FLORIDA!!!!!ALWAYS SUNNY SIDE UP!!!

[cmom]

I'll be there at the Crystal River Mall Rural King with some of my Reds.

 

[chrisb01]

I'll be there at the Crystal River Mall Rural King with some of my Reds.

Nice, I might bring one home with me..

 

[chrisb01]

 

[Hope Hughes]

Hey there fellow south Floridians! I am in Palm Beach County and my coop is in desperate need of a make over! With all this rain we've been getting it is a muddy mess. I am torn between sand and deep litter method and was wondering if anyone could give me some insight on which would be best in our climate? My main concern is that my run is not covered and I don't plan to cover it. What would my other options be? TIA!!

I live in north Florida, and we have 2 lakes on our land (just showing the amount of rain we get) and it rains all the time. Our ground is sand(I hate sand lol) and when it rains it get muddy mixed with poo. So like a year ago I started to do the deep litter method before know what it was. I out pine shavings in the coop and when I clean it out ever 2-3 weeks(they are only in the coop at night so it doesn't get bad at all, if it does I clean it early) I just throw it out the pop door into the run.

This works amazing for the rainy area. About twice a week I will sprinkle scratch all around the run and the chickens will scratch the run up really good to mix the old up and the new down. Works amazing.

And I even have ducks that stay in the run at night and it never turns muddy! Imo I would try the DLM first. Even if you keep adding sand it will start to get muddy over time. And will keep having to add more sand. If you use pine shavings in your coop already might as well recycle them and use them in the run. I even add leaves outside when racking and cleaning up the area around the coop.

Hope this helps.

 

[cmom]

I use shavings in my coops. This is the chick grow-out coop.

 

[Hope Hughes]

I use pine shavings in my chicken coop, nest boxes and the brooders and then just dump them into the run and rake them out even on the ground.

For my quail pens I just rake up the leaves that are all around, they are broke up and big. Gives them bugs to Chase keeps it a little more natural ground for them.

 

[cmom]

I use shavings in my nest boxes too. When I clean out my coops the shavings go into a compost pile. Every once in awhile I go a pen and turn the soil around the pop door area. It would get muddy there but now I turn it more often. It isn't a big area so it only takes a few minutes and the drainage is better. The birds do track some of the wet sand into the coop but if they do poop in the coop, it doesn't stick to the floor and easy to clean out.

 

[TheBeardie]

Recently my flock was attacked by an unknown animal, and killed all but a duck and a separate flock of bantams. I would like to start a new flock. I'm tearing down my old coop and putting up a new safer one.

Now, to the reason I'm here, I want to buy local hatching eggs. I live in the middle of nowhere, central Florida, just under an hour south of Palatka Fl. Palatka is the nearest big(ish) city. I'm not looking for any specific breeds, I would be fine with barnyard mixes and I would like some pictures of your flock. I'm looking to pickup a dozen or two. I'm not sure how far I'm willing to travel, but the details will be sorted out later. I hope to hear from one of you!

 

[cmom]

Here are two of our farm swaps where there are plenty of birds. This Saturday, the 4th Saturday, is the Crystal River Mall Rural King Farm Swap. Next month on the 2nd Saturday we will be at the Dunnellon Tractor Supply Co., both are good swaps and usually we have a lot of sellers and buyers.

 

[cmom]

Last month we had our Dunnellon TSC swap at Rural King in Crystal River due to construction going on around TSC. The construction is wrapping up so next month we will have the swap on our normal 2nd Saturday monthly at the Dunnellon TSC.