- Aug 13, 2009
- 12
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Hello, I just moved to a 10 acre piece of land in louisiana. the previous owners had a ton of chickens. We wanted them to leave us a couple for egg laying purposes, but they weren't able to catch them all, so we ended up with 3 large roosters, 4 bantam (?) roosters, a turkey, two large hens and three bantam hens. Two of the hens had also had chicks- one set of chicks (3 of them) were fairly mature, and the other set (3 of them) was probably a day or two old. Well.... everything was going fine, but then one of the young babies drown in the water dish because I didn't know how you're supposed to water chicks. I have since fixed that problem. Then another baby chick died from pasting up. I didn't know what that was until it was too late and he died the day I figured it out and cleaned him up. Today,oh today.... Today I went into the coop to find one of the mature babies dead and headless because the chickens have been eating his body. To be honest, I'm not so sure I like having chickens.... I have been reading this board for the last few weeks to help me take care of them and you all love your birds. I want to love my birds too! So, I have lots of questions and I will try to get them all on this post so that it is easier to keep up with.
1) what is the difference b/w mash and scratch?
2) What should I be feeding them?! (I feed scratch and starter grower and dropped fruits/veggies from my garden and kitchen scraps). I keep reading that scratch isn't sufficient, but no one ever says what else to feed.
3) How much/how often should I feed them? I was giving lots of food, but it just sat there, so I started giving less food yesterday-and then the baby got eaten, so I don't know if this is related.
4) What should I use on the bottom of the coop? It currently has a dirt floor. I want to compost the chicken poo.
5) How can I prevent mites/lice/fleas? I bought DE (but the feed store sold me the kind mixed with clay- I put it on the floor of the coop and a week later ants were everywhere again, so I assume it doesn't work). However, I want to compost the poo, so the DE was probably a bad idea anyway cause I don't want DE in my compost. Can I use cedar chips? They are supposed to repel bugs, or at least fleas.
6) How can I prevent ants? There are ants all over the coop.
7) How can i stimulate egg laying and is it a bad sign in they are not laying? Do hens lay if they have chicks? Seems like they wouldn't.
8) If a hen has a clutch of eggs, and she sits on it sometimes, will the eggs hatch (assuming they're fertilized). I have one hen who I thought was broody, and I hope I didn't just waste 5 good eggs waiting for her to hatch them. She is rarely on the eggs when I go out there. (Though i don't really think I want anymore chicks at this point......)
Ultimately, my husband and I want to build a new coop with separate areas so we can separate broody hens and their chicks from the rest of the flock and we want to build a fenced in area so they can run around in the grass, but currently they don't have that, and we don't have the money (not after buying the house and paying for the move).... Any cheap ideas???
Thanks soooo much! I am sure I will have more questions as I go along....
Allison
1) what is the difference b/w mash and scratch?
2) What should I be feeding them?! (I feed scratch and starter grower and dropped fruits/veggies from my garden and kitchen scraps). I keep reading that scratch isn't sufficient, but no one ever says what else to feed.
3) How much/how often should I feed them? I was giving lots of food, but it just sat there, so I started giving less food yesterday-and then the baby got eaten, so I don't know if this is related.
4) What should I use on the bottom of the coop? It currently has a dirt floor. I want to compost the chicken poo.
5) How can I prevent mites/lice/fleas? I bought DE (but the feed store sold me the kind mixed with clay- I put it on the floor of the coop and a week later ants were everywhere again, so I assume it doesn't work). However, I want to compost the poo, so the DE was probably a bad idea anyway cause I don't want DE in my compost. Can I use cedar chips? They are supposed to repel bugs, or at least fleas.
6) How can I prevent ants? There are ants all over the coop.
7) How can i stimulate egg laying and is it a bad sign in they are not laying? Do hens lay if they have chicks? Seems like they wouldn't.
8) If a hen has a clutch of eggs, and she sits on it sometimes, will the eggs hatch (assuming they're fertilized). I have one hen who I thought was broody, and I hope I didn't just waste 5 good eggs waiting for her to hatch them. She is rarely on the eggs when I go out there. (Though i don't really think I want anymore chicks at this point......)
Ultimately, my husband and I want to build a new coop with separate areas so we can separate broody hens and their chicks from the rest of the flock and we want to build a fenced in area so they can run around in the grass, but currently they don't have that, and we don't have the money (not after buying the house and paying for the move).... Any cheap ideas???
Thanks soooo much! I am sure I will have more questions as I go along....
Allison