"Must-Haves" for the Beginner

[MedChicken]

I would have said that poop boards are more of a matter of preference. I just fill my coop with litter and the chickens mix in their own droppings by scratching around, then it all composts. But I agree that if you don't want to do deep litter, poop boards may be an advantage. I went with deep litter because I have no interest in scraping poop on a daily basis

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Chickens take dust baths to deal with external parasites, like mites and lice. The best thing for this is something fine and fluffy, like fine dry dirt. You can add other things, like plain wood ash, fine peat moss or DE. I don't know what your soil is like. We have heavy clay here and get a lot of rain. So, I always make sure my chickens have one dust bath that's under cover, so it stays dry. They can't dust bathe in mud. In dry weather, they just scratch up dirt to make their own dust bath.

 

[Breifne]

Quote:
We get at least SOME rain on perhaps 300 days of the year in the west of Ireland.

Maybe more.

We burn a LOT of turf (from the bogs, not grass), so we can save some of the ash and use that to spread under the floor of the house to help keep it dry.

What is this "dry weather" of which you speak?

 

[galanie]

Flour works good to stop bleeding. And I keep triple antibiotic cream around for me also. Either works on the chickens in a pinch if needed. I got some antibiotic laced chick food long ago (One of the -mycins, not what you think of as "medicated" food) and the rats ate it so I guess I have some healthy rats around somewhere. The chickens never have needed any. That's pretty much my medicine cabinet for them.

But they do need a good secure coop, food, and water. Secure yet still enough ventilation to keep it from being too humid or too hot in the summer. Once they feather out they'll never need heat so long as they can get out of the wind and rain.

 

[BamaSilkies]

I have a tiny kiddie pool with play sand for dust baths in the hen house.

 

[simplynewt]

Something to scrape the poo into when you clean your poo boards. I use a small office wastebasket and when it gets full, its off to the compost pile. I use a extra wide putty knife to do the scraping.

Another good tool is a retractable rake for cleaning the run. I found one at Lowe's and it is the bomb.

 

[Breifne]

Thanks a million for all the suggestions so far, guys. Keep them coming!

Wondering how our hens are going to like the brutal Connemara winds. Gusts up to 140 km/h (87 mph) overnight tonight. Just another day in the west of Ireland.

 

[MedChicken]

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I hope your coop is sturdy!!

 

[maggiec1951]

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I hope your coop is sturdy!!

AND free from drafts! The one thing I have learned that is an absolute necessity (for me) is my camera. They are so cute, funny, inquisitive and out right entertaining that I am constantly amazed.

My girls range from 5 to 6 1/2 months and are just beginning to lay and we have had absolutely no troubles - wounds, predators or illness. We keep the coop and run immaculately clean; well immaculately clean is an over statement - they are chickens... plus they are allowed to free range our (fenced) back yard almost all day, every day. But you definitely want to get mealworms to give as a treat occasionally. Oh yes and

 

[aoxa]

Quote:
If someone hasn't said it already, DE is said to help with parasites, but I've heard it does not. I use sevin dust for dusting them. It works great.