Post Your Nifty Tips and Tricks You've Learned Along the Way that Makes Chicken Keeping Easier

[Artichoke Lover]

I’ve got two here:

Make sure your water source is near your coop if at all possible. Ours is roughly 500 feet from the coop. It’s a major pain to haul water for 30 chickens down there. I probably spend 2 hours a week hauling water that would only take 5min and turning on a hose if we had finished the water hook up by the coop. It’s worse in winter since I have to fill up inside.

2. Socialize all your chickens. Even the ones that aren’t pets. It makes them much easier to catch Incase of illness, injury or if they escape. They don’t need to be tame enough to sit on your shoulder or beg for treats but you should be able to get your hands on them if you have too. I’m trying to treat a nearly wild rooster for bumblefoot right now. It’s extremely unpleasant.

 

[chickfused]

I'm building out a new self-refreshing, cold water source for the birds. My sitter won't be putting ice in their buckets 4 times a day while I'm on a biz trip and it's 95+ degrees.

So I've purchased a wifi fermentation temperature probe that connects to two appliances that will either heat or cool water based on which end of the temperature monitor is tripped. (And alert my phone as to what it's doing.) I then connected a plugin solenoid to my garden hose (100 ft.) and put it in the cooling outlet. When the water gets too hot, the solenoid will open.

Building a manifold system with one waterer higher than the other (just because this is what I have to work with and I don't want to buy new waterer materials), and the temp probe goes into the lower one. When the solenoid opens, the water will fill the upper one, which will flow through to the lower one until the temp gets back into range. When the water in the waterers is cool enough, the solenoid will close again and stop the water. And reopen when it gets too warm, refresh, etc. Will adjust flow before the solendoid so the piping can maintain adequate dumping.

From the lower one I've directed the warm overflow (82 degrees F) to my chicken's forage garden (just some buckwheat and blueberry bushes right now, but due for expansion in 2023) and their damp dirt patch for summer. Could actually run the water whereever I want it actually, may send it to the main garden.

I'll report back if this works, because if so, it's a pretty dang easy solution to a really aggravating problem and the out of pocket cost is <$150. This could be run off solar with a small panel and a marine battery - it will barely sip any electricity.

 

[Outer limit]

What a great idea for a thread! I'm sad there haven't been more responses.

I'm sure a lot of you already do this, but it didn't occur to me right away and made a huge difference: nipple waterers in the brooder.

I planned to have buckets turned nipple waterers in the coop, but was using those little plastic waterers you see everywhere in the brooder because the bucket wouldn't fit. I finally got so fed up and worried about their health (they were filling the waterers with poopy shavings faster than I could change the water) that I made one with an empty milk jug just for the brooder. I've also seen some clever bike water bottle holder turned nipple waterers elsewhere here. Never going back to open waterers again ever. Hanging the feeders at shoulder height also cut way down on wastage.

Good for you! We made a simple gravity watered with a plastic waterer bottle, some pecs tubing and 3 sections of copper tubing that we had saved. My hubby put some adapters on the end of the tubing and hooked up the nipples. Put a clay pot dish filled with gravel under it, so if they pooped in it, it just washed to bottom of the dish, which I changed out every day. Perfect solution for us!

 

[Outer limit]

I'm building out a new self-refreshing, cold water source for the birds. My sitter won't be putting ice in their buckets 4 times a day while I'm on a biz trip and it's 95+ degrees.

So I've purchased a wifi fermentation temperature probe that connects to two appliances that will either heat or cool water based on which end of the temperature monitor is tripped. (And alert my phone as to what it's doing.) I then connected a plugin solenoid to my garden hose (100 ft.) and put it in the cooling outlet. When the water gets too hot, the solenoid will open.

Building a manifold system with one waterer higher than the other (just because this is what I have to work with and I don't want to buy new waterer materials), and the temp probe goes into the lower one. When the solenoid opens, the water will fill the upper one, which will flow through to the lower one until the temp gets back into range. When the water in the waterers is cool enough, the solenoid will close again and stop the water. And reopen when it gets too warm, refresh, etc. Will adjust flow before the solendoid so the piping can maintain adequate dumping.

From the lower one I've directed the warm overflow (82 degrees F) to my chicken's forage garden (just some buckwheat and blueberry bushes right now, but due for expansion in 2023) and their damp dirt patch for summer. Could actually run the water whereever I want it actually, may send it to the main garden.

I'll report back if this works, because if so, it's a pretty dang easy solution to a really aggravating problem and the out of pocket cost is <$150. This could be run off solar with a small panel and a marine battery - it will barely sip any electricity.

For any folks looking to cool off your birds, in super high heat, recommend a squirrel cage type misting fan. We found a good one off Amazon. I think it’s a lasko brand. It can be used as a regular fan or hooked up to water hose for misting. Our birds won’t get in a wading pool, but they like getting in the path of the mister. They hang around in the path of it for a while, then run off to eat, dust bathe, etc. The mister lowers the temp at least 25 degrees in the area where it is aimed. It is the difference between chickens panting and not panting. I love it too, and use it to cool off when I’ve been working in the garden. It has a sealed motor to protect it from water damage, although I try not to ever leave it out in the rain. I wouldn’t leave it on them all day without checking on them from time to time. I’m usually home all day or I can run back to check on them.

 

[chickfused]

For any folks looking to cool off your birds, in super high heat, recommend a squirrel cage type misting fan. We found a good one off Amazon. I think it’s a lasko brand. It can be used as a regular fan or hooked up to water hose for misting.

Link pls! I've got misters out, but am def thinking of changing them out for a misting fan.

 

[Happy Novogens]

@chickfused and @Outer limit could you post pics of the water setups you describe?

 

[Sally PB]

I am leaning toward deep litter coop keeping.

Deep litter, or deep bedding? They aren't the same, and require different set ups to work. Here's a really good article, mostly about deep bedding, but it explains the difference:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/using-deep-bedding-in-a-small-coop.76343/

I have deep bedding in my coop, and "pretty deep" litter in the run. It'll be deeper after I clean out the bedding in the coop.

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

Deep litter, or deep bedding? They aren't the same, and require different set ups to work. Here's a really good article, mostly about deep bedding, but it explains the difference:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/using-deep-bedding-in-a-small-coop.76343/

I have deep bedding in my coop, and "pretty deep" litter in the run. It'll be deeper after I clean out the bedding in the coop.

When I wrote the above for the life of me I could not remember "deep bedding". YESSS, that is the article that first got me hooked on the concept. I'd know those fingers anywhere.

 

[chickfused]

@chickfused and @Outer limit could you post pics of the water setups you describe?

Actually the water's going to have to come in at the bottom of tank 1 to push the heated water up and out until it's gone. Possibly the same for tank 2 and move the probe up. Not sure. Pic is goofy.

 

[Mrs. K]

Tonight I thought of another thing. I was catching my cockerels to put them in a bachelor pad. I fish net with a 4-5 ft handle can be a huge aid with catching a bird if needed.