NY chicken lover!!!!

[rancher hicks]

Got home safe and sound. My birthday is the 22nd!! happy birthday!

And you don't look a day over 22. (unless of course your 21) ha, ha. When I forget remember I said Happy Birthday to you. I'll go eat a cupcake in your honor.

 

[cheeka]

Got home safe and sound. My birthday is the 22nd!! happy birthday!

Happy Birthday to you too! my birthday never falls on Thanksgiving, closest it gets is the day before...

And you don't look a day over 22. (unless of course your 21) ha, ha. When I forget remember I said Happy Birthday to you. I'll go eat a cupcake in your honor.

eat 2!

 

[jnmerwin]

Some basic housekeeping questions:
Now that winter is coming at us again does everyone deal with the ammonia smells that can build up in the coop? My coop is a very well insulated 8 x 12' shed and I always need to provide extra ventilation during the winter. The girls have access to the outside everyday and are closed up at night. I use pine chips on the floor and everyday rake up any poop I can see everyday and remove it. Some my questions are:
What does everyone use for floor bedding? Hay? Chips?
How does everyone deal with odors if any? Does anyone sprinkle lime or anything else on the floor?
Who uses the deep liter approach?
Do you use a poop board under the roost?
Feedback please....

 

[Lapeerian]

Can't really speak from chicken experience, but when the horses were at my parents farm, they had wood floors in the stalls. I would use Stall Dry or Sweet PDZ to soak up the excess moisture and remove the ammonia smell. There is a thread on here I followed that used the same products. Think it was "poop board convert" or similar. I did use some PDZ in the brooder tank to help keep it clean and fresh smelling. And now we mix it with the kitty litter to help with that nasty stink in the house.

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

jnmerwin--Chickens do just fine during the winter as long as you have plenty of ventilation. It is the humidity and ammonia buildup that causes problems. I use the deep litter method in my coops and all windows and doors stay open except in extreme weather(like a blizzard). I use pine for litter and just add to the coop when my nose tells me. The slightes whiff of any smell means more litter tossed in to freshen it up. The cheeps do the mixing as I usually add some scratch to encourage them to do the work. I also use de in the coops to help dry out the poop and keep it dry and pest free. Unless I have a problem, I do not do a cleanout until the springtime. The litter breaks down as time goes on and so by adding litter throughout the winter you get a nice insulating layer that keeps the coop a little warmer. I do not have a poop board. I also dont rake out the poop either. By springtime, I have about 6 inches or more to clean out of the coop and put on the compost pile. As I already stated, the most important thing a chicken coop can have is adequate ventilation. We built a Woods style coop this year for our rir and it works beautifully for the ventilation. My other coops have large double doors that allow me to keep the outer doors open all the time and windows (with no glass, just screen) that are also open all the time. Never had any frostbite on anyone. Hope this helps.

 

[featherz]

jnmerwin--Chickens do just fine during the winter as long as you have plenty of ventilation. It is the humidity and ammonia buildup that causes problems. I use the deep litter method in my coops and all windows and doors stay open except in extreme weather(like a blizzard). I use pine for litter and just add to the coop when my nose tells me. The slightes whiff of any smell means more litter tossed in to freshen it up. The cheeps do the mixing as I usually add some scratch to encourage them to do the work. I also use de in the coops to help dry out the poop and keep it dry and pest free. Unless I have a problem, I do not do a cleanout until the springtime. The litter breaks down as time goes on and so by adding litter throughout the winter you get a nice insulating layer that keeps the coop a little warmer. I do not have a poop board. I also dont rake out the poop either. By springtime, I have about 6 inches or more to clean out of the coop and put on the compost pile. As I already stated, the most important thing a chicken coop can have is adequate ventilation. We built a Woods style coop this year for our rir and it works beautifully for the ventilation. My other coops have large double doors that allow me to keep the outer doors open all the time and windows (with no glass, just screen) that are also open all the time. Never had any frostbite on anyone. Hope this helps.

X2 to all of this. I do deep litter also in all three coops and don't clean until the spring. No poop board. I get at least 8-10 inches of deep litter by the end of the winter - and I also add litter and maybe some DE/sweet PDZ if needed. I'd go nuts if I had to clean poop daily.

 

[cheeka]

jnmerwin ~ deep litter used here, just add more and let the chickens to the sifting for me. i have cleaned out the store bought coop, usually about once every couple of weeks, but they don't roost in there anymore, so no more poop... the enclosure is very ventilated, it's made from an old carport and is skinned entirely with hardware cloth. now it has vinyl sheets covering it, and I have yet to cover the front wall/door. it's never gotten smelly inside (yet), and I use all kinds of free litter, leaves, wood chips (got the town to dump a huge load here when they were working on the trees on my street) and pine needles. it all composts itself with the chickens help, into nice fluffy dirt. so I add more whenever I see dirt rather than litter (larger areas of dirt, it's not unusual for them to dig down and make a bath spot), usually add a tubful once every 10-14 days.

 

[vmdanielsen]

And you don't look a day over 22. (unless of course your 21) ha, ha. When I forget remember I said Happy Birthday to you. I'll go eat a cupcake in your honor.

I am 51 so no worries!!!! Thank you!!!

Happy Birthday to you too! my birthday never falls on Thanksgiving, closest it gets is the day before...
eat 2!

I also have a sister whose birthday is the 20 (oops yesterday if forgot, am I in trouble!!) and one on the 23rd. We spent a few Thanksgivings , celebrating our birthdays together, on Thanksgiving with candles in a pie!!

 

[vmdanielsen]

Some basic housekeeping questions:
Now that winter is coming at us again does everyone deal with the ammonia smells that can build up in the coop? My coop is a very well insulated 8 x 12' shed and I always need to provide extra ventilation during the winter. The girls have access to the outside everyday and are closed up at night. I use pine chips on the floor and everyday rake up any poop I can see everyday and remove it. Some my questions are:
What does everyone use for floor bedding? Hay? Chips?
How does everyone deal with odors if any? Does anyone sprinkle lime or anything else on the floor?
Who uses the deep liter approach?
Do you use a poop board under the roost?
Feedback please....

I do not use the deep litter method, I use pine shavings with DE mixed in. I do use a poop board and scrape that daily. I have not had a problem with ammonia odor. I will add shavings when needed.If I had odors I would use sweet pdz as that is what I have on hand for the horse stalls.

 

[Glasshen]

I have a very insulated coop, with ventilation high in the gable end, a painted wood floor, and poop boards under the roosts. The boards have a mix of sand and Sweet PDZ, which I scoop daily for the night soil which I put in the compost . The plan for winter is to add pine shakings to the floor, in a sort of modified deep litter. The chickens didn't spend much time outside last year, but this way I think they can have the benefits of deep litter, without grossing me out too badly since Ill be removing all the poop from the dark hours. I have a large heated dog bowl that I will figure out how to elevate and contain spills to keep down the humidity. The worrisome parts to the plan are that the water bowl collects dust and feathers at an alarming rate, and electricity is supplied by a heavy-duty extension cord, which is a little ghetto...

I don't mind the daily scooping, only have a dozen birds, so it doesn't take long, and it doesn't smell bad. In summer and currently the floor is bare, I just scrape up poop that occurs there. I go into the coop armed with my little plastic bucket, large kitty litter scoop and a plastic paint scraper. Daily scooping let's me see if everything is looking normal or if there could be some body sick...