Chickens on the lawn ... and other questions.

[CowgirlPenny]

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I never wear separate shoes. Seems silly. I have dogs and we don't wear separate ones in the yard (where they roam) If the poop is so large its just laying on the grass...watch out. Otherwise it will fall into the grass and wont even get on your shoes. Mine would eat our garden, all my flowers and wouldn't be safe with the dogs. So mine will always be in a run. At first when they are out of the brooder, they go to the 8x8 run with a coop. Then once they are a little bigger (probably 4 more weeks) they will go to the 25x55 run. It keeps them safe from predators, my pets, keeps my garden safe, contains the poop. Win, win.

I can't really speak on the lice part.

I let mine out at 11am every day. They happily greet me. I do keep food and water inside at night though so that they can occupied in the morning.

I don't know how you could go a month without cleaning. It would stink to high heaven. I clean mine once a week removing visible areas of poop, and freshening their straw. I do a deep clean monthly where I remove all the straw, spray everything off, and fill with new straw.

Dh stands for 'dear husband' you'll see the same for DS (dear son) DD (dear daughter) it could also stand for darn, or worse depending on what they did.

I'm more curious to see if you will actually get two chickens and not more. I've yet to see someone stick to their original number they intended. Mine was 6. I have 19.

 

[Alabama ee]

You might want to get 3 just in case something happens to one.

 

[earnhardtlvr]

Quote:

 

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

I was originally going to get 3 chickens but I ended up with 6!

 

[Cass]

Good luck with 2. I originally ordered 5 hens, 1 roo....When I have collected all my chicks (that BYC friends are hatching for me) I will have 14. OMG FOURTEEN??? What am I thinking? That's a DOZEN eggs A DAY... Good thing my brother lives close and has 5 kids.

 

[earnhardtlvr]

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Hi Cass...I know what u mean! My DH was the one wanting chickens and I was like well only 3-4...then I started looking at all the cute babies and our 3-4 grew to 19 in the basement know with another 10-15 coming! OMG!!! LOL Hope I can find lots of people to buy some eggs too!!

 

[swimmer]

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Good idea. Just in case.

 

[cafarmgirl]

Yeah I was only going to get three, *maybe* four. I ended up with nine.

And yes, the D in DH can stand for a lot of things. Like right now, my husband did not go pick up a pizza so now there's nothing for dinner unless I cook. But on this forum I cannot write what the D currently stands for!

Maybe tomorrow it will be back to "Dear" husband. Maybe.

Anyway, pretty much plan on not being able to walk barefoot in your nice yard once you having chickens roaming around in there, even if it's only two. As has already been said, they'll pretty much scratch, dig and eat everything in sight and poop everywhere.

I wear a different pair of shoes out to the barn simply because otherwise your nice going-to-town shoes will not be so nice.

I have 9 chickens in a large coop, I don't do deep litter. I just rake out the coop each day and put it on the compost pile. Once a week I dust the area with DE. No stink, no flies, never had any lice or mites. How often you clean and what kind of bedding is a personal choice depending on what's easiest and works best for you.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Its just like any other big change, like buying your first car or having your first child or starting your new career, or learning to read. There's potential mess inherent in any new path. (Our 14 year old just finished another Stephen King novel

)

But, with chickens, Silver Linings outweigh those dark clouds of worry!

At first, you fear the poop. Then you start chanting silly mantras, like "scooping poop is therapootic". Then, you start collecting it to compost for your garden. Your compost heap smells heavenly, like the spring lily show at a giant greenhouse. You gather favourite herbs from relatives and plant them with a new collection of rosebushes (or rutabagas, whatever your fancy).
Your lawn becomes so green and lush, you spend more time there than ever amidst your bright new patches of garden, you've bought new outdoor furniture to sit around watching "chicken TV" with your loved ones, sipping mimosas or jasmine tea with your (clean) feet up. You're dreaming, planning, discussing additions to your new utopian, bucolic landscape design...

That leads to the UNTHINKABLE new idea: you simply don't have enough chicken poop. "There must be more chickens here" you begin to muse...

And so it begins........... stricken with chicken math disease............ you answer silly visitors' number one question with "Oh yes, we eat the eggs, they're great!" though you've forgotten for days to check the nestboxes for glorious round wonders, what with all your gardening and feathercrafts you've got up your sleeves, your new outdoor photography hobby and little time leftover after thrashing out ideas on the BYC forum...

It's never stopped at two.

We had 2 little boys once, but that 3rd one's the charm! He helps us care for our 8 suburban garden chickens.

 

[butterflygardener]

Besides, what if one turns out to be a roo? Two just isn't enough. Last year I went to get four, ended up with eight.
We have a coop with an enclosed, predator proof run. The only time I close the door between the two is if I'm cleaning the coop. I can sleep in, go on vacation, or go to work and not worry about running out to the coop to let them out. We have sand in the covered run and pine shavings in the coop. I clean out the coop 2-3 times a year and add more shavings as needed. Easy. Attached to the secure run is their 'yard' that is fenced with a sliding door. This is where we can let them out for more room during the day and where I throw in leaves and other things for them to eat and play in.

Welcome to BYC!!! Thank goodness for this site and all the helpful people. Last year was our first year raising chickens, and whenever I had a question I was always able to find the answer here.