Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[BackyardFarmMom]

My coop and enclosed run are on cement... the coop has a wood floor and I painted the whole inside with exterior white paint
It will be super easy to rinse out this summer!
I keep a few inches of pine chips on the floor of the coop and have sand in the enclosed run.
Water and food stay inside the enclosed run, unless they are locked in the coop (which is almost never)



I plan on adding another roost this spring

 

[snowflake]

good Morning All, got a nice dusting of snow last night, already seems to be melting.
Birds have been out and feed for a while , fire going in the fire place .I love our new fire place, combustion, heats the whole house, kinda cold in the basement but propane bill is WAY down

cost a bundle but should pay for itself in a couple of yrs. most of our wood has been free (not counting labor)so far.

cat is curled up by my lap top, grand-daughters sleeping down stairs. MY favorite time of day!!

 

[chickflick]

Good thing is it's so far been easy to scrape off with a flat shovel, and during the summer i can scrape and mop every day. Bad is that you have to do it every day!
.

Do you put shavings over the vinyl floor? Don't know why you would be mopping every day! That's way too much work!

 

[fuzzybutt love]

I do in the winter, during the warm months no. Mine poop too much, i tried the shavings and it got ammonia smell. During the winter the poo freezes, so voila! no smell. (The run is sand, so no issues there)

If i scrape and mop every day in the summer it's a breeze, skip a day and you get cement poo, LOL

 

[ladyrsanti]

So what I'm thinking then, and correct me if anyone thinks it wouldn't work, is to maybe lay down a layer of cinder blocks on the old foundation and then build a wood floor on top and coat it with cheap vinyl. That would probably be my biggest cost as the rest of the supplies could be scavenged from the barn. I should have enough shingles, cedar siding, old windows, used studs, mdf and plywood laying around. The former residents owned a remodeling company and left all kinds of stuff. Really lucky. Well... then again, there's the hardware cloth, will have to buy that...

I'm committed to the deep litter method and hopefully that works on the vinyl/wood combo. Also we can't have more than 20 birds on the property so I'm designing it with that maximum in mind so at least 8 x 10 ft. but probably a little bigger to accommodate the feeders, roosts and nest boxes. I still have my original 12 chickens (knock on wood) but definitely adding in the spring.

 

[BentoMinion]

I am new and have a question for you Michigan people. How do you keep your chickens/quail warm in the winter. I am told that you just have to keep the edge off (cold wise). So I should use insulation in the walls. I know I need to make sure the insulation is fully covered and there is no way the chickens can get to it.

 

[Farmerboy16]

Lady-
I have 2 coops. The big long one have a dirt floor, and it have wood shavings for bedding. I use a rake and a scoop shovel to clean each pen out. The other coop, have wooden floor, and it have wood shavings too. I use just a scoop shovel to clean it out.



I have been working on my breeder coop slowly as I find time to get ready for spring breeding. Its 20x60. It have 9 pens, and one storage room. 8 pens are 8x8, and one is 20x20. I have a hallway in the middle of the coop that separate the small pens, 3 on one side, 5 on the other side. But a few weeks ago I torn out 3 chicken wire walls, so have now 6 pens. 2 on one side, 3 on the other side and that 20x20 pen on the end of the coop. The reason I made less pens, but made them bigger at the same time is that I am downsizing the number of breeds of chickens to make it more manageable and easier on cleaning, feeding, and on me! So, I have 5 breeds of chickens, mix colors of 12 guineas, 3 breeds of 11 turkeys, 9 peafowls, 1 female Muscovy (need to find a male for her), a pair of Embden geese, and a pair of Emus!!!

These are poultry breeds what I will be breeding in spring-
(All are breeder stock, none of hatchery junk)

Chickens-

Icelandics
Coronation Sussex
Buff Orpington
Turken
Tomaru Longcrower
Mix banties


Turkeys-

Bourbon Red
Oregon Gray
Red Slate

Geese-

Embden

Guineas-

Mix colors- Pearl, Pied, Buff Dunatte, White

Peafowl-

Too young, not for 2 years yet.

Emus-
Too young, not for 2 years yet.

 

[Farmerboy16]

HH, hope that you get better soon. I am slowly getting better from the cold. just hacking now, and a mild headache, hence why I am at home not at church.

 

[Herducks]

Chickens came to let me know their food froze. Roosters had a crowing duel.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Chickens came to let me know their food froze. Roosters had a crowing duel.

I like this one, it's calendar worthy!