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[superduper]

Hi !this is my first post on here after joining fully,please can someone give me some advice on my flock,I am in the UK and last July I purchased three Ancona Bantams to keep on my allotment they were housed in a bought coop with attached run ,they were hatched that year after a few weeks they came on to lay and I was getting 2 -3 eggs a day until November when they stopped ,which I expected .In February of this year I moved them to a 6x4 shed and made a run which is 15 sq m and purchased 4 more pullets and 3 2012 hens and a cockerel , since then I am only getting 2 - 3 eggs a day.They are fed on laying pellets ,they get a lot of greens and the odd apple and any leftover scraps.I have wormed them and also have added apple cider vinegar to the water,Ive also inspected them for any parasites and found none.The later addition to my flock were kept in a shed and when any seagulls or crows fly overhead and make a noise they all run inside.Thanks for any replies

 

[Oldmomma]

Sounds like everything is going ok. Im new too and up to 7 chickens. Im learning a lot here on BYC and spend what time I can online reading up and getting tidbits of info saved. Poop everywhere was my biggest and that was from just 2 3mo olds. My 5 biddies dont poop that much. So I had to move mine. Best luck on raising your chicks.

 

[gsim]

Hi, Old Momma,

Properly designed and place poop boards are the secret to poop control. I recommend them to be 2 ft deep by the length of the roost. Set the roost a foot out from the wall and they will be over the center of your poop board no matter which way they face at night.

To help keep poop off of the floor/litter, have a rainy day perch outside. They would rather sit out under a shelter on a perch than be in the coop on a rainy day. Just make a perch a foot off of the ground and a roof over head some 3 ft above the ground. It should be2 ft wide and longer than the perch.

My coop sits further off of the ground at one end so that spot is their rainy day perch. They are all out there on rainy days, perched about a foot above the ground, under the east end of their coop. The more time they spend out of doors, the less poop you will deal with. It is very rare for me to even have to pick up any poop from the floor of the coop. I use the deep liter method and those large poop boards I described and it works beautifully for me. I rarely spend above 4 minutes a day in my coop, day in and day out. Exception is once a year when I sweep up and toss out all of the old litter (grass clippings) and put in new, as well as wash the four windows and wash off the poop boards. I scrape them clean every day in a couple of minutes, but I set them out in the run and hose/scrub them down once a year.

 

[sepaditty1]

Hi !this is my first post on here after joining fully,please can someone give me some advice on my flock,I am in the UK and last July I purchased three Ancona Bantams to keep on my allotment they were housed in a bought coop with attached run ,they were hatched that year after a few weeks they came on to lay and I was getting 2 -3 eggs a day until November when they stopped ,which I expected .In February of this year I moved them to a 6x4 shed and made a run which is 15 sq m and purchased 4 more pullets and 3 2012 hens and a cockerel , since then I am only getting 2 - 3 eggs a day.They are fed on laying pellets ,they get a lot of greens and the odd apple and any leftover scraps.I have wormed them and also have added apple cider vinegar to the water,Ive also inspected them for any parasites and found none.The later addition to my flock were kept in a shed and when any seagulls or crows fly overhead and make a noise they all run inside.Thanks for any replies

Sounds like they may just need more time. A couple weeks seems long to us, but their whole world just shifted. Pretty stressful for them.

 

[Oldmomma]

Yes but I didnt have a coop yet I just built a temp one three days ago since they were pooping all over my balcony and jumping up and enjoying my balcony garden! So they now have a new home on the roof until we move and I can build them a proper place and have tools besides a small hammer, miter saw and a small powered screwdriver. Its warm enough here now at night that they didnt need a full covered coop but if I have to I can buy a rabbit hutch for them until I get settled. Been here almost 2 yrs but life gave me a toss our first year and we still are not settled. I blog so it will save long story to read that if your curious lol. Thanks for the info I have a few designs I have saved but I show folks here and they tell me 1k to build yeah right just give me my tools I find enough scraps here to build lots of things.

 

[realsis]

Yes but I didnt have a coop yet I just built a temp one three days ago since they were pooping all over my balcony and jumping up and enjoying my balcony garden! So they now have a new home on the roof until we move and I can build them a proper place and have tools besides a small hammer, miter saw and a small powered screwdriver. Its warm enough here now at night that they didnt need a full covered coop but if I have to I can buy a rabbit hutch for them until I get settled. Been here almost 2 yrs but life gave me a toss our first year and we still are not settled. I blog so it will save long story to read that if your curious lol. Thanks for the info I have a few designs I have saved but I show folks here and they tell me 1k to build yeah right just give me my tools I find enough scraps here to build lots of things.

I'd love to read your blog. Do you have a link? Thank you

 

[Oldmomma]

Its www.oldmommaskids.blogspot.com I started it 7 yrs ago when I first came to visit my husbands country. We moved here after the war and trying to get settled. I also started www.libyaswildlife.blogspot.com to write stories about our animals. Some times I rant but ive been told I should write a book, probably the closest I will get until internet is better and I get a newer laptop im on a tablet now and hate touch typing! Enjoy.