Run Floor

[tsmith91]

I have that same coop I have 3 chickens and that is the limit we wanted more chickens so I've already built another coop from pallets the pallets were free so I have very little invested if I had it to do over I wouldn't have bought the other one I've had no problems out of it but it is hard to clean out and has very little ventilation if you have time to build your own that's the way I would go

 

[pfields]

I can only bring myself to poison the mice that try to colonize the interior walls of my house. I'm concerned about the other wildlife that may eat it if I put it outside, otherwise, I might go for it as the chipmunks not only eat all of my birds' food, but the tunnel all over the place and have really messed up my already deteriorating and mossy patio. However, I think I'll take the chipmunks over rats and rattlesnakes!! 18 rattlesnakes, basically in your yard?? I'll take the northeast, thank you. I bet you have really big bugs too.

I hope the storm doesn't develop into anything major. I guess all you can do is batten down the hatches and hope for the best. 48 chickens is a lot in my book. maybe you can build them an underground shelter....

I bought Scratch n' Peck grower, because of my rooster. The reviews were good, but who knows, I know I don't. It looked good, like maybe something they would eat. I'm a little concerned with their light appetites - I don't give them that many treats, I think they may just be holding out for them.

Well good luck skunk and rattle snake hunting (oh the rats too). I hope your girls' feathers grow in nicely and you are able to locate the soft egg layer. I had one for years but eventually, one got stuck in her. It was pretty sad and she suffered as I tried to fix it by taking her to the vet a few time over the course of FIVE days. I'll NEVER do that again. Poor thing.

Again, good luck with that storm!

Well the worst is over from Tropical Storm Bill. Both coops handled the 50+ MPH wind just fine. Believe it or not those chickens still went outside in all that wind and rain. They would huddle by their pop door and just stand there. We had put a feeder and a waterer in their coop in case they stayed inside all day. Our yard is soaked and leaves and branches are everywhere. It's still raining off and on, not hard rain with wind like yesterday but it just never stops for long and starts up again. We lost one large branch from a tree in the backyard and one branch off a shrub next to the house. I had beautiful sunflowers that were tall with huge flowers and the wind got most of them. Oh, well will plant again.

Since we couldn't do anything outside I canned salsa from our tomatoes and made grape jelly from the grapes I picked. We were worried about the power going out but it just blinked a few times.

Hope all is well in your chicken world!

 

[SilkieNation]

Well I'm glad to hear that everyone, except perhaps for the sunflowers, made it though! Can't imagine why your chickens wanted out in that kind of weather. Mine want nothing to do with rain,snow, wind... Salsa and grape jelly sound pretty good!

Well I took my rooster and hen to the vet today and it was really, really expensive. My rooster has been losing weight , but the vet called it "life threatening". He lost 1/3 of his weight since March. I knew he was getting thinner, but didn't realize... So I spent over $100 on bloodwork. Going to worm everyone and have the two on antibiotic for mild bumble foot. Very worried about the roo. Have had him for 9 years and he's serious pet material.

I didn't realize he had lost that much weight. All very troubling. I'm hoping it's worms and the valbazen makes everything right and it's not some other problem. Really, no one is eating well, and with the hens having stopped laying, something is definitely amiss. I (my chickens) never had worms before, in nine years, but I think both of these symptoms can be caused by them. Their poos look great, but the vet said that doesn't really mean much.

 

[pfields]

I hope he gets better. For that kind of money I hope you get some answers.

I've checked my chicken's poo for worms and haven't seen any either and also for mites and haven't seen any, yet I still worry about it with the feather loss. They've never gone through a molt so maybe that's it. They are laying eggs just fine. The older ones with the feather loss are not laying as well as the new ones that are 23 weeks old.

Let me know how your chickens do after worming.

 

[SilkieNation]

I will. Thanks. I've read that laying slows or can stop before/during a molt. Maybe that's what's going on. If you'd like some valbazen, I have 500 ml I just bought and I only need 20 ml or so and that's even more than I would use - ever. I tried to sell it, but there were no takers.

 

[pfields]

Thank you that's very kind, if I find out they need worm medicine I will gladly buy it from you. Will keep in touch. I smelled Mr. Skunk when I went outside to check on chickens before dark. Still misty but it's not raining as hard. Our yard is a slush pit. I hope the sun comes out soon.

 

[SilkieNation]

Roo's fecal came back completely negative, but I wormed anyway. His blood work shows he's got some kind of raging systemic infection that the vet thinks is from something other than the bumble foot, which isn't that bad - that's why he's lost so much weight. I've got a veritable hospital going on in the coop. He's doing a bit better - feeding him all sorts of tempting stuff. I keep their environment really clean - daily poop picking and run raking... High quality food, sunshine...Just don't know. So I went to TSC and spent a fortune on rubber mats for the coop floor. You'd think I had money to spare...(ah, no.) Stall mats would have been better, but they weigh 100lbs and I wanted something I could handle when no one was around to help. Great (maybe not great, since they are not cheap) solution to the coop floor question though (on concrete anyway).

We are getting the remnants of Bill tomorrow - just some heavy rain, which we need. I guess hurricane season is just getting going...

 

[pfields]

Sounds like you're doing everything you can to help him get well. I'm familiar with the rubber mats and they aren't cheap. I put down plenty of shaving in my old coop that was on concrete and never had a problem. They didn't have to jump down far from the bottom rung of their roost to the floor. I spaced all the rungs 18 inches apart. Now in the new coop with the wooden floor they have to hop down farther but I put lots of shavings on that floor too.

Yes, hurricane season has just started and it runs through Nov.

 

[SilkieNation]

I've had birds in there for 9 years and never had a problem until now. It's weird. I have shavings and straw - though it's not real deep, but putting less makes cleaning the coop so much quicker and easier. I had lice once, so I am reluctant not to clean everything out fairly frequently - THAT wasn't fun. I'll make the investment once and reduce the chances of additional issues.

I know all about hurricane season from a job I once had. I'm thankful that we don't get so much crazy weather here, although that may be changing. Last winter we got tons of snow and temps were in the negatives for a long, long time. Ice dams on my roof were over a foot thick. Icicles all across the gutters with some giants down to the ground.

 

[pfields]

I wonder where the lice comes from? Do the chickens pick them up outside? I need to spray down my coop on the inside while they are out free ranging.

Before I put my chickens in my first coop with the concrete floor I sprinkled DE all over the floor and then added the bags of shavings. I also put Sevin Dust on the bottom of their nest boxes under the shavings later when they started to lay. I've gone over my chickens with the feather loss and I haven't seen anything move. Hope I'm not missing something. My newest 23 week old RIR's have nice feathers and they've been together with my older hens for several months now in the new coop.

Every morning I clean the poop boards with a sifter and throw away the waste in the compost bin. I use PDZ on the poop boards and add more when needed. I change out or add shavings when the floor looks dirty. Since I wear rubber gloves when cleaning the coop I pick up poop off the floor and throw in my bucket if I see a big pile on the shavings.

I don't like tropical storms or hurricanes. The last time it snowed here was on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2004. We got about 10 inches and that's a lot for the coast of Texas. My oldest grandchildren we so excited. I'm not a cold weather person. I'm not sure how you handle that can of weather for a whole winter. We thought our winter was never going to end last year.