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- #11
Thanks for the compliments! I have 12 hens and one rooster, he's good at leading my ladies, standing up for them, and good at keeping them under cover.
I've got a 17 pound Jack Russell Terrier, who initially wanted to chase the chickens, but after some disciplining from me, has become very good with the chickens, and never threatens them, to the point that three hens tried to take the rawhide bone he was chewing the other day. He tolerated it until three of them ganged up on him, then he just growled, got up and moved! That's tolerance!
What I like about the tractor I built is, I truly believe it cannot be penetrated at night by any predator, with perhaps the exception of a bear, which is extremely rare in central Virginia, so I don't worry about night time threats at all.
However, during free ranging of course they're vulnerable. Knock on wood, in almost six months, I haven't had any attacks or losses.
I do have hawks, eagles, raccoons, skunks, and possums though. I'm letting my dog out of the house more during the day, especially when it's above 40 degrees.
The beauty of the tractor though, is if ever the predator threat was too great for all day free range, which they do now, I could simply keep them in the tractor when I wasn't in the yard. It's a beautiful setup and would still be a very pleasant life for them, and no predators could reach them. If I ever had to do that, I would move the tractor twice a week, instead of once a week like I do now.
It's such a great thing to be able to offer them completely fresh, poop free grass in their tractor, every time I move it, leaving last week's poop on the ground behind us as fertilizer.
Ironically, I believe the systems I've incorporated into this tractor, would also make it a great stationary coop for someone who only had a small bit of land in their backyard. The only benefit they would lose is they'd have to deal with the poop, as with all stationary coops.
I think one of the more radical aspects of this tractor is the complete elimination of the traditional separate coop. This is made possible because of the the complete devotion to making what would normally be a daytime run into an absolutely secure enclosure. I believe this greatly increases the efficiency of the entire system, since all the space is now completely available at all times, instead of devoting a lot of resources into a coop that's not a pleasant place for them except at night.
You'll notice I took every possible opportunity to keep my grassy ground space clear and open for grazing in the tractor. The only two items that infringe on the ground space are the hanging feeder and the hanging waterer. All other items have been hung high enough to graze beneath.
The scaffold braces, which gives the frame such incredible strength, are covered in pvc pipe with Gorilla tape, and the chickens love to perch on them and also use them to jump up onto the upper level attractions, like the dust box, roosting bar, and the roosting bars facing south at the open end of the tractor. In the winter, that's a very warm sunny spot for them.
I did a lot of research on dust baths (really on anything I do, very helpful sometimes, but I can get bogged down in details). I read a very interesting study by the University of California at Riverside, on the effect of sulphur in dust baths on mites and lice. It killed them both for many weeks, and because of the kicking chickens do while bathing, even killed the pests on chickens who didn't bathe. Wow!
Here's a link to the study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22458590/
I do have the advantage of a completely covered dust bath, its never exposed to rain, so it's always real dusty, which the chickens like. It's also hanging, which keeps other stuff from getting kicked in it, and it's really a very popular place for my 12 hens and one rooster. They love to roost on its edge, bathe in it, just lay in it, and use the extra space it provides in the tractor to run across and play, it's like a mezzanine for them. It's a few inches lower than the adjacent roosting bar, they jump back forth between them all the time.
Anyway, getting back to the point, because of the findings of that study, I do add a few cups of the purest sulphur I could find at the feed store, to their bath. Their bath is a 24 inch by 36 inch black plastic mortar mixing tub from Home Depot, I use the smaller version (18 inches by 24 inches) for their backup water supply when it's too cold to use the chicken nipple bucket.
I use a couple of 50 pound bags of sandbox sand from Home Depot (it's quite dusty), mix in some sulphur (a few cups), then toss in the same amount of diatomaceous Earth (as dusty as flour), which is good for killing pests too, then mix in some wood ash.
There have been times I didn't have any wood ash, and of course I couldn't add it. I don't think it's a big deal either way.
IMHO play sand and sulphur would be fine too by themselves. Some people don't like using diatomaceous Earth because it's so fine it can get in the chickens lungs. Maybe I've been around too long, but considering the short (compared to us) life spans of chickens, I'm not worried about the chickens perhaps getting lung cancer. Real world I just don't believe that's at all likely or even possible. Others disagree.
I do keep a metal scoop with holes in it, I think it was meant as a tool to sift ash from coals in a fireplace, and every day I take about 30 seconds to sift out any poop that got in the dust bath. Super easy and fast to do, the sand flows very quickly through, leaving the poop balls in the scoop, which I toss under the roosting bar.
One thing about my roosting bars I like, is it only takes a minute to run a 6 inch wide putty knife (buy the metal one, plastic breaks) down the roosting bars every day, knocking it on the ground, and left behind when I drag the tractor later in the week.
Ha ha, that's the full extent of me having to deal with poop, practically not at all. Even better, it's so healthy for the chickens, never even a whiff of ammonia.
I'm going to add a few photos to this post in a little while.
This scoop makes lifting out any poop in the dust box fast and easy. The sand runs off fast, leaving the poop to toss on the ground.
The 6 inch metal putty knife (technically a mud knife for applying drywall mud to drywall) is perfect because it's just a little wider than the five quarter deck board that's the roosting bar. Just a quick walk along the roosting board to knock the poop to the ground.
I've got a 17 pound Jack Russell Terrier, who initially wanted to chase the chickens, but after some disciplining from me, has become very good with the chickens, and never threatens them, to the point that three hens tried to take the rawhide bone he was chewing the other day. He tolerated it until three of them ganged up on him, then he just growled, got up and moved! That's tolerance!
What I like about the tractor I built is, I truly believe it cannot be penetrated at night by any predator, with perhaps the exception of a bear, which is extremely rare in central Virginia, so I don't worry about night time threats at all.
However, during free ranging of course they're vulnerable. Knock on wood, in almost six months, I haven't had any attacks or losses.
I do have hawks, eagles, raccoons, skunks, and possums though. I'm letting my dog out of the house more during the day, especially when it's above 40 degrees.
The beauty of the tractor though, is if ever the predator threat was too great for all day free range, which they do now, I could simply keep them in the tractor when I wasn't in the yard. It's a beautiful setup and would still be a very pleasant life for them, and no predators could reach them. If I ever had to do that, I would move the tractor twice a week, instead of once a week like I do now.
It's such a great thing to be able to offer them completely fresh, poop free grass in their tractor, every time I move it, leaving last week's poop on the ground behind us as fertilizer.
Ironically, I believe the systems I've incorporated into this tractor, would also make it a great stationary coop for someone who only had a small bit of land in their backyard. The only benefit they would lose is they'd have to deal with the poop, as with all stationary coops.
I think one of the more radical aspects of this tractor is the complete elimination of the traditional separate coop. This is made possible because of the the complete devotion to making what would normally be a daytime run into an absolutely secure enclosure. I believe this greatly increases the efficiency of the entire system, since all the space is now completely available at all times, instead of devoting a lot of resources into a coop that's not a pleasant place for them except at night.
You'll notice I took every possible opportunity to keep my grassy ground space clear and open for grazing in the tractor. The only two items that infringe on the ground space are the hanging feeder and the hanging waterer. All other items have been hung high enough to graze beneath.
The scaffold braces, which gives the frame such incredible strength, are covered in pvc pipe with Gorilla tape, and the chickens love to perch on them and also use them to jump up onto the upper level attractions, like the dust box, roosting bar, and the roosting bars facing south at the open end of the tractor. In the winter, that's a very warm sunny spot for them.
I did a lot of research on dust baths (really on anything I do, very helpful sometimes, but I can get bogged down in details). I read a very interesting study by the University of California at Riverside, on the effect of sulphur in dust baths on mites and lice. It killed them both for many weeks, and because of the kicking chickens do while bathing, even killed the pests on chickens who didn't bathe. Wow!
Here's a link to the study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22458590/
I do have the advantage of a completely covered dust bath, its never exposed to rain, so it's always real dusty, which the chickens like. It's also hanging, which keeps other stuff from getting kicked in it, and it's really a very popular place for my 12 hens and one rooster. They love to roost on its edge, bathe in it, just lay in it, and use the extra space it provides in the tractor to run across and play, it's like a mezzanine for them. It's a few inches lower than the adjacent roosting bar, they jump back forth between them all the time.
Anyway, getting back to the point, because of the findings of that study, I do add a few cups of the purest sulphur I could find at the feed store, to their bath. Their bath is a 24 inch by 36 inch black plastic mortar mixing tub from Home Depot, I use the smaller version (18 inches by 24 inches) for their backup water supply when it's too cold to use the chicken nipple bucket.
I use a couple of 50 pound bags of sandbox sand from Home Depot (it's quite dusty), mix in some sulphur (a few cups), then toss in the same amount of diatomaceous Earth (as dusty as flour), which is good for killing pests too, then mix in some wood ash.
There have been times I didn't have any wood ash, and of course I couldn't add it. I don't think it's a big deal either way.
IMHO play sand and sulphur would be fine too by themselves. Some people don't like using diatomaceous Earth because it's so fine it can get in the chickens lungs. Maybe I've been around too long, but considering the short (compared to us) life spans of chickens, I'm not worried about the chickens perhaps getting lung cancer. Real world I just don't believe that's at all likely or even possible. Others disagree.
I do keep a metal scoop with holes in it, I think it was meant as a tool to sift ash from coals in a fireplace, and every day I take about 30 seconds to sift out any poop that got in the dust bath. Super easy and fast to do, the sand flows very quickly through, leaving the poop balls in the scoop, which I toss under the roosting bar.
One thing about my roosting bars I like, is it only takes a minute to run a 6 inch wide putty knife (buy the metal one, plastic breaks) down the roosting bars every day, knocking it on the ground, and left behind when I drag the tractor later in the week.
Ha ha, that's the full extent of me having to deal with poop, practically not at all. Even better, it's so healthy for the chickens, never even a whiff of ammonia.
I'm going to add a few photos to this post in a little while.
This scoop makes lifting out any poop in the dust box fast and easy. The sand runs off fast, leaving the poop to toss on the ground.
The 6 inch metal putty knife (technically a mud knife for applying drywall mud to drywall) is perfect because it's just a little wider than the five quarter deck board that's the roosting bar. Just a quick walk along the roosting board to knock the poop to the ground.
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