Coop issues/frostbite concerns

[Blooie]

I turn it over twice daily because, I'm crazy. I have not noticed a smell.

Should I add straw?

Thanks for all of your help!

You are not crazy, you're careful! There's a difference! You can add some straw if you'd like - I do. My base is pine shavings, but at times I've added grass clippings, weeds I've pulled, prunings, leaves and some straw once we dipped down into the negative teens for temps. The chickens do a great job of mixing it all in when they scratch through it. You say you've noticed no odor, so that's good!

The big issue for you, as I see it, isn't so much what you have on your floor but the amount of ventilation. I know, again back to the ventilation, but it's absolutely critical.

 

[iwiw60]

I turn it over twice daily because, I'm crazy. I have not noticed a smell.

Should I add straw?

Thanks for all of your help!

I personally don't use straw for floor bedding. Straw is 'tubular' and good hideouts for lice/mites...just my preference is pine wood shavings. I get them by the bale for around $6-7 and it goes a long way...love the stuff.

 

[Heni Penny]

Thanks for all of your help. When I checked them this morning, there wasn't frost on the window (we haven't added the vents in the roof yet). But I did make some changes the last time I checked them yesterday.

1) I really took extra time to address the waterer - they've been spilling it/throwing shavings in it. I can't hang it because one of my hens likes to roost up in the top where the bar I hang things. The food is hanging but she always pooped in the water. Plus I kept spilling it everytime I took it down to clean/refil. ANYHOW, lastnight I cleaned the heated waterer and put it up on scraps of 4x4s we had laying around. Now they aren't spilling it or putting as much of the shavings in the water. I also scraped any ice out (from spilled water) and put fresh pine there.

2) I had been (for 2/3 nights) making them "tea" - just boiling herbs and putting it in for them warm as a "treat." Maybe the warm vapors from the tea created a problem? I was doing it basically because I could/wanted to.

3) this isn't a change but an update: one of our Wyandotte hens had a small site that was bleeding this am. I wiped bag balm on it (frostbite?) but that's all I've been able to do. They otherwise seem fine except the rooster (aracuana) keeps laying in the shavings.

 

[iwiw60]

Thanks for all of your help. When I checked them this morning, there wasn't frost on the window (we haven't added the vents in the roof yet). But I did make some changes the last time I checked them yesterday.

1) I really took extra time to address the waterer - they've been spilling it/throwing shavings in it. I can't hang it because one of my hens likes to roost up in the top where the bar I hang things. The food is hanging but she always pooped in the water. Plus I kept spilling it everytime I took it down to clean/refil. ANYHOW, lastnight I cleaned the heated waterer and put it up on scraps of 4x4s we had laying around. Now they aren't spilling it or putting as much of the shavings in the water. I also scraped any ice out (from spilled water) and put fresh pine there.

2) I had been (for 2/3 nights) making them "tea" - just boiling herbs and putting it in for them warm as a "treat." Maybe the warm vapors from the tea created a problem? I was doing it basically because I could/wanted to.

3) this isn't a change but an update: one of our Wyandotte hens had a small site that was bleeding this am. I wiped bag balm on it (frostbite?) but that's all I've been able to do. They otherwise seem fine except the rooster (aracuana) keeps laying in the shavings.

Sounds like you're getting that ventilation under control...great!

I don't understand when you said...."...one of our Wyandotte hens had a small site that was bleeding this am. What kind of injury and where was it located??? You said you put bag balm on it. Let me know more about this and we can better help you with it.

 

[Heni Penny]

It was between two of her toes on the web. It looked like a small cut/scrape. It reminded me of when my knuckles get dry in the winter and bleed. I was planning on taking a better look tonight after they roost. She didn't really hold still earlier.

 

[iwiw60]

It was between two of her toes on the web. It looked like a small cut/scrape. It reminded me of when my knuckles get dry in the winter and bleed. I was planning on taking a better look tonight after they roost. She didn't really hold still earlier.

I would again clean that wound area, pat it dry and spray with Vetericyn Spray .. that stuff is a miracle worker!

 

[nab58]

Moving the heated waterer from the coop to the eu would reduce humidity too.