My Chicken Care (Please Help)

[Sally PB]

But Id rather not, and wait til i clean it up for this spring

Sure, I understand. It's the old pictures are worth 1000 words thing. If you have specific questions about something, a picture can help a lot.

Bedding/Ground: The ground is mostly mud/dirt. There nest boxes are going to be filled with pine shavings.

One thing to consider is drainage. If this area is a low spot, rain will puddle there. Mud makes a huge mess and can lead to problems. If the ground slopes away from this spot, that will help keep the ground drier. Another thing that helps is wood chips. LOTS of wood chips. They soak up the moisture, and chickens love to scratch through them and look for bugs. They break down and decompose and are a nice soft landing spot for when chickens jump down off their roosts.

 

[NatJ]

I also want to enough nest boxes for every bird plus 2, but with smaller ones for the bantams so they feel cozy (Idc if they use them or not).

I would not build that many nestboxes into the coop.

Bantams are typically happy to use the same nestboxes as bigger chickens.

A common estimate is one nestbox for each 3-5 hens. So for 9 hens, 2 or 3 nestboxes are usually enough.

Hens usually like to use the same nestbox as other hens, so they will probably all lay their eggs in one favorite nestbox, and maybe a second or third if several need to lay at once.

The one exception is if hens go broody. Each broody hen does best with a nestbox of her own for as long as she's broody, but even if every hen goes broody at the same time, you won't need MORE nestboxes than hens.

 

[Elyrian1]

Oh, and word of warning from my own personal experience. PVC waterers work great, so long as they aren't allowed to freeze. If they do freeze, they tend to crack.

 

[SugarCochin]

Alright then. I am going to have only 5 nest boxes, as thats what I built a few days ago. (I was going to make another but I guess less is bettter )

I will look into wood shavings. Also, my chicken coop has a tin roof thats at a slant so when it rains, the rans falls off at the end. The ground is also at a slope, and there are minimum puddles when it rains btw.

 

[3KillerBs]

It is overrun right now by weeds....so id kinda feel embarrassed posting it. I technically CAN. But Id rather not, and wait til i clean it up for this spring

Chickens LOVE weeds.

You might see a mess, but if you look through a chicken's eyes it's a buffet of their favorite foods.

Don't clean it up -- except to remove anything toxic. Your chickens will enjoy weeds more than they'd enjoy grass.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/comprehensive-list-of-poisonous-plants-and-trees.627282/

 

[CHlCKEN]

I would not build that many nestboxes into the coop.

Bantams are typically happy to use the same nestboxes as bigger chickens.

A common estimate is one nestbox for each 3-5 hens. So for 9 hens, 2 or 3 nestboxes are usually enough.

Hens usually like to use the same nestbox as other hens, so they will probably all lay their eggs in one favorite nestbox, and maybe a second or third if several need to lay at once.

The one exception is if hens go broody. Each broody hen does best with a nestbox of her own for as long as she's broody, but even if every hen goes broody at the same time, you won't need MORE nestboxes than hens.

X2! Chickens will go out of their way to use the same nest boxes as one another- in other words, it’s not uncommon to see multiple hens using the same box at the same time!!! When a bird sees an egg somewhere, it indicates that it is a safe and quiet place to lay, because someone has already laid there. It is like a billboard that states “lay here, it’s safe.” With this is mind, creating a coop with a ton of boxes will not benefit anyone, because they’ll probably pick out only 2 or 3 and all use those. I had a coop with 6 boxes once, and all 12/13 only used 2.

 

[CHlCKEN]

Chickens LOVE weeds.

You might see a mess, but if you look through a chicken's eyes it's a buffet of their favorite foods.

Don't clean it up -- except to remove anything toxic. Your chickens will enjoy weeds more than they'd enjoy grass.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/comprehensive-list-of-poisonous-plants-and-trees.627282/

So true! I’m surprised they haven’t gone through it already!

I used to split off half of my run for the chickens to use, and the other half to grow grass on. I would switch back and forth so that the girls had tons of goodies all the time. Once, I fed the girls some tomatoes, and when they pooped out the seeds, I found tomato plants growing with the grass! My chickens are little gardeners!

 

[SugarCochin]

Okay Thanks!!! My grandma has 12 boxes and 5 of them (were) used by her 12 chickens. (Only 2-3 chickens lay anymore)

 

[CHlCKEN]

Okay Thanks!!! My grandma has 12 boxes and 5 of them (were) used by her 12 chickens. (Only 2-3 chickens lay anymore)

When you say only 2-3 chickens lay, do you mean they’re still molting or are they retired?

 

[SugarCochin]

When you say only 2-3 chickens lay, do you mean they’re still molting or are they retired?

They are retired. They are rhode island red (although 2 look like a red sex link) and they are about 5-6.