Newish chicken mama

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Watchet

Chirping
Sep 11, 2023
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I have 9 hens who are a little over a year old. I've been their mama since August 2022. I'm the past year I have come to realize it is not a cake walk.

My experience over the last year has involved frostbite, bullying, escapees, and most recently bumble foot.

We're looking to make adjustments to the coop before the winter sets in. We mix our own food for them and they are very spoiled.

I'm going to go browse the forum to look for answers now, thanks for having me.
 
Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.

Watchet said:
We're looking to make adjustments to the coop before the winter sets in.
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Make sure you have copious amounts of ventilation with no drafts directly on roosted birds and lots of dry fluffy bedding.
Watchet said:
We mix our own food for them and they are very spoiled.
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Be very cautious about making your own mix. You need to calculate out the macros and many of the critical micros. Do you include a poultry vitamin/mineral pack with the mix? What about an animal based protein source?
 
Watchet said:
My experience over the last year has involved frostbite, bullying, escapees, and most recently bumble foot.
Click to expand...
Welcome to BYC! :frow I'm sorry about the trouble you've had.

For frostbite, if you're where it's cold, humidity plays a big part. We're in Wisconsin and we heat, but even if we didn't we keep the humidity down with a 5-gallon nipple bucket so no open water, and horse bedding pellets so the floor stays odor-free and drier than a popcorn fart. That would also help prevent bumblefoot. We have a digital exhaust fan too to that maybe is overkill, but we have to keep humidity down or we'd have frostbitten silkies.
 

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