Making sure setup is ok

[clickchicks]

Carryover from here: link

Brief summary, I had a bird pass away and sent her to the state diagnostic lab for necropsy because the symptoms looked like they might be something serious. Was informed today it was a bad bacterial infection, and that I should sanitize my coop and possibly improve husbandry.

I want to make sure I'm doing the best that I can here and would appreciate advice so maybe I can prevent this from happening again. Any and all critique of my setup is welcome, this is my first time keeping chickens and I may just have everything wrong. Be harsh if its needed, I can take it and I'll fix what I can.

Right now I'm left with only 3 birds.

Here's the coop (8w x 8l x 6h):

Video of the inside: link

The flooring is dirt. I scoop poop at least twice a day. Once in the morning, once in the evening, sometimes a 3rd time if they can't go outside due to rain or whatever. It can get dusty, so I usually wait until the birds are out of the coop in the morning before I do that cleanup, but they are in when I do the night one. I try my best to limit stirring it up too much but they do that themselves anyway. They spend most of their day in here, sometimes all day if its bad weather or extremely hot. I have a window AC unit that I use for them on very hot days.

During the early parts of the day they stay outside in this little tractor thing I built:

Its really two tractors squished together, about 7 feet long and 5 feet wide when they are together like this. I HATE this, its really inconvenient, so I'm playing around with other ideas. I have some old dog exercise pens that I've been wrapping around the coop and I think I may just stick with this:

Eventually I'd like to fence in this whole little corner for them, but I have to make some serious adjustments to the actual privacy fence as there are large openings on the bottom that the birds could slip under.

I know there are lots of opinions on bedding, what types to use, how much space the birds need. I started out with what made sense to me at the time, but I'm willing to adjust if this isn't healthy for them or this may have been part of the problem that led to losing the first pullet.

Edit: guess I should mention I'm in central Texas, where its warm almost year round. Getting down to freezing or below maybe happens a small handful of days out of the year.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Looks well ventilated, and sounds cleaner than my coop and shed. My guess is it was a freak thing with one bird. You could add sand to the coop. My turkey shed has sand and I scoop poop daily.

 

[clickchicks]

Looks well ventilated, and sounds cleaner than my coop and shed. My guess is it was a freak thing with one bird. You could add sand to the coop. My turkey shed has sand and I scoop poop daily.

Sorry I never replied to this, thank you for the info. I'm considering sand. They enjoy the dirt since there are lots of little bugs and stuff in it, but if the sand is more sanitary it may be what I go with.

Cleaned off their roosting bars with a regular vinegar/peroxide mix but I don't know if there's much more to do. There's not much I can do to disinfect the dirt The other birds are all still fine, so likely it was a freak thing. But I still can't help being a little paranoid.

 

[Mrs. K]

The report sounded to me rather like a generic answer. A lot of birds are not long lived, just a realistic fact of life. Some heritage birds do live longer, but a lot don't.

I too love the ventilation of your coop. But I am not a fan of the tractor. Just not enough space, and not enough vertical space. I would go with the fence. Just line the bottom of the privacy fence with some chickens wire. Depending on your predator scheme, go over the top or not. But have it be tall enough that you can walk in. NOTE: I would keep that, as it would be perfect for some chicks, to add to the flock later on. I keep a flock, birds come and go in my flock.

As for bedding, we tend to use what is close to hand, I am a rancher's wife, and I use old hay. I do know some people have had trouble with it, but I have used it for more than a decade. I sprinkle the top of it with scratch, and the girls get exercise and turn it for me breaking up large poops.

I do not pick up poop each day. 3-4 times a year, I put the bedding in the coop into the run, and add new (old hay) to coop. After it is in the run, I add it to my garden, as deep mulch, with the theory that the weed seed is gone, (that theory not real lucky with so far).

Good luck, and as my granddaughter says, "That sucks...but now we get to get chicks!"

MRs K

 

[Folly's place]

Here we use bagged shaving in the coop and covered run, adding more occasionally, and shovel it all out usually three times each year. No daily poop scooping! I'd think that using shavings or some combination of shavings with a bit of hay, straw, or garden 'stuff' would be better than plain dirt.
Your coop does look well ventilated; does it stay cooler, or melt in the sun? A fenced run would be good, I agree, not the chicken tractor that's so short.
The necropsy didn't turn up any miserable contagious diseases, wonderful! She got sick, and it wasn't your fault.
Mary

 

[clickchicks]

@Mrs. K @Folly's place

Thank you both so much.

Agreed the tractor is terrible for multiple reasons and has to go. Maybe someday I'll get to repurpose it for future chick raising. I dream of a big beautiful flock, but I'm limited to just a few suburban yard birds right now.

I think converting the corner into a run is the right choice and will get some t posts and wire to hopefully make that happen next week. The dog pen thing has been working okay. Might even try repurposing that as the actual fence, and getting some carabiners to clip it to the t posts for stability. That way I can actually remove/relocate it if I need to. I would love to cover the top but don't know how to with all of the trees.

I'll reassess the flooring/bedding situation. I honestly don't mind scooping the poop, it's like having cats again. With only 3 birds there's not much of it.

The coop is about 1-5 degrees lower than what ambient outside temp is. Its in a corner that's naturally shaded and the fence blocks some sun. That said, it's central Texas and gets HOT. I have a fan and an old window AC unit that I set up outside when it was hitting 100+ (along with some frozen water jugs). They figured out how to take advantage of it pretty quickly: video link