Coop Project: Maken the Plunge & Getting Chickens

[Rock Home Isle]

Thanks for the chicken feed comment! Great info! How do you give them the sour cream and yogurt? in a dish? sorry if that's a silly question!

Do you have any opinion on hanging their feeder and waterers? i have them on the ground and it's so gross right now!!

Aren't chickens just fun to have around? I describe them as living Lawn Ornaments, and I enjoy watching them go about their lives.

I used to put Sour Cream and Yogurt in my hand and feed it to them, but they have gotten so excited now that they are outside, that I put it in a small dish and call them. If its in my hand, they grab fingers, and each other in their excitement to eat the treat. It's crazy to watch them once they realize what the treat is for them. I really do need to video tape and post it...

I have two feeders that I use for the flock. One is a very large base to a terracotta pot; it sits on a cement paving stone on the back patio (I'll Post an image after work today for you to see). It works great for the whole grain ration that I feed, but the local sparrows and doves hit this hard...and I feel sometimes like all I'm doing is feeding birds and not my birds. I'm considering a change for this summer...but as you know chickens don't really like change. The other feeder is a standard hopper that sits in the run on top of a cinder block. I have posted images of this before in the thread, I think even recently. I use this hopper for mash rations or whole grain or even a mix as needed. The cinder block keeps the hopper off the ground and tends to keep dirt and debris out of the feed. (I will post and image of this as well after I get home.)

I have two Waterers that I use for the flock. One is a Double Wall galvanized Waterer that sits on a drop screen in the run. The Double Wall Waterer is my favorite, bar none. This design is very reliable and well made. The drop screen sits on top of a set of cinder blocks. This really serves to keep the Waterers clean and free of debris. I had a hard time keeping things clean until I set the Waterer up off the ground. The other Waterer is a 3 gallon black feed tub that I set on the back patio during the summer for the birds. The chickens love this Waterer and it gets used much more than the Double Walled Waterer; Doves, Sparrows, Blackbirds all use this Waterer all the time. So I do find myself washing this one out more often because of the bird droppings. During the winter the black tub sits on the screen in the run and I drop an electrical water heater to keep things from freezing.

I like to keep things as clean as possible. We have guests that stop by often and it is nice to sit on the deck and watch the birds. So yes...This has been my solution to keeping things clean for the birds.

I've never thought to hang the waterers or feeders....suppose I could give it a try.

 

[MrsMommaB]

Aren't chickens just fun to have around? I describe them as living Lawn Ornaments, and I enjoy watching them go about their lives.

I used to put Sour Cream and Yogurt in my hand and feed it to them, but they have gotten so excited now that they are outside, that I put it in a small dish and call them. If its in my hand, they grab fingers, and each other in their excitement to eat the treat. It's crazy to watch them once they realize what the treat is for them. I really do need to video tape and post it...

I have two feeders that I use for the flock. One is a very large base to a terracotta pot; it sits on a cement paving stone on the back patio (I'll Post an image after work today for you to see). It works great for the whole grain ration that I feed, but the local sparrows and doves hit this hard...and I feel sometimes like all I'm doing is feeding birds and not my birds. I'm considering a change for this summer...but as you know chickens don't really like change. The other feeder is a standard hopper that sits in the run on top of a cinder block. I have posted images of this before in the thread, I think even recently. I use this hopper for mash rations or whole grain or even a mix as needed. The cinder block keeps the hopper off the ground and tends to keep dirt and debris out of the feed. (I will post and image of this as well after I get home.)

I have two Waterers that I use for the flock. One is a Double Wall galvanized Waterer that sits on a drop screen in the run. The Double Wall Waterer is my favorite, bar none. This design is very reliable and well made. The drop screen sits on top of a set of cinder blocks. This really serves to keep the Waterers clean and free of debris. I had a hard time keeping things clean until I set the Waterer up off the ground. The other Waterer is a 3 gallon black feed tub that I set on the back patio during the summer for the birds. The chickens love this Waterer and it gets used much more than the Double Walled Waterer; Doves, Sparrows, Blackbirds all use this Waterer all the time. So I do find myself washing this one out more often because of the bird droppings. During the winter the black tub sits on the screen in the run and I drop an electrical water heater to keep things from freezing.

I like to keep things as clean as possible. We have guests that stop by often and it is nice to sit on the deck and watch the birds. So yes...This has been my solution to keeping things clean for the birds.

I've never thought to hang the waterers or feeders....suppose I could give it a try.

Yes I remember seeing your waterers and feeders on the blocks and drop basin. great ideas! I was wondering if you liked that better than hanging them and if so, why. but it sounds like you haven't tried hanging yet! i'll give it a try here soon and let you know. I have tried propping them up a bit off the ground but haven't got them up high enough to make much of a difference in the amount of yuck that gets in there so figured i'd try hanging them unless there was a good reason not to!
and yes, i sure do love them!! i could just sit and stare at them all day. i'm a boring person though. but they definitely entertain me.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

The 3 gallon tub sits at the end of the patio. The chickens use it daily, along with all the neighborhood birds and squirrels.

I put a terracotta pot base on top of a paver and I use it to hold my whole grain rations. The girls came up onto the deck, and complained loudly, I had forgotten to fill it after I got home. They keep me on my toes.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

A while back, my daughter left Sadie with us a few days. Chickens stopped laying, zero, zilch, nada.

Sadie goes home...

....2 days later, they are laying like gangbusters again. :/

4 chickens, 14 eggs in 4 days.

What is Sadie doing while we are not home? Questioning minds want to know....

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Today was a workday, I had a lot of to-do's on my plate. All of it having to do with details in and around the run...messes that needed my attention.

This is where I started. I have a pile of stuff packed back between the run and the house. Every time I take a photo a little bit of me dies when I see the mess in the background.

Fortunately I had help today. My grandson put on his mom's work shirt and came over to...help.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I pulled everything out and dug it down 2 inches. All the dirt and collected poultry refuse dug out was wheeled down and dumped in a big pile in the garden.

Looking in through the other end.

You have no idea what a weight this is getting this all cleaned out.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Next I tore into the run, pulled everything out and used a Polaski Axe to break up the hard pan and leveled the ground. After a few years, the girls had holes everywhere that they used for impromptu dust bathing. The cinder blocks holding up the drop screen weren't level any more, and the feed pan on top of another cinder block had some how shifted under the eves of the coop. Water from storms would drip into the pan.

Once the run was plowed using the Polaski Axe, I raked it smooth and then set pavers in place where I wanted to reset the cinder blocks.

This a photo of the finished process. When I start working I get pretty focused. I intended to have a photo series showing the pavers being leveled.

I have...issues.

Here is the feeder pan now on leveled paver and cinder block. It really makes a difference when you get things up off the ground.

I have found that raising the feeders and waterers goes a long way towards keeping things clean and sanitary. The birds can be quite messy as they bill food, scratch, and flap around the run. Wood shavings work well in keeping odors down and actually clean their feet as they shuffle through the run.

I remember well cleaning the waterers with our ducks and chickens, had I only known to raise them off the ground...that would have been so much nicer...hind-sight is 20/20.

 

[aart]

I've found that putting the pavers on the ground around the cinder blocks is the only way to keep them from digging under them.
Course mine don't free range so they have more time and no where else to dig.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Anytime I do anything in and around the run, I attract the girls' attention. As I dug, shoveled, and raked, they would stream into the run, cluck their approval and quietly get in the way Of what ever I was working on at the moment. Seems every time I turned around, there was a chicken looking over my shoulder, or trying to roost on my shoulder.

But alas...things went fairly smoothly.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I've found that putting the pavers on the ground around the cinder blocks is the only way to keep them from digging under them.
Course mine don't free range so they have more time and no where else to dig.

Kindred spirit....I knew you'd get it.