Help with basic care, please need advice from pros!!

[lisamr]

We have had our 6 chickens since july and they started laying about august and have been doing just fine so far, but i know there is a lot we do not know. We feed them laying pellets daily, give them fresh veg/fruit etc daily, scratch and or corn daily, fresh water daily and make sure they have oyster shell at all times. We keep low level lights on in the coop from 6 am to 6 pm, part of the run is covered but i have some concerns. It is really muddy!!!...does this harm them to be mucking around in it??? do i need to give them any worm meds or anything like that??? if temps stay in the 20's for several days will they be okay (they have a nice and dry coop that is about 6 by 4, with one small door that is always open. there are the typical roosts and several nesting boxes in one end. the coop is not insulated however. we live in the city and are brand new to this...we are loving it but need to glean all the info we can. If you have any advice at all it will be greatly appreciated!!! Merry Christmas!!

 

[mamaKate]

HI!

Your birds should be ok temp wise. Lots of people don't heat their coops, just be sure the open door isn't situated in a place to create a draft. Sand would make your run cleaner. I don't think you need to treat for parasites unless you have some kind of symptom.

 

[william9792]

Hi , i put big wood chips in my pin to help with the mud, but not too much, for they just kick it out and you do not want the chips to be small for they will try to eat them, i have seen people dig out around the pin to drain the water away from the pin too, I did mine that way also. william

 

[skeeter]

you could put hog fuel in the run to keep them out of the mud but they will be ok otherwise it dont stay cold in Kelso very long

 

[TurtleChick]

soooo i'm not a pro, by any stretch of the imagination, but i agree with the other poster who suggested sand in their run. we're in wa state, too.

we covered their run with the clear wavy roofing stuff (uh, name of the material is totally escaping me right now...). our soil is really heavy and full of clay, so we put gravel and sand in. it's been about a year since we built the coop/run and we added 3 bags of new sand this fall. when we get the lovely sideways rain, it still gets wet in there, but not mucky at all. hope that helps!

good luck!

 

[msgenie516]

Quote:
We have been battling the same problem for quite some time now and we have found it helps to turn over the soil from time to time and add hay to the run. I use a lot of hay but it does seem to minimize the mud. I hope this helps! Genie

 

[ZooMummzy]

I am battling this too but do not have any real answers. We just added straw bales to the edges and spread some around the run. Our run is covered but it is still mucky from the rain dripping in. My chickens are little princess chickens. They stand in the mud, lifting one leg then the other and yelling at me. They do not like to be dirty