NY chicken lover!!!!

[stonykill]

I just surrounded the base of the coop with hardware cloth. My coop that is too low for reasons I don't have time to go into, is damper than those with circulation underneath. This is why houses have crawl spaces.

in scale that is a crawl space. Your typical raised chicken coop is like a house on stilts given the scale

I gave my results and what works for me on 4 of 9 coops and they all would be low if I had it to do over.Your results may vary

 

[stonykill]

How many eggs do you have under hens right now? If you have more than a couple split them up between the broody hens so they each get to hatch one or two chicks....break their brood sooner and you still wind up with the same number of chicks.

that works...sometimes. I have done that a few times where I tried to shorten the brooding period too much. Say to a week. All I got a few times were dead chicks. I give her eggs again, let her sit her 21 and happy healthy chicks.

 

[Tab's chicken obsession]

Morning! Most of my garden is in. I'll have to take a pic. I'm going to have to come up with some creative places to put squash in a couple of weeks, DH doesn't like it invading his lawn.

 

[AQHAchick22]

I just surrounded the base of the coop with hardware cloth. My coop that is too low for reasons I don't have time to go into, is damper than those with circulation underneath. This is why houses have crawl spaces.

My coop is about 2 feet up off the ground and it's great. The floor isn't damp and the chickens love to be able to run under the coop if it's raining or if there is a hawk around. Plus it's a nice sandy dirt under it so it's a great dust bathing spot.

 

[Glasshen]

Jaw, my coop is low to the ground too. I didn't want to have chickens dancing around under the coop singing Na Na, you can't get us.

 

[Cass]

that works...sometimes. I have done that a few times where I tried to shorten the brooding period too much. Say to a week. All I got a few times were dead chicks. I give her eggs again, let her sit her 21 and happy healthy chicks.

Yeah, there is that factor. Seems that chickens can read a calendar and they won't accept chicks unless they have sat for a minimum of 2 weeks. I had the same results (dead chicks) giving chicks to a broody about 8 days into her brood. Another time I split eggs up among 2 broodies at about 15 days and, while surprised at them hatching, she was fine with chicks showing up early; took really good care of them.

 

[Desiree Brown]

4H poultry school today my boys are excited.

 

[Lapeerian]

Morning! Most of my garden is in. I'll have to take a pic. I'm going to have to come up with some creative places to put squash in a couple of weeks, DH doesn't like it invading his lawn.

Im going to try trellising the vine squash this year. Brother has a bunch of used cattle panels that he used for calf pens, but changed the barn around so he doesn't use them anymore. I never liked the cukes running around the lawn either, couldnt mow as close to the garden boxes. But now with the panels, everything is going to grow up this year, instead of out. Or at least that is the plan!

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote: I have used old metal fencing (like cattle panels just smaller squares) to have cukes, squash and zucchini grow up to give me more space and I have found less rotted veggies from sitting on the ground as well. I've see where you can put crops that require less sun under the fencing since they will get the shade from the vines.

My garden is fenced in and I just took the extra piece of fencing and zip tied it to the outer perimeter fence & then used garden stakes to hold it the ground at an angle then planted the vine plants under the fencing at an angle

 

[Glasshen]

Tab, you're amazing. I only have a little bit of my garden stuff in, and I can bend in the middle! My big project has been digging out the grass that has infiltrated my fron beds. I dig out aplastic sled load then drag it down to the run. I aim it doe craters created by dust bathing, and some of it stays there as the girls go through it for yummy stuff, but when they are free ranging they try to redesign the beds I'm working on. They firmly believe the mulch should be on the lawn, not in the beds, so I've had to remove them from the area frequently...sometimes a squirt of the hose helps.