No Progress: Is Chicken Raising Just Endless Poop Clean Up With NO Rewards?

[Skyfeathers]

My chickens have such different personalities! Two of my Ameraucanas will fly up on my arm if they think I'm not dishing out the treats fast enough, and I can easily reach down and pick them up. They might squawk for a second, but calm quickly and enjoy being stroked, may even take a short nap. They have loud voices, my husband calls them pterodactyls! My Barred Rock lets me pick her up without a squawk or struggle, and constantly chatters to me in her quiet little voice. Some of my hens that I have raised from hatch totally freak out if I try to touch them, and of my 18 pullets I got at day 1 or 2 from hatch, only 8 seek my company. The rest come to see if I have treats, but hang back out of my reach and scoot away if I try to touch them. Some of the others will hop on my back or shoulders. I enjoy them so much, they are my therapy, and working on their coops and runs and taking care of them helped me through a difficult time in my life. They get so excited when they see me in the yard, they have a certain squawk just to tell the others it's me coming, and come tearing over to me when I call "Chick chick chick"! By the 3rd "chick" they are at my feet, walking on them and pecking my sandals. One always flys over and makes SO much racket!!! They make me smile every time I'm with them. The chicken yard is my peaceful place. :cd

The cleanup became a real joy-killer for awhile. I had read so many posts where the people told how clean they kept their coops, that their chickens' feet never walked in poop, etc, and I was ready to give up. Then I tried the deep litter method and love it! It works better than dirt or sand for me, I had tried both. In the coop I have deep pine shavings. The girls go in there and turn the shavings daily, and there is no smell or flies. In the large covered run I use dry wheat straw, which they love! They get all excited when I bring in a new bale and happily help me spread it around. It rarely smells, and only if it's freshly dropped. I throw scratch around and they eagerly dig down to the sand searching for it, thus turning the straw and keeping it dry. I've learned to care for them in the way that keeps them healthy and is best for me, let others do the same. It's good to glean wisdom from others, but put it all together and make your own routine that fits you and your circumstances.
Yes, it is worth it to have my girls! Hard work at times, heartbreaking at times, but definitely worth it!
And you get eggs! :yiipchick

 

[GretaGarboFirst]

What a nice story.....I often feel the same way about my chicken's home. MY chickens can see the driveway from their coop. I feel the girls are little watch dogs. Every time someone drives up they all go over to the driveway corner of the coop and let me know someone has arrived! They make me laugh a lot!!!!

 

[Ballerina Bird]

I read something on this site about holding birds when I first got mine that was really helpful. As others are saying on this thread, make sure they can't flap -- everyone will be calmer -- but in addition, as this other post I read said, think in terms of not replicating a predator situation when you pick them up. I.e., try not to sort of swoop from above too much when you go to hold them, and also, don't let them flap away from you as you are putting them down -- this will feel to them like escaping from a predator. Try to keep their wings under control until you have actually set them gently on the ground; then it won't feel like an escape situation.This helped me a lot with learning to pick up my birds.

Also, as others have said, it becomes easier to pick them up when they approach maturity as many will instinctively squat for you as though you are a rooster when you stand over them. When they do that they are easy to pick up.

 

[GretaGarboFirst]

That idea of replicating the predator behavior is a really accurate. I agree...... I also feel a familiar soft voice helps too.

 

[smartgirlchic]

Thank you. I am seeing how my chickens have days when they're more scared and then days where they're eager to be near me. I am enjoying the other aspects of chicken raising! It is therapeutic to watch them in the yard and hear their little sounds. They crack me up when they're figuring something out for the first time. For instance, we had a major heat wave this last week. I was worried SICK about keeping them cool, so I tried every method I could find on the internet to help them endure the heat! One of those methods included giving them watermelon, because according to every board out there, chickens "LOVE" watermelon! Well, guess what? My chickens do NOT love watermelon! LOL! As per usual, I attempted to give them this great treat, only to find them acting like I was handing them a venomous viper! (Have I mentioned that my chickens do not eat the things everyone else says chickens eat? Which in itself just makes me laugh. They look at me like I'm crazy when I try to hand them a worm.)

Honestly, while I was super frustrated by the way they were acting when I wrote this post initially, I think I was partly reacting to many things at once. I mentioned these chickens are meant to be partly therapy for me, and without going into detail, I can say my life experience has been that it doesn't matter how hard I try to having loving bonds with people-it never works out. I am a giver and find myself frustrated by the total lack of reciprocation I find (particularly in my family, excluding my lovely husband). That said, I felt like I was giving a lot to try to have a nice "relationship" with my chickens to no avail. Of course, this was asking too much of CHICKENS! LOL! Oh well...

 

[smartgirlchic]

One thing I did that helped tremendously with poop patrol was laying down an aspen pad in the bottom of the coop. These aspen pads are sold at Home Depot and Lowes and you can buy them on line in the off season, and/or if you live in an area where they dont sell them in the store. They are 100% natural aspen thats spun into pads that are meant to be used with swamp coolers. I like them because they are highly absorbant, nontoxic, and the birds poop dehydrates on them really quickly, so when cleaning tim comes along, you can pull the pad out of the coop, and the poops roll off into the trash can. When the pad gets too soiled on one side, just flip it over. My birds are happier sitting in their coop with a cushy pad rather than on a harder surface, or a wire bottom cage, or pine shavings. They come in various sizes, I use 32"x 48" and it works great right underneath their perch. They go on sale 50% off at summers end. They cost about $3.50 each, cheaper on sale. The aspen is enclosed by a netting-type fabric, so as a precaution, I fold the ends under as not to get their feet caught. Its fast, clean, and better on your lungs not to have to breathe that stuff.

Awesome tip! Thank you! I'm going to find those right away! I actually don't mind the daily clean up. It's been it's own therapy for me, keeping me moving outside the house. But I think this could be a wonderful alternative to the daily scraping, scrubbing, and soaking I've been doing.

 

[smartgirlchic]

My first chickens never got cuddly. I never held them or pet them. One let me feed her but heck, I do miss those girls. When we would get home in the car one girl would come to my side of the car (as I always got out first) and told me all about what had happened while we were gone. Once I was out of the car she'd run to Gary's side to tell him everything she'd just told me. It was so cute.

We're snowbirds so I leave my chickens with a neighbor during the winter. All spring, summer, and early fall I'd say "here, chicky, chicky" every time I fed them or gave them treats. In May we got home after being gone for 6 months. I noticed the neighbor was free ranging all the chickens, his and mine from the year before so I called "here, chicky, chicky" and all 6 of my girls came running home to me.

What I'm trying to say is even though they might not ever let you cuddle with them, they can and do know who you are. Give them time and they'll let you know in some way that you mean something to them. Plus there is nothing better to watch than chicken TV.

I LOVE this story! Adorable!! And I can tell my chickens "know" me. When I first let them out of their coop, they are a bit timid about leaving it and heading to the backyard. But, once I head to the backyard (calling them as I go) they come running. I'm learning to see this as they're way of showing we are friends.

 

[smartgirlchic]

Just read your story, they're a bit like kids i suppose you can do everything for them and get little back, lol. I've got 3 blue ranger hens (13wks), 2 speckaldys and 2 black rocks (6 wks). I've been suffering with depression and my partner thought they would be theraputic for me and he was right. I've spent a lot of time with them and talk to them like they're humans (which my family and neighbours think is hilarious, and possible think i should see a psychiatrist ha). It took a long time for the older ones to trust me but they do now, they're still nervous but that's just their breed the little ones are far braver. Don't feel dissheartened, i'm sure they appreciate what you're doing. Take it easy

Awe...thank you. I too am suffering from depression and I've found most aspects of chicken raising has been therapeutic for me too. I also talk to mine like they're humans. (Probably most of the people who refer to this site would say the same, right? Lol! Idk.) It's funny you refer to them as "kids". That's exactly what I was saying to my husband this past week. Our "kids" won't eat hardly anything but their feed. I try to get them to eat a worm and they scream and run away, but if I shake their food- LOOK OUT! Makes me think of kids that won't eat anything but cereal! Lol!

 

[Ballerina Bird]

Thank you. I am seeing how my chickens have days when they're more scared and then days where they're eager to be near me. I am enjoying the other aspects of chicken raising! It is therapeutic to watch them in the yard and hear their little sounds. They crack me up when they're figuring something out for the first time. For instance, we had a major heat wave this last week. I was worried SICK about keeping them cool, so I tried every method I could find on the internet to help them endure the heat! One of those methods included giving them watermelon, because according to every board out there, chickens "LOVE" watermelon! Well, guess what? My chickens do NOT love watermelon! LOL! As per usual, I attempted to give them this great treat, only to find them acting like I was handing them a venomous viper! (Have I mentioned that my chickens do not eat the things everyone else says chickens eat? Which in itself just makes me laugh. They look at me like I'm crazy when I try to hand them a worm.)

Honestly, while I was super frustrated by the way they were acting when I wrote this post initially, I think I was partly reacting to many things at once. I mentioned these chickens are meant to be partly therapy for me, and without going into detail, I can say my life experience has been that it doesn't matter how hard I try to having loving bonds with people-it never works out. I am a giver and find myself frustrated by the total lack of reciprocation I find (particularly in my family, excluding my lovely husband). That said, I felt like I was giving a lot to try to have a nice "relationship" with my chickens to no avail. Of course, this was asking too much of CHICKENS! LOL! Oh well...

I totally, totally understand and sympathize with many aspects of this. In case they are helpful, here are a couple more practical suggestions about the particular issues you are having.

1. My chickens rarely like anything the first few times they encounter it. I also thought at first that it was because they were weirdly picky for chickens, but in most cases it turned out that they just needed to have several exposures to something, and eventually they would decide they loved it. This happened with chard, plums, all kinds of things others said their chickens went crazy for but mine initially turned up their beaks at. So I would keep offering the same thing several days in a row. The one thing that was a hit the first time around for me was apple, if you want to try that. But they are all different.

2. I live in the Central Valley of CA and also stress out a lot about the heat. The best solution I have found so far is to buy one of those misting tubes (they have them at True Value and on Amazon; the company is Orbit). it's a narrow tube with a bunch of little nozzles in it, and you can string it along the ceiling or wall of your run with the nozzles poking through the mesh, using zip ties to secure it. I was intimidated to try setting it up because I am totally not DIY and live alone, but even I was able to manage it. Attach it to a hose (I used potable-grade boat hosing so as not to have icky chemicals from inside the hose contaminating the water), and run it a couple of times during the hottest part of the day while you have some treats (low-carb; scratch heats them up, apparently) scattered on the ground underneath so your girls will stand under the spray and get wet. The misters are apparently pretty water efficient if you are worried about drought like I am. This cools them down immediately, plus they will dig little holes in the damp ground and sit in them, which also draws heat away from them.

Good luck! I do think that animals know, in their animal way, when they are loved and cared for, and I am sure that at some level your girls are aware of this.

 

[smartgirlchic]

I read something on this site about holding birds when I first got mine that was really helpful. As others are saying on this thread, make sure they can't flap -- everyone will be calmer -- but in addition, as this other post I read said, think in terms of not replicating a predator situation when you pick them up. I.e., try not to sort of swoop from above too much when you go to hold them, and also, don't let them flap away from you as you are putting them down -- this will feel to them like escaping from a predator. Try to keep their wings under control until you have actually set them gently on the ground; then it won't feel like an escape situation.This helped me a lot with learning to pick up my birds.

Also, as others have said, it becomes easier to pick them up when they approach maturity as many will instinctively squat for you as though you are a rooster when you stand over them. When they do that they are easy to pick up.

Great tips on not being a "predator" when I approach! Thank you!