NY chicken lover!!!!

[marquisella]

It's so educational to read about everyone's challenges faced while tending chickens thru the winter months -- whether that be egg production issues, bedding woes or rooster flare-ups! Doing my best to keep up and take lots of mental notes.

I'm considering the deep bed method for the coop, with wood shavings. What's your preference for shaving material? I hear that pine isn't a good choice due to resins released causing potential airway issues in the birds. Cedar is supposed to be a fragrant choice, but I wonder about cost? I am still a little confused about using sand for the coop.....just play sand like you get for your kids sandbox? I am clueless about this!

I am envisioning straw for the outside pen area to help keep mud at bay once the grass is scratched and trampled down to dirt. I would imagine this doesn't take very long to happen. Also considering a "sacrifice pen", attached to but separated from the everyday pen, so I can switch back and forth between the two pens.. Does anyone have a set-up like this?

Lots to learn, and spring isn't really all that far off! Glasshen, I've also got my mind set on spring thanks to this warm-up, but I doubt it'll last very long!
Hope your roosters heal up quickly.

TOB

If you can do it, have 2 areas that you can rotate them on so one grows back, while they are on the other.

Do not use cedar! Its the cedar that gives off resins. Pine is ok to use, that is what most shavings are from.

If your runs are small, use stones. Straw will just make awful muck...and harbor mold. Mold & damp are the enemies of chickens.

 

[ChickPrincess]

Hubby was sweet and scooped out the coop this morning. Of course ours is the tractor with wire floors under the roosts, so no bedding, just lots of poo. Horse stalls later. *blah* Then we see the Amish mini stud running up the road, in our driveway and to the barn. He can't get in the barn, but he will walk through fence. So back out hubby goes to chase him off. After he made sure the mini was on his way home, he stopped at the amish coop to check how their chickens have faired since the door broke off a couple weeks ago. There are no chickens left, but there are a bunch of chicken heads left laying around the lawn. Not sure of any predators that rip heads off and carry off the rest, but likely the amish butchered the chickens and left the heads behind. So glad they left some bait out to bring in predators! Some neighbors are just so considerate....

We have Mennonites near us and I've always thought they were very clean people. Maybe I'm wrong? I can't picture them leaving a bunch of chicken heads around. Treating their livestock like tools, yes, but their farms always look picture perfect and tidy.

It's so educational to read about everyone's challenges faced while tending chickens thru the winter months -- whether that be egg production issues, bedding woes or rooster flare-ups! Doing my best to keep up and take lots of mental notes.

I'm considering the deep bed method for the coop, with wood shavings. What's your preference for shaving material? I hear that pine isn't a good choice due to resins released causing potential airway issues in the birds. Cedar is supposed to be a fragrant choice, but I wonder about cost? I am still a little confused about using sand for the coop.....just play sand like you get for your kids sandbox? I am clueless about this!

I am envisioning straw for the outside pen area to help keep mud at bay once the grass is scratched and trampled down to dirt. I would imagine this doesn't take very long to happen. Also considering a "sacrifice pen", attached to but separated from the everyday pen, so I can switch back and forth between the two pens.. Does anyone have a set-up like this?

Lots to learn, and spring isn't really all that far off! Glasshen, I've also got my mind set on spring thanks to this warm-up, but I doubt it'll last very long!
Hope your roosters heal up quickly.

TOB

As for the sand, I've read DO NOT use play sand. It is too dusty. There is CONSTRUCTION GRADE sand, which is larger in grain size. I plan on switching to that in the spring. When you need to clean poop, you make a rake out of hardware cloth and use it like a pooper scooper. I'm hoping it'll be much easier to keep up with.

 

[SunnysideupstateNY]

I've used a mixture of corn cob horse bedding and pine shavings the past few winters and it has worked great. Shovel it out midway (if it gets really wet - like with a January thaw), or after winter, throw it right in the garden and I'm good to go!

 

[Lynzi777]

Hello All,
Well with this 50 degree weather here I hope that's all the snow we'll be getting this winter! It's all melted and the flock was let out to free range a little bit yesterday. I threw some more pine shavings in the coops to freshen things up a bit, refreshed all the waterers, refilled food and collected eggs. Everyone seems happy.

I cannot believe how much I've been recycling items since we got chickens. All these juice containers and laundry containers-they all get cut up and used for the chickens. Never had to deal with thawing out waterers cuz I would just replace them with another container filled with water ever other day or so. And whatever was frozen was emptied and placed in the shed. Wish it was this easy to do with the rabbits. I never did get double supply of the water bottles so those were brought in to thaw and refill every day. What a pain in the neck!

These chicks are growing like weeds. Can't wait to get them outside and see how they do with the other silkies.

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

TOB---I use pine shavings in my coops for the deep litter method and they work just fine. I just add more and some de when it needs freshening up and turn it over. For the runs, I use bagged leaves and pine needles from the fall. I rake them up and bag them. When it gets muddy or snowy, I just empty a bag into the runs and it keeps the cheeps busy and off the mud. Its free, easy to clean out and goes right on the compost pile. I like using all the free natural stuff that mother nature provides.

Well the paths are melting really good so now I am slogging through mud and water but at least I wont be falling on the ice! I left the door open on the silkie coop so the boys could play in the bigger run. They were happy to get out and spread their wings and run around. The terrorists went through every leaf and pinecone and anything else that was dumped in their run looking for goodies. Rotten girls worked chicken daddy for more scratch after I had already given them some. He is SO owned by them. He said they like the leaves better with scratch in it. I told him they were all going to be fat by the time winter was over. No signs of any predators here, neither land dwelling or arial. I hope it stays that way. I did hear the little owls the other night but they only hunt mice and voles. They are really cute and I like having them around.

Heres hoping all this crap finishes melting before the big freeze rolls in on friday!

 

[Tough Old Bird]

If you can do it, have 2 areas that you can rotate them on so one grows back, while they are on the other.

Do not use cedar! Its the cedar that gives off resins. Pine is ok to use, that is what most shavings are from.

If your runs are small, use stones. Straw will just make awful muck...and harbor mold. Mold & damp are the enemies of chickens.

Thanks for steering me down the right path again, marquisella. So thumbs UP to the PINE .... and thumbs DOWN to CEDAR !

lapeerian - that sounds nasty about the chicken heads left behind, but comical about the mini stud. Once in a while, my gelding (and my neighbor's two) manage to escape Alcatraz where the deer might have gotten the hot wire pulled down without us noticing. They have a grand adventure and the expense of more gray hairs for me.

TOB

 

[Tough Old Bird]

As for the sand, I've read DO NOT use play sand. It is too dusty. There is CONSTRUCTION GRADE sand, which is larger in grain size. I plan on switching to that in the spring. When you need to clean poop, you make a rake out of hardware cloth and use it like a pooper scooper. I'm hoping it'll be much easier to keep up with.

Thanks, ChickPrincess. This is the info I was trying to get to re: the sand. Haven't decided for sure which method I'm going to go with yet: sand vs. deep bedding.

TOB

 

[Tough Old Bird]

I've used a mixture of corn cob horse bedding and pine shavings the past few winters and it has worked great. Shovel it out midway (if it gets really wet - like with a January thaw), or after winter, throw it right in the garden and I'm good to go!

I like the sound of that!

TOB

 

[Tough Old Bird]

I use pine shavings in my coops for the deep litter method and they work just fine. I just add more and some de when it needs freshening up and turn it over. For the runs, I use bagged leaves and pine needles from the fall. I rake them up and bag them. When it gets muddy or snowy, I just empty a bag into the runs and it keeps the cheeps busy and off the mud. Its free, easy to clean out and goes right on the compost pile. I like using all the free natural stuff that mother nature provides.

I did hear the little owls the other night but they only hunt mice and voles. They are really cute and I like having them around.

I have read where you can utilize leaves, etc., for the pen / run. This seems to make good sense. One question about storing it until you use it: does it get very damp in the bags, or doesn't that matter so much for outside litter?

What kind of owls are you hearing, Eastern Screech? They're very cute!

TOB

 

[Cass]

They are not laying now anyway....Was going to install a light, I bought a timer. when I got home I realized that I had no light to install!! Sheesh.......

I have a light and no working timer. Isn't that always the way?

Go to a Auto place and get a clamp on lamp. For "additional light" you don't have to have the ceramic fixture like you do for the heat lamps. Regular incadencent (Sp) bulbs heat up, but don't melt things like the heat lamps bulbs do. (My clamp on lamp was like 5 bucks at Auto place...or Walmart (but I hate Wally's world) so I only go there as a last resort)