I started gardening for the first time in the early spring and am loving it, and now I think we need chickens to have some fresh eggs along with our veggies!
I'm completely new to this, but have done lots and lots of reading. I want to see if I'm on the right track, and also ask a few questions. I would very much appreciate the help!!
We live in the suburbs and don't have a lot of space, so we want our coop to be as discrete as possible. For this reason I'll be putting our coop on the back patio, directly on the concrete. I have a couple of concerns about this, though:
1) Since it is so close to the house, and we will walk right by it to get to the back yard, I'm worried about the smell; and
2) The patio gets pretty damp when it rains (duh!) But what I mean is that there is typically some standing water - maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch in some spots.
Our coop is a chicken tractor - although it will be stationary. There is a long run with hardware cloth walls and ceiling, and then a nice house/coop. There is no floor to the run part, and it will sit directly on the concrete. I'll have four chicken (I've done lots of research to make sure I get breeds okay with confinement), and they will each have 10 square feet of space.
Questions:
1. Should I keep it directly on the concrete, considering that when it rains there will be standing water in the run? I could build a plywood platform to sit it on, and obviously that will also get wet when it rains, but then the water won't stand.
2. I've decided to use pine shavings as the bedding, but am confused as to where this is supposed to go. Do I put this all over the run and also the coop/house, or just in the house? If it's just in the house, cleaning the run will be really easy as I can just hose it off - but I want my chickens to be happy! It seems like it would get pretty gross to have shavings in the run, though, where they will get all wet when it rains.
3. What can I do to reduce smell? It looks like Stall Dry is a good product to mix in with the shavings. Then I've seen this stuff called Poultry Protector that you spray on the bedding to kill bugs and odor. Then there is also Barn Yard Destroyer and Odor Digester. I'm so confused! I want my coop to be as odorless as possible, and without having to do a ton of work like changing shavings daily and scrubbing it out every week, but I also don't want to go nuts with too many products. Help!
I'm completely new to this, but have done lots and lots of reading. I want to see if I'm on the right track, and also ask a few questions. I would very much appreciate the help!!
We live in the suburbs and don't have a lot of space, so we want our coop to be as discrete as possible. For this reason I'll be putting our coop on the back patio, directly on the concrete. I have a couple of concerns about this, though:
1) Since it is so close to the house, and we will walk right by it to get to the back yard, I'm worried about the smell; and
2) The patio gets pretty damp when it rains (duh!) But what I mean is that there is typically some standing water - maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch in some spots.
Our coop is a chicken tractor - although it will be stationary. There is a long run with hardware cloth walls and ceiling, and then a nice house/coop. There is no floor to the run part, and it will sit directly on the concrete. I'll have four chicken (I've done lots of research to make sure I get breeds okay with confinement), and they will each have 10 square feet of space.
Questions:
1. Should I keep it directly on the concrete, considering that when it rains there will be standing water in the run? I could build a plywood platform to sit it on, and obviously that will also get wet when it rains, but then the water won't stand.
2. I've decided to use pine shavings as the bedding, but am confused as to where this is supposed to go. Do I put this all over the run and also the coop/house, or just in the house? If it's just in the house, cleaning the run will be really easy as I can just hose it off - but I want my chickens to be happy! It seems like it would get pretty gross to have shavings in the run, though, where they will get all wet when it rains.
3. What can I do to reduce smell? It looks like Stall Dry is a good product to mix in with the shavings. Then I've seen this stuff called Poultry Protector that you spray on the bedding to kill bugs and odor. Then there is also Barn Yard Destroyer and Odor Digester. I'm so confused! I want my coop to be as odorless as possible, and without having to do a ton of work like changing shavings daily and scrubbing it out every week, but I also don't want to go nuts with too many products. Help!