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

[smartgirlchic]

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.

Oh, good to know about the "picky eating"! I will keep trying to feed them some of these things. My husband and I just thought it was super hilarious because we're such picky eaters...we just couldn't imagine how we taught the chickens the same thing in such a short amount of time! Lol!

 

[Ballerina Bird]

Oh, good to know about the "picky eating"! I will keep trying to feed them some of these things. My husband and I just thought it was super hilarious because we're such picky eaters...we just couldn't imagine how we taught the chickens the same thing in such a short amount of time! Lol!

That is hilarious. Another thing mine loved right out of the gate is yogurt, which is good in the heat because you can serve it cold from the fridge -- from what I understand, anything you give them that is at a cooler temp than they are helps them cool down. (Mine like freshly changed cold water when it's hot, too.)

 

[Skyfeathers]

Y'all are too funny! Makes me smile to read these comments! My girls hate yogurt, it's like unsweetened cough syrup to a kid! They do love watermelon, ripe bananas, apples, cucumbers,spinach, radish leaves, and kale, but turn their beaks up at chard and lambs quarters. Some love tomatoes, others won't touch them, same with pineapple. It has taken repeated efforts to broaden their tastes. Guess they are like us, huh? I depend on watermelon a lot to help during the heat waves. I plan to put some fresh or frozen corn, berries, etc in a pan of water in the freezer, then put it out for them to peck at, see how that goes. My 18 pullets from this spring were very wary of new treats at first, they would gather around with their necks stretched as long as they could stretch them toward the new treat, then one would be brave enough to take a peck and run. The next bravest would take a bigger peck, and if the others saw the first 2 didn't die, they would all start tasting, and pretty soon it was a free-for-all! Cracks me up!
A mister sounds like a great idea, maybe I'll join them cooling down, but don't think Ill try the snuggle in the dirt part, my legs are too long!
It was hard for me to admit to depression, but my girls have helped me through some tough times. Feeling responsible for their well being has gotten me up and out the door to tend to them, and it is partly because of them and their beauty, funny antics, and friendliness, and the hard work I've done outside in the yard on their coops and runs that I am doing so well today. I thank God for my chickies, they are way better than therapy (though that has it's place). Because of my chickens I am a more tolerant person, of others and of myself!

 

[Ballerina Bird]

Y'all are too funny! Makes me smile to read these comments! My girls hate yogurt, it's like unsweetened cough syrup to a kid! They do love watermelon, ripe bananas, apples, cucumbers,spinach, radish leaves, and kale, but turn their beaks up at chard and lambs quarters. Some love tomatoes, others won't touch them, same with pineapple. It has taken repeated efforts to broaden their tastes. Guess they are like us, huh? I depend on watermelon a lot to help during the heat waves. I plan to put some fresh or frozen corn, berries, etc in a pan of water in the freezer, then put it out for them to peck at, see how that goes. My 18 pullets from this spring were very wary of new treats at first, they would gather around with their necks stretched as long as they could stretch them toward the new treat, then one would be brave enough to take a peck and run. The next bravest would take a bigger peck, and if the others saw the first 2 didn't die, they would all start tasting, and pretty soon it was a free-for-all! Cracks me up!
A mister sounds like a great idea, maybe I'll join them cooling down, but don't think Ill try the snuggle in the dirt part, my legs are too long!
It was hard for me to admit to depression, but my girls have helped me through some tough times. Feeling responsible for their well being has gotten me up and out the door to tend to them, and it is partly because of them and their beauty, funny antics, and friendliness, and the hard work I've done outside in the yard on their coops and runs that I am doing so well today. I thank God for my chickies, they are way better than therapy (though that has it's place). Because of my chickens I am a more tolerant person, of others and of myself!

LOL! When my friends come over on hot days, they ask if they can stand under the mister with the chickens. Also love your description of the "team trial" of new treats.

That is such a beautiful sentiment about your chickens making you a more tolerant person of yourself and others; I really love that.

 

[lazy gardener]

Awesome posts about therapy chickens.

 

[smartgirlchic]

Y'all are too funny! Makes me smile to read these comments! My girls hate yogurt, it's like unsweetened cough syrup to a kid! They do love watermelon, ripe bananas, apples, cucumbers,spinach, radish leaves, and kale, but turn their beaks up at chard and lambs quarters. Some love tomatoes, others won't touch them, same with pineapple. It has taken repeated efforts to broaden their tastes. Guess they are like us, huh? I depend on watermelon a lot to help during the heat waves. I plan to put some fresh or frozen corn, berries, etc in a pan of water in the freezer, then put it out for them to peck at, see how that goes. My 18 pullets from this spring were very wary of new treats at first, they would gather around with their necks stretched as long as they could stretch them toward the new treat, then one would be brave enough to take a peck and run. The next bravest would take a bigger peck, and if the others saw the first 2 didn't die, they would all start tasting, and pretty soon it was a free-for-all! Cracks me up!
A mister sounds like a great idea, maybe I'll join them cooling down, but don't think Ill try the snuggle in the dirt part, my legs are too long!
It was hard for me to admit to depression, but my girls have helped me through some tough times. Feeling responsible for their well being has gotten me up and out the door to tend to them, and it is partly because of them and their beauty, funny antics, and friendliness, and the hard work I've done outside in the yard on their coops and runs that I am doing so well today. I thank God for my chickies, they are way better than therapy (though that has it's place). Because of my chickens I am a more tolerant person, of others and of myself!

Awe...I love your descriptive story about their reaction to new treats! Made me lol! ("...they would gather around with their necks stretched as long as they could stretch them toward the new treat..." That's what really had me laughing. That's EXACTLY what they do!!)

It was hard for me to admit depression as well. I kept blaming everything on being run down, too stressed, too tired, sick...you name it! What finally made me turn the corner was, after 2 family members passed away almost simultaneously, I went to the doctor because I felt "run down". Well, as I updated my chart to include the now deceased members of my dwindling family-I just broke down crying. I can actually laugh a bit about it now because I can only imagine what a disturbance I made in the doc's office! (When you haven't cried about anything in a while, and then the gates break open-yikes!) Anyways, not trying to get too sad here...just, that was a turning point for me and admitting it was depression was actually quite cathartic! After that appointment I set my mind on getting control of it "naturally". (Diet, exercise, volunteer work, my kitty cat, and my lovely chickens.)

So hang in there, and thank you for sharing.

 

[souriasia]

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.

Re point #1, thank you for that! My girls a lot of the time don't go for what everyone says their birds go crazy for -- case in point - Watermelon! or any melon, for that matter. I guess I'll have to try it a bunch more times and see if they start going for it. They do like yogurt -- well kind of. I'm down to 2 girls (and about to get more) -- one of my girls will go for it like crazy, the other, not so much. But she will eat it okay if it's mixed in with other stuff. I'm grateful since they can really use the probiotic benefits of yogurt. Of course the one who doesn't like it as much tends to get a poopy butt, which goes away if I get her to eat yogurt regulary -- it just figures the one who needs it most is the one who's more of a challenge to get it into!

I live in southern CA and I worry about the heat too. My girls have plenty of breeze through their crib, but I'm still challenged at this time of year. We have an outdoor fan for it, and you can attach a mister hose to that so it blows mist around. But if we turn it on before work in the morning we come home to a muddy mess and the girls seem to feel it's just too much of a good thing. We have some other tricks -- like we freeze a gallon jug (like an old milk jug) of water and hang it in front of the fan, but to be honest the thing is melted by like 9 a.m., so, not sure how much good it does. On days I'm home I can do the intermittant mist thing, but haven't figured out a solution that lasts all day. They do have the fan at least, which does help.

 

[smartgirlchic]

Re point #1, thank you for that! My girls a lot of the time don't go for what everyone says their birds go crazy for -- case in point - Watermelon! or any melon, for that matter. I guess I'll have to try it a bunch more times and see if they start going for it. They do like yogurt -- well kind of. I'm down to 2 girls (and about to get more) -- one of my girls will go for it like crazy, the other, not so much. But she will eat it okay if it's mixed in with other stuff. I'm grateful since they can really use the probiotic benefits of yogurt. Of course the one who doesn't like it as much tends to get a poopy butt, which goes away if I get her to eat yogurt regulary -- it just figures the one who needs it most is the one who's more of a challenge to get it into!

I live in southern CA and I worry about the heat too. My girls have plenty of breeze through their crib, but I'm still challenged at this time of year. We have an outdoor fan for it, and you can attach a mister hose to that so it blows mist around. But if we turn it on before work in the morning we come home to a muddy mess and the girls seem to feel it's just too much of a good thing. We have some other tricks -- like we freeze a gallon jug (like an old milk jug) of water and hang it in front of the fan, but to be honest the thing is melted by like 9 a.m., so, not sure how much good it does. On days I'm home I can do the intermittant mist thing, but haven't figured out a solution that lasts all day. They do have the fan at least, which does help.

On the watermelon: Today I got them to really eat their watermelon! I put a little bit of their feed on the top, which they devoured and by the time they were done eating the feed they had developed a taste for the watermelon! Yahoo! (This is a good thing I feel since I can freeze it for the hot days and it gives them extra water to keep them cool.)

 

[souriasia]

Wow, that's great! Thanks, I will try that. Yeah, frozen watermelon should do a lot to help a hot chick cool down.

 

[Ballerina Bird]

Re point #1, thank you for that!  My girls a lot of the time don't go for what everyone says their birds go crazy for -- case in point - Watermelon!  or any melon, for that matter.  I guess I'll have to try it a bunch more times and see if they start going for it.  They do like yogurt -- well kind of.   I'm down to 2 girls (and about to get more) -- one of my girls will go for it like crazy, the other, not so much.  But she will eat it okay if it's mixed in with other stuff.  I'm grateful since they can really use the probiotic benefits of yogurt.  Of course the one who doesn't like it as much tends to get a poopy butt, which goes away if I get her to eat yogurt regulary -- it just figures the one who needs it most is the one who's more of a challenge to get it into!

I live in southern CA and I worry about the heat too.  My girls have plenty of breeze through their crib, but I'm still challenged at this time of year.  We have an outdoor fan for it, and you can attach a mister hose to that so it blows mist around.  But if we turn it on before work in the morning we come home to a muddy mess and the girls seem to feel it's just too much of a good thing.  We have some other tricks -- like we freeze a gallon jug (like an old milk jug) of water and hang it in front of the fan, but to be honest the thing is melted by like 9 a.m., so, not sure how much good it does.  On days I'm home I can do the intermittant mist thing, but haven't figured out a solution that lasts all day.  They do have the fan at least, which does help.

How totally fascinating about yogurt and poopy butt! I had never heard that.

Re the all day issue -- that is a good point. I work at home several days a week, so I am very lucky that I can keep an eye on the setup. But I was just chatting with my chicken expert colleague in the office today, because we are going up to 106 tomorrow and I'm nervous about the girls, and he said he has a timer that attaches to his Orbit mister that he has set to go on at 2 pm and off at 5 pm, which is usually the hottest part of the day here. I wonder if something like that might help?