Favorite tools and those to avoid?

[crowdofmyself]

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Gallon waterers, water should be fresh every day.

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Hudson sprayer

What's the Hudson sprayer used for?

 

[R2elk]

Impact driver with two batteries, and a big compressor with a pneumatic stapler. Must have if you build a lot of stuff.

Ryobi makes a battery powered stapler. I really like mine.

 

[crowdofmyself]

If you're using hog rings make sure to get the matching pliers... makes it far easier and the pliers are usually fairly inexpensive.

Is there a particular type/brand you recommend? When I was looking on Amazon, I was pretty bewildered by all the choices. That's when I came here to start this tool post!

 

[igorsMistress]

What's the Hudson sprayer used for?

I use it for pest control. It came in very handy for a lice issue. Had to spray birds and coop, one batch in the sprayer made it really easy.

 

[lazy gardener]

We're about to have ten pine trees taken down and I'm going to have them chip them up on site and leave the chips. Will pine chips will be okay for deep litter? Great tip on the screen door thingies.

They should age for about a year before you put them in the run/coop. Folks have had problems with toxic mold if using fresh chips.

I have a Ryobi 18V drill. Last summer I bought a 18V flood light. That thing will light up my whole yard at night. It's great for doing a coop, perimeter check at night to scout for predators, check to be sure all doors are secure, etc...

 

[cmom]

I put 2"x4" welded wire up between all of my pens and used hog rings to fasten some 2' chicken wire along the bottom. Every few years I was changing the chicken wire between the pens. I still have some old chicken wire to take out but I'm waiting for some cooler weather. Pretty much all of the welded wire is up. I still have a pen left to do but the chicken wire in it is fairly new. I put it up in that pen shortly before I went to the welded wire. When It's cooler I'll put the welded wire up in that pen too.

 

[crowdofmyself]

I’d never use straw or deep litter again, it’s slippery and got moldy , I love my sand coops, nesting boxes and run.View attachment 1482614

I think I'm probably going to try one area with deep litter and one area with sand and see which one I like the best. I'm going to have a small coop/run area that will feed into a larger day-run type area, which will utilize a two-cattle-panel arbor I made last year in my garden, and I'll probably do sand in the small run near the coop and wood chips under the arbor. I just want to be able to compare the two. I see there are rabid sand fans and rabid deep liter fans here!

 

[imnukensc]

Whatever tools you decide to use, buy the best you can afford. Most cheap tools are just that----cheap. Buy once, cry once.

 

[crowdofmyself]

They should age for about a year before you put them in the run/coop. Folks have had problems with toxic mold if using fresh chips.

I have a Ryobi 18V drill. Last summer I bought a 18V flood light. That thing will light up my whole yard at night. It's great for doing a coop, perimeter check at night to scout for predators, check to be sure all doors are secure, etc...

Oh, thanks so much for letting me know about the chip aging! And the flood light! Yes!

 

[igorsMistress]

I think I'm probably going to try one area with deep litter and one area with sand and see which one I like the best. I'm going to have a small coop/run area that will feed into a larger day-run type area, which will utilize a two-cattle-panel arbor I made last year in my garden, and I'll probably do sand in the small run near the coop and wood chips under the arbor. I just want to be able to compare the two. I see there are rabid sand fans and rabid deep liter fans here!

Good idea, you don't know what works for you until you try it. My approach as well