Coop Floor and Nest Box Materials

[krista74]

Hi all Just after some comments and advice in regards to my current set up. I have quite a large shed for my flock (7 birds in all) and it has excellent ventilation and for the most part is nice and dry. (Occasionally a heavy rain will result in a leak or two, but we pop a bucket under the leak so the floor doesn't get damp, and their roost is dry.) The floor is bare dirt. Hubby's family own a dairy farm and buy in high quality hay as feed for the cattle, which we have been allowed to take for free. I put this hay on the floor of the coop, thicker under where they roost, and just loosely about the rest of the shed. In the nesting boxes I use a dry Lucerne hay which is very soft, and the chickens seem happy with it. My question is, am I doing anything wrong in using the hay? All my books advise against it, but I clean out and replace the hay in the entire shed every 5 days or so, and since it's free to me cost is not an issue. I suspect the birds do eat some seeds out of the clean hay when it first goes down, but they don't get tangled in it when they are walking around. It smells fresh in there, it's dry, and they seem happy. Your thoughts? The used hay goes into our garden and on our fruit trees

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I have always found that for everything you do with chickens, there will always be someone to say no don't do it - so do what works for you!

Hay makes me itchy and I cannot use it. I have to use sand in the coop since everything else turns moldy in our wet winters.

Make sure they don't ingest the long pieces or they can get impacted crop, is all I can think of. Straw can harbor mites inside the straws I have read.

If hay worked for me, I'd use it. Go with your gut!

 

[Pooman]

Sounds fine, if it matts down under the roost stir it up a bit and add some more. It its clean and dry and you have no mites, there is no issue. I use various differnt hay, lucerne, pea straw in the nest boxes and use old bark chips on the floor quite thickly, same thing clean dry no smell, its all good. Straight on the dirt floor is best.

 

[krista74]

Thank you both so much for your advice. I did read about impacted crops (and it scared the heck out of me!), but to be honest I think my chookies are so well fed that they don't try to eat the hay itself! Occasionally they will have a pick at the seeds, but they have plenty of whole wheat and cracked grain to eat 24/7 so I think they should be ok. I don't think they have mites at the moment as no-one seems irritated. They preen themselves but don't really scratch much otherwise. I guess the fact that there are only 7 of them helps too - and there are no new birds coming into the flock to introduce nasties. I replace the hay often so it doesn't get wet and mushy - hopefully it works out ok. Thanks again for your great advice!

 

[Hokum Coco]

Bedding
I have used all types of litter for coops.

I have not tried sand (sand gets good reviews on this site).

Of all the things I tried to date wood pellets have been the best. (I tried wood pellets as a last resort when pine shavings were not available.) They are super absorbent and swell up and eventually turn to saw dust. The droppings just seem to vanish and turn to dust when it comes in contact with wood pellets (not sure of the type).

Replace my litter and clean my coop every October after I harvest my garden.


Works for me in my deep litter method.

I do add to pellets from time to time.

I have anywhere from 10 to 24 birds housed in my 4x8 coop.

Through the winter months the pellets froze harder than concrete with -40º temperatures. The poop froze before it could be absorbed by the pellets and there was like a crusty layer of poop in certain areas where they collectively took aim (no smell, messy feet or flies @ -40º). When the crust got big enough to handle with gloves I picked it up and dropped it into my compost bin. Come April things started to look after themselves.

Nest boxes
In my nest boxes I fold a feed bag to fit (nest boxes are 1 ft³). When a bag gets soiled; fold a new one; pop out the soiled; pop in the new. Feed bags are a nylon mesh bag frozen poop just peels off in below freezing temperatures and just flakes off in summer when left out in the sun to bake and dry.



POOP BOARDS are the "BEST" addition yet. Handles well over ½ of the poop in my set up keeps ammonia smell in check 3½" below roost excellent for catching eggs laid through the night (roost are in cups for easier removal and cleaning). I recently friction fit a piece of vinyl flooring over my poop board.it makes clean up even easier; Pop out; Scrap; Hose; Pop in.

Winter months even easier flex over compost bin DONE!

Easy peasy!.

 

[krista74]

Wow! Thank you for such a comprehensive reply. I have been bugging my hubby to get some wood chips for the coop but he says with the cost of buying the birds, the feed, the storage buckets, the nest boxes etc our eggs are averaging at $800 each, so I have to wait!

I love the idea of having a poop-board or something similar that I could pop under the roost too, then scoop it clean much like I do with the cat's litter box. Until then, I guess I'm stuck with raking hay, which I can handle as long as the birds are in good conditions.

Gosh, I can't believe how cold it gets where you are! I was worried my chickens might be cold but hubby said they were fine. It's winter here at the moment (we are in Australia), and we can have nights and mornings around -2 degrees celcius. Apparently the heat will be more of an issue though - we average 46 degrees celcius in summer, so I am setting up a sprinkler system to ensure they have somewhere to cool down. They also have lots of trees and shrubs in their run to hide under.

Thank you once again for your advice, I very much appreciate it.

Krista.

 

[Pooman]

Where are you krista im in Melbourne.

You must be in the outback with temps like that.

Our council provides free mulch for pickup, check if your council,does the same. Just have to get it, trailer or ute required.

 

[krista74]

We are right up on the NSW border, are dairy farmers by trade, and live in a rural area. It does get hot here! Thankyou for your advice re the councils - I will look into that. I have also recently put up a post under Feeding/Maintaining your flock and would be most interested in your comments in that regard, if you have the time. My initial thoughts were that feeding chickens would be easy, but apparently it is quite complicated (much like feeding our dairy cows!) Thank you again for your time