INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[flyladyrocks]

@hbrown322 I just PMd you and thanks - well I take that back, I can't figure out how to send on the message on my computer- hmm. I'll try and my phone. But I basically said we'll be in next week but not exactly sure when till the weekend is over!@Nyla

@Nyla thanks for looking out!

@flyladyrocks hey! I tried PMing you! I have the shirts! I'm at The Shop here in Broad Ripple (920 Broad Ripple avenue, right next door to Union Jacks). I'm here M/Th 10:30-8 or T,W,F 10:30-5. I will not be here this upcoming Friday though. If weekends work better for you that's totally fine, just lmk which day so I can let the employee that day know ahead of time. The shirts turned out great!!

 

[Nyla]

Cleaned the pen today, and laid out new sand. Needs about ten more bags. My Muscovies love it! My new Blue girl is still skid-dish around my others, but they act fine inside their coop. My 3 other Muscovy girls are still laying on eggs with all developing! I just love their hissing and peeps they make.

(Next Door is a mess, the old neighbors threw their trash and garbage at my gate because they didn't like seeing my ducks. And they were getting evicted out of their house for non payments. Now the house is abandoned and left like that. The city refuses to clean it up. so I'm thinking about buying the land and expanding my duck pen.)

 

[Leahs Mom]

@Nyla
That would be great if you could buy the land! Always nice to have a little more space

 

[kanina]

So I'm trying to come up with some sort of odor control. With all the rain here in Anderson, my pen is a sloppy stinky barf inducing mess. Would sand be my best bet? And if so, is there any specific "brand" I should go with?

 

[MrsAuberry00]

So I'm trying to come up with some sort of odor control. With all the rain here in Anderson, my pen is a sloppy stinky barf inducing mess. Would sand be my best bet? And if so, is there any specific "brand" I should go with?

We have sand in our run and it helped cut down that muddy slop "this smells so bad I'm about to hurl" mess. It makes it easier to clean poop out of the run and dries out more quickly than just dirt. From my research before going to sand, you'll want to use river bed type sand or washed construction sand. Be aware, though, that lots of rain will cause the sand to run out of the run area unless you have some type of barrier. We don't and I find myself having to scoop sand from outside the run, (in a particularly low area,) back inside. Also, you'll need a long handled, well, it's not exactly a rake, but it looks like a small, hard plastic miniature version of a rake, (note my great descriptive talent ) to scrape and loosen the sand where it gets packed down. This keeps your run full of soft sand the chickens love to dust bathe in and keeps clean up easier.

Hope this helps.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I use deep litter in the run. I primarily used wood chips from a tree trimmer but you need to let them cure in a pile - don't use them green. They will often bring them free for the asking.

Additionally, all of the litter from indoors goes right out onto the deep litter. It makes the most amazing, healthy soil under there that you'll ever see. Very healthy for the birds and they can scratch through the mulch and find tons of worms and bugs to eat.

I have several posts in the thread with photos...I'll see if I can find a link.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Here is a photo from one of my previous posts. If you scroll to the top of this page and click on "search" you can put in my name, check mark "this thread" and search the word "chip" You can see several posts about the deep liter. It is absolutely the most healthy ground you'll ever see if you deep litter the outdoor run.


This is a photo of one of my wood chip piles from last year. The pile had set long enough that it was full of tons of redworms so on occasion I would put the electronet over there so they could dig through it to eat. To make the deep litter, I just wheelbarrowed it over to the kennel run.

If they dig through the piles, they will spread them all over the run. They love doing it, so don't spread it out yourself!








Here you can see them working to spread the chips in the kennel run. I don't spread chips ever. Just put them in a pile and put the helpers to work.

 

[Leahs Mom]

PS: You never have to clean it. You just keep adding more to it and what's inside your coop put right out onto it.

No more slimy, unhealthy, disease-breeding soil! And no more puddling.

Every once in awhile I'd go out with a shovel and the birds would come running. I'd turn over some of the soil - which is wonderfully composted and full of worms. They'd know there would be an easy feast if I had the shovel in my hand. Then they'd dig through and spread it all out again.

One year 2 of my daughters came and we spread back the topmost chips and they dug soil for new raised bed gardens. It was the best-smelling healthy soil I'd ever seen in person and made great garden beds. We took 2 pickup truck bed loads out and it was still left with healthy soil and wood chips afterwards.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I agree with Leahs Mom, having once been a fan of sand, I'm over it in favor of good ol' fashioned wood shavings / chips. I found sand to be downright dreadful inside the coop, but outside it was okay, just that, as MrsAuberry mentioned, it was constantly being washed away by the rain. When it was washed away for me, it wasn't nearby for me to shovel back into the yard--it was long gone and I'd have to buy more sand to replace it. There's probably a nice, sandy spot somewhere deep in our woods where it all washed away to. Anyway, the wood shavings stay put, and I just throw the dirty shavings from the coop out in a pile for the girls to spread out for me. The only problem I've found with shavings alone (without a wood chip foundation) is that they can become squishy after it's been raining a lot, particularly where the low spots in the ground were before I put them out there. It's still better than the stinky, slimy, slippery, ankle-deep muck, though!

That being said, I think you probably couldn't go wrong with either option, particularly if you have a barrier to prevent sand from washing away. The one big advantage to the sand is that the girls LOVED dust bathing in it, where as they don't seem to like to in the shavings.

 

[Leahs Mom]

There's probably a nice, sandy spot somewhere deep in our woods where it all washed away to.

You could dig a pond down there since you already have a beach