

 

[Beekissed]

I've learned a lot from it too...and am still learning! Never heard of a half-monitor coop before....I've seen them in pics but didn't know what they were called and still don't know why they are called that~maybe you could explain?

I know, for my part, the basics of chicken husbandry are pretty much plain and don't require much elaboration...and they have certainly been elaborated upon during the course of this thread!

You know...not much new under the sun, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Every day I'm learning new things about an old subject but it really can't be considered OT advice if it's new stuff....like using poultry nipples for watering~where have they been all my life??? LOVE them!

And fermenting feeds for improved health and more feed efficiency~that's an old one that I am just now implementing and should have been doing all along but just never really thought to look into it.

Electric poultry netting....lovely stuff if you don't have a perimeter fence around your chicken space and I don't know why more folks don't use them if they don't have a dog and they want to free range. Not old timer kinda stuff but still great things to try in today's world of chickening, especially with folks doing it in the suburbs.

I love this thread because it has a lot of practical solutions to the same old problems...that's the OT thread, in a nutshell.