Run Floor

[SilkieNation]

How'd you manage to get 10" of snow? That's a lot for such a southern clime. This was winter here and the pics don't capture the real deal. Minus 8, minus 3, minus 12, blizzards, snowstorms, ice dams on the house - ugh. Had to have the snow shoveled off of my roof for fear it would collapse.




Lice I think come from wild animals...they're in the environment. It sounds as though you do all the right things to keep them away. I used Sevin and DE on my birds, cleaned the coop completely every week for 4-5 weeks, re-dusted the birds after ten days and they went away. Then they came back. So obviously that wasn't good enough. So I did it again and got them the second time. I discovered I had them when sitting with my rooster in the vet's and suddenly realizing that they were crawling all over me!!!!

Fortunately, poultry lice don't infest people. If your birds have them, you'd see the nits (eggs) around the feather shafts and the little buggers crawling around on them. Have you done any research on feather loss? Do you have a rooster that may be too aggressive? (Maybe that's an obvious question...). Does the skin look normal where they are losing feathers? Fleas? Mites? Change in diet?

 

[pfields]

I had two roosters when I only had 21 hens and they were over mating them so I sold one and we killed the other one two weeks ago after he spurred me on both legs. About two months ago we merged our new RIR hens with our older hens and now we only have one BO rooster. He's on probation, lol, if he hurts me or is rough with the hens, well he's gone. I bought him when I bought the RIR pullets from Ideal. The plan was to get rid of the two roosters we had and replace with just one. I don't care if the eggs are fertile or not but have customers that do. One thing our other two roosters did was to warn us of hawks. I had two hens attacked by a hawk, both survived with lots of TLC.

Right now I have a BA sitting on 11 eggs in my old coop. They should hatch this week if the eggs are fertile. She goes broody often in fact I used her when I got my new chicks. At the time she was broody so I put a few chicks under her and she took all 28 (out of the 28 chicks were 2 peanuts that turned out to be roosters and my 1 BO) of them. For three weeks she watched them carefully and then she was through with them so I put her back with the flock in the backyard. I gave away the 2 RIR roosters to a man down the road. My husband wants me to keep one rooster so we can sell chicks. We have people wanting to buy my chickens and they're not for sale so a few baby chicks here and there would be okay.

Here's a few pictures of our historic snow. Didn't have any icicles like yours.


Patio table

On the south side of the carport.

Our front yard.

 

[SilkieNation]

Had to put my rooster down today. An x-ray showed a very huge mass. The vet is going to open him up to see if it is cancer or something like a salmonella abscess or something else that could be the problem with the hens - not eating hardly anything, not laying.

About to get a wicked storm, better go close the windows.

 

[pfields]

I'm so sorry to hear that. Let me know what they find if you don't mind.

I'm going to pull up the radar to see what's coming your way.

 

[crzyckldy]

That was the first coop I started with about 3 years ago. It is still standing and in good condition! At first I used it for 2 hens. Now it works wonderfully for a grow out pen for the juvenile chicks!!!

 

[Irishsilk]

So sorry to hear about your Rooster.
Wasn't he lucky to have such a caring 'Mum'.

We are new to chickens and have white Silkies. Rooster, Hen, Mama hen and 4 chicks. I love the colours of yours. Is that an official colour or is it thru breeding?

 

[BWKatz]

I built my coop on dirt but it is clay with lots of rocks and I was afraid of my chicks getting bumble foot from digging the rocks. I put old shingles down to cover any rocks and then put about 4 inches of sand on top of that. In the winter I put pine straw on top the sand to warm it up. The concrete should not be the problem. More likely they have dug up some rocks wherever they are grazing. The sand also keeps them from getting mites. If I had a problem I would use the PZ.My hens stop laying anytime it sstorms or snows. They are very sensitive to changes. Also if they are grazing they will eat very little feed. It is not necessary to have a rooster but they do keep other animals away. Hope this helps.

 

[SilkieNation]

So sorry to hear about your Rooster.
Wasn't he lucky to have such a caring 'Mum'.

We are new to chickens and have white Silkies. Rooster, Hen, Mama hen and 4 chicks. I love the colours of yours. Is that an official colour or is it thru breeding?

Thank you. He was a Partridge Silkie, and I think a rather lovely one.

He's buried by a rock with some yellow iris planted on top.

All the best with your new chickens! I love Silkies. They are so sweet and soft and pretty and they have great little personalities.

 

[PittsburghChick]

I use a mixture of sand, stall dry, wood ash and diatomaceous earth (food chemical codex grade with calcium bentonite). This mixture is great. My run is 6' by 25' covered. They free range in the evenings and weekends when I am home. They dust bathe in it, is a natural parasite control and you just need to rake it up to remove all droppings, like a big kitty litter box. I throw in grass clippings, scrapes, hay etc to keep them busy. They love scratching around all day and have various roosting places. Ingesting it does them no harm and has positive health benefits. I also add apple cider vinegar with (the mother) to their drinking water. It reduces the problem of constantly cleaning the coop/run (I clean and refresh twice a year-spring and fall) and just pick it out once a week.

 

[PittsburghChick]

There is a product they use on fish that will help with the infection and bumble foot. You do however need to remove the bumble. The product is called Tricide-Neo for Koi, and can be found online.