Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

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Hillbilly Hen,

I also have poop boards for my hens. I had them filled with PDZ to scoop out the poop and keep it clean but over the winter, it froze and I couldn't scoop it. I thought about using shavings but I was worried they'd lay their eggs there. Have you had any hens laying on the board frequently?
 
jrsckn said:
Hillbilly Hen,

I also have poop boards for my hens. I had them filled with PDZ to scoop out the poop and keep it clean but over the winter, it froze and I couldn't scoop it. I thought about using shavings but I was worried they'd lay their eggs there. Have you had any hens laying on the board frequently?
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I use bedding from the floor, other then a woops egg in the middle of night they do not lay on the poop boards only in the nest box's in winter it works well cause it does not freeze and you can roll the mess up and toss in a bag. the rest of the year, most do not use anything on the boards, Opa has a sheeting similar to what showers are made of and they scrape off easy, I think this yr. I am going to try splitting open feed bags and use them on the boards. Hoping to pick them up and dump off the poo
 
will I got soooo tired of all the wasted feed on the ground, even with the deep pig pan they manage to bill it out, Yesterday I went to Menards and found a lg. plastic pan meant to go under a washing machine, put the feed bucket in there and dumped the billed out food back in to the feeder, should save a weeks worth of food every month
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snowflake said:
I use bedding from the floor, other then a woops egg in the middle of night they do not lay on the poop boards only in the nest box's in winter it works well cause it does not freeze and you can roll the mess up and toss in a bag. the rest of the year, most do not use anything on the boards, Opa has a sheeting similar to what showers are made of and they scrape off easy, I think this yr. I am going to try splitting open feed bags and use them on the boards. Hoping to pick them up and dump off the poo
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info!
 
tmkuroda said:
Glad, How many meaties will that accommodate and will you show us the finished product? I have always seen Chicken tractors as having a small run attached to it. Will you be doing the same?
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This is our first time with meat chickens, so I'm not really sure how things will work out, but this is my plan:

Initially, I think I'm going to try to put 70 of them into one, and they'll have access to a run and only be shut in at night for predator protection. Once they get a bit bigger, I'll split them into 2 groups, and have 35 in each which gives them just under 2sqft/bird which from what I've read is OK for meat birds (but NOT for layers). I will, of course be keeping them in a brooder for a few weeks since they'll need supplemental heat, and if they grow too quickly to all get put into one tractor when they go outside, then I'll split them up then.

Right now the plan is to make our run for the layers longer, section it off, and move the tractors to a new section as needed. I may have found some electrified poultry fencing for a really nice price though, so I'm checking into that at the moment. It may be a nice alternative to having to dig a bunch of holes for posts, and I could put it around my garden to keep the bunny rabbits that ate ALL of my green beans last year OUT. We'll see though.
 
uchytil said:
Been gone again. Probably missed a bunch of chatter eh? Can't believe my CX are almost 8 weeks and almost ready for the camp. So far only about 8 -10 pounds. So more important - Silly, if you read this, the FG and NZ/CA mix both gave birth last Sunday. 3 stills in the FG cage so I have not poked around to see how many more she has. Hoping there's a buck for you. I'll be bringing them to CS along with the NZ/CA/FG mix. What we get one sunny and warm day and now it's raining again? Pulling stumps in the rain is no fun. Think I'll quit that and play with the new Khaki Campbells...
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OK
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gladahmae said:
The flowers are part of an ad for a Nutrena Contest. If you are like me and have a touchpad mouse and like to click to the side of the forum to get it working after you've pushed the back button, you will open a new tab or window that tells you about it. The ad goes all the way down the sides of the page where it's that lovely green color, not just at the top.
wink.png



I feel like I should know this answer, but want to be sure before I go ahead and 'just do it.' I would like to mulch my bulbs that are coming up in newly-planted-last-fall areas. I have a bunch of the shavings that I took out of my coops in March (which were in the coop all winter) sitting in my compost bin. Can I use those? I don't want to burn the plants, but I also don't want to BUY mulch if I can use the 10 cubic feet of shavings I have.

Next question: when I clean out the coops and put in new bedding (hopefully in the beginning of next month) should I put all of the shavings in my compost bin again, or should I make a separate pile and add just SOME of the shavings to the compost pile? (I'm going to go rake up leaves in the woods, yes you read that correctly, so I have some leaves for my compost pile and hopefully get some useable compost this year.)
Click to expand...

I thought......... chicken poo is considered hot and needed to cool down for a year before putting on plants.... but
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tmkuroda said:
So a separate coop for the turkey's ? I was thinking just the other side of the building I was going to build... Not good enough huh? How far do turkeys need to be away from Chickens in order to be safe?

Tina
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Mind you, I'm suggesting what is considered best practice for raising turkeys and chickens..... the turkeys would have to be pretty well separated because I believe the BH disease is in the soil as well. However, this is not what a lot of people do, myself included. My turkeys and chickens are kept in the same run, but they sleep in separate coops. It's all a matter if you want to take the risk or not. I've not had any issues with BH with my turkeys
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and I've had them going on 3 yrs now. (knock on wood!)
 

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