Show Off Your American Gamefowl and Chat Thread!!!

[centrarchid]

Where are you parking the snowmobile? Are you not in lake-effect snow land?

 

[birdman55]

Edited to add u can pm me and I will send u a cheaper version of the long building. Pictures are not mine so I will not post them unless thru pm. (The buildings above our mine the ones I would like to post are not).

 

[birdman55]

We have close to a foot of snow. And it's supposed to snow later today. Bummer.

 

[sdm111]

That sounds nice.  I thought from your pics you have some pretty big pens.  Are you expanding?

Have you ever done pens on pea gravel?  I had a friend growing up that did and I never cared for it.  It looked nice at first, but was a mess when it was damp with a little manure mixed in.  Would you have access to wood chips, compost, or horse manure?  Something to raise the pen level above ground level?

no have not done pea gravel before. Looking from the street the big pens are on the left side property line. These would be across the back furthest from neighbors on each side nobody lives behind me. It seems a lot of folk on here have good size properties where as I'm on 100x200 so I really don't have too much to work with. I never looked for actual chips

 

[sdm111]

I am going to load mine up with low quality hay. Also additional roosts will be setup to get birds to do a little more flying.

just saying along time ago I used hay for a pheasant pen and when it got rained on it held the wet, molded and smelled horrible I had to pull all of it out. Straw being hallow worked way better

 

[B123]

Edited to add u can pm me and I will send u a cheaper version of the long building. Pictures are not mine so I will not post them unless thru pm. (The buildings above our mine the ones I would like to post are not).

The new buildings look awesome! What type of floor will they have?

 

[B123]

no have not done pea gravel before. Looking from the street the big pens are on the left side property line. These would be across the back furthest from neighbors on each side nobody lives behind me. It seems a lot of folk on here have good size properties where as I'm on 100x200 so I really don't have too much to work with. I never looked for actual chips

I am not sure what it is like down your way, but up here tree companies will sometimes let them go for free if they are doing a job in the area and just want a close place to dump. The township crews are the same way, or I can pick them up pretty cheap at the saw mill down the road. They have worked out well. Then pen level is about 4-6 inches above ground level, so they drain well and the birds really turn them over and compost them. I rake them out and remove the worst before adding fresh chips.

 

[birdman55]

Tree company's and electric company's will donate u chips so they don't have to pay to get rid of them however. Sing in landscape for over ten years. I would say no on chips cause we use chips to retain moisture n u will have the same problem as hay. Best thing to use is masonry sand. Not beach sand or play sand as they contain silica which is glass and can harm the birds if swallowed. But I put 4-8 inches of sand. But u have to keep most of the sand under roof and it stays perfect. They dust bathe in it and everything. If the sand is wet and the birds and pooping and walking on it turns pretty hard and is not good to use.

 

[birdman55]

For a dump truck ful of sand delivered should be cheaper then chips and should be less then 200$ only problem with sand is it is heavy

 

[B123]

Tree company's and electric company's will donate u chips so they don't have to pay to get rid of them however. Sing in landscape for over ten years. I would say no on chips cause we use chips to retain moisture n u will have the same problem as hay. Best thing to use is masonry sand. Not beach sand or play sand as they contain silica which is glass and can harm the birds if swallowed. But I put 4-8 inches of sand. But u have to keep most of the sand under roof and it stays perfect. They dust bathe in it and everything. If the sand is wet and the birds and pooping and walking on it turns pretty hard and is not good to use.

I see what you are saying as I use wood chips around my plantings and trees too, but that is more to prevent evaporation of water from the ground.

With wood chips in the pens it works a little different. Our soils, perhaps like yours are heavy and wet especially in the spring. By raising the pen level up, the pens stay drier. I will actually add water to the pens this time of year and during the summer. Sounds counter intuitive, but during the winter when things are frozen and dry the chips compost a little with water and the chickens seem to enjoy the little bit of moisture. I generally just dump the water cups in the pens and that is where they make their dust bath for the day.