She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one!

[WVduckchick]

I've NEVAH cleaned a run. Some folks take a tiller to them if they get compacted. Mine is a bit compacted around the new coop. That's because the new coop was built on heavy clay subsoil that never got raked/de-rocked enough, or had enough time last fall to get seeded to grass (We didn't get the coop finished until late November). So 1/2 of the run is nasty clay subsoil, that is getting reconditioned by adding all the compostables I can get my hands on. (the other half is weed/grass quite lush and healthy looking) We have a bagger on the lawn tractor, and that stuff is gold IMO. It goes where ever most needed. (on potatoes, in green house, in chicken run or chicken coop.)

If your litter is composted in the coop, be sure to leave a good base. Are your coops bare ground? Bee Kissed uses DL in bare ground coop, and NEVER takes any litter out unless she is harvesting it for the garden. She never has flies or odor in the coop. But, she free ranges exclusively, so doesn't have bare ground run issues to fix.

Yes. That stuff would be gold in the run. PDZ is Zeolite. It binds nitrogen (thus no ammonia smell in the coop) and slowly releases it. I've never used it, but IMO, think it would be fun to try in a heavy nitrogen based compost situation. The more organics you can get in your run, the healthier your run will be (unless you already have a healthy crop of grass/weeds). I'd be happy to have a 6" layer. If I had a 6" base in my run, the next thing I'd do would be to collect an army of earth worms and introduce them at night or in rainy weather. (so they can get some good soil penetration before the chickens find them in the morning.)

I got it... Reminds me of the dyslexic agnostic. He never did figure out if there really was a Dog.

Yep. Get that bare gound covered!!!

Dyslexic agnostic... funny stuff!

I'm glad for all this talk about all this, because I'm starting to need a better solution, so this is all good info for me. My grounds are bare now.
I use straw in my coop, shake some PDZ first. Flies and smell are minimal. But when I clean it out, I've been tossing it over the fence! I should throw it out in the run?
Also with the new run I'm building, we are planning a run within run. Keep them in the inner run and free-ranging during winter and early spring, but out of the outer run. Then when its time to keep them penned up (to keep my LO eggs pure), they will have the new growth to forage on. I've got so much to learn about this stuff....

 

[WVduckchick]

So before that, did it look like this?


Maybe do something like this, since you seemed to have enjoyed one so much.



And since you don't get a parade for chicks, I still give you fireworks for the hay bale.

 

[scflock]

So before that, did it look like this? Maybe do something like this, since you seemed to have enjoyed one so much. And since you don't get a parade for chicks, I still give you fireworks for the hay bale.

Thank you

 

[scflock]

If I were you, I would be reading hardcore about hatching BCMs. I'm pretty tempted to start reading myself. Lol. If I come across anything worth reading, I'll send it your way. Take lots of notes on each hatch so you can start eliminating things you've already tried and look for areas where you can try something new. I'm sure that's all pretty obvious, but I love taking on a challenge and they seem pretty challenging, so far. And I know you think this is not "blue" but it would be really interesting to see the results if you sanded half the eggs and then compared the results from each half.

I wish we would have talked about this sooner. I've dumped so much liter in the woods. Between the chick batches and the peachicks, I could have had the run filled a couple months ago! I think it will be better for winter too. As the ground freezes here and I was worried about frost bitten toes. I think it will help for them to be walking around on a barrier layer between the ground.

I'm not opposed to sanding eggs, but dangit, it's not supposed to be this hard. I've been all cocky, praising the Brinsea, ing people, and now I have back to back 55% hatches.
I'm going to move to Canada, buy some bitchin frizzies, and start drinking

 

[dan26552]

 

[scflock]

I've NEVAH cleaned a run.  Some folks take a tiller to them if they get compacted.  Mine is a bit compacted around the new coop.  That's because the new coop was built on heavy clay subsoil that never got raked/de-rocked enough, or had enough time last fall to get seeded to grass (We didn't get the coop finished until late November).  So 1/2 of the run is nasty clay subsoil, that is getting reconditioned by adding all the compostables I can get my hands on.  (the other half is weed/grass quite lush and healthy looking)   We have a bagger on the lawn tractor, and that stuff is gold IMO.  It goes where ever most needed.  (on potatoes, in green house, in chicken run or chicken coop.)

If your litter is composted in the coop, be sure to leave a good base.  Are your coops bare ground?  Bee Kissed uses DL in bare ground coop, and NEVER takes any litter out unless she is harvesting it for the garden.  She never has flies or odor in the coop.  But, she free ranges exclusively, so doesn't have bare ground run issues to fix.

Yes.  That stuff would be gold in the run.  PDZ is Zeolite.  It binds nitrogen (thus no ammonia smell in the coop) and slowly releases it.  I've never used it, but IMO, think it would be fun to try in a heavy nitrogen based compost situation.  The more organics you can get in your run, the healthier your run will be (unless you already have a healthy crop of grass/weeds).  I'd be happy to have a 6" layer.  If I had a 6" base in my run, the next thing I'd do would be to collect an army of earth worms and introduce them at night or in rainy weather.  (so they can get some good soil penetration before the chickens find them in the morning.)

  I got it... Reminds me of the dyslexic agnostic.  He never did figure out if there really was a Dog.

Yep.  Get that bare gound covered!!!

If you're doing BCM, why are you doing CM?  My understanding is that the CM don't have any near the dark egg color that the BCM do.  If you're incubating your own eggs, you have nothing to loose but time by experimenting with your humidity.  Now, if your chicks are dying during lock down, I'm wondering if the egg is too wet... or the chicks are too big and malpositioned (good enough reason for an eggtopsy right there).  My first hatch this spring had quite a few DIS.  (final hatch was 19/28 I think.)  I did open up a few and decided that they were either too wet or possibly malpositioned.  I didn't do a complete eggtopsy on all of them, b/c I didn't want to look at all that death.  BUT, with the next hatch, I left them on their sides UNTIL lock down.  Then, because I didn't like the size of the air cells, I put them in egg cartons for the hatch.  That ended up being the best hatch ever!

Just for grins and giggles, and to humor me, try putting your next hatch in egg cartons (if that's even possible with your Brinsea.

The agnostic dyslexic is supposed to have insomnia, too.
Lays awake at night wondering if there really is a dog...

 

[RubyNala97]

I've NEVAH cleaned a run.  Some folks take a tiller to them if they get compacted.  Mine is a bit compacted around the new coop.  That's because the new coop was built on heavy clay subsoil that never got raked/de-rocked enough, or had enough time last fall to get seeded to grass (We didn't get the coop finished until late November).  So 1/2 of the run is nasty clay subsoil, that is getting reconditioned by adding all the compostables I can get my hands on.  (the other half is weed/grass quite lush and healthy looking)   We have a bagger on the lawn tractor, and that stuff is gold IMO.  It goes where ever most needed.  (on potatoes, in green house, in chicken run or chicken coop.)

If your litter is composted in the coop, be sure to leave a good base.  Are your coops bare ground?  Bee Kissed uses DL in bare ground coop, and NEVER takes any litter out unless she is harvesting it for the garden.  She never has flies or odor in the coop.  But, she free ranges exclusively, so doesn't have bare ground run issues to fix.

Yes.  That stuff would be gold in the run.  PDZ is Zeolite.  It binds nitrogen (thus no ammonia smell in the coop) and slowly releases it.  I've never used it, but IMO, think it would be fun to try in a heavy nitrogen based compost situation.  The more organics you can get in your run, the healthier your run will be (unless you already have a healthy crop of grass/weeds).  I'd be happy to have a 6" layer.  If I had a 6" base in my run, the next thing I'd do would be to collect an army of earth worms and introduce them at night or in rainy weather.  (so they can get some good soil penetration before the chickens find them in the morning.)

  I got it... Reminds me of the dyslexic agnostic.  He never did figure out if there really was a Dog.

Yep.  Get that bare gound covered!!!

Well I wish I would have known sooner to "nevah" (now you're talking like a NYer), clean my run out. I've been busting my butt all summer cleaning it out daily, so no poop would be in there! Next year I'll have all this down! So anything that can go in a compost can go in the run?

My coops all have solid floors. I clean them out once a year, and leave about 25% in the coop to seed the new.
My cuckoos are my biggest sellers, but that was before I got the BCM. Their eggs are nowhere near as dark, but they are great layers and I can sex them young. I can sell 6 week old pullets for $15, so I'm getting a decent price without feeding them too long, and I'm getting over 90% hatch rate out of those. The BCM will be big sellers, but not for much more money. SQ doesn't bring much more around here. I hope to be successfully hatching Ams by then as well, so next year I can focus my hatching on those 3 breeds.
An Octagon for for an additional incubator is not out of the question for next year, either.
I may try the cartons. I've thought about it before, because that would be easier than the rails. I would have to do some trimming, but they would fit

Do you take the rails out for lockdown and it's just a screen floor? Maybe you could just fit the whole bottom of the egg cartons right on the screen?

Dyslexic agnostic... funny stuff! 

I'm glad for all this talk about all this, because I'm starting to need a better solution, so this is all good info for me.  My grounds are bare now.
I use straw in my coop, shake some PDZ first.  Flies and smell are minimal.   But when I clean it out, I've been tossing it over the fence!  I should throw it out in the run? 
Also with the new run I'm building, we are planning a run within run.  Keep them in the inner run and free-ranging during winter and early spring, but out of the outer run.  Then when its time to keep them penned up (to keep my LO eggs pure), they will have the new growth to forage on.  I've got so much to learn about this stuff.... 

That's a good idea. So one grows while they use the other and then vice versa?

 

[RubyNala97]

I'm not opposed to sanding eggs, but dangit, it's not supposed to be this hard. I've been all cocky, praising the Brinsea, ing people, and now I have back to back 55% hatches.
I'm going to move to Canada, buy some bitchin frizzies, and start drinking

then yell at us every time we make a simple suggestion.

 

[kwhites634]

then yell at us every time we make a simple suggestion.

Can you shoot hay bales in Canada?

 

[WVduckchick]

then yell at us every time we make a simple suggestion.

Truth!