South Carolina

[WestKnollAmy]

Quote:
Heidi,
It is all on her FB page about how the house came in and was set up and some of the stuff she has done to it. I haven't had time lately to look at any more photos but it was coming along great and Mary can tell you if they have moved in yet or not.

We have missed you too, Heidi! I don't even get on here very much anymore. I am on FB most all the time now. There are tons of SC places and almost everyone we know are on there. Have I friended you on there?

 

[gvilledh]

I am trying to get some new pictures of the young chicks. I am going to have to take my camera with a fast lens tomorrow because they are busy, busy. I did get some great ones of CopperTop. Amy said from day one he was a roo, and now she says he is because he is so sweet and such a charmer. He is truly the sweetest of all the chicks and the only one content to just sit on my leg and watch the world go by. Too bad we aren't keeping him...



Look at those feathered legs!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Amy, you have such beautiful bird! Do you have any picture of your d'Uccles? Did you say you had Mille Fleurs? I almost sold mine and called the man today and told him I just could not--he told me that it was probably a good idea as his birds keep dying for no reason.... Funny I woke up this morning thinking I just had to keep them.

Thank you! They are a work of passion. I do adore my bantam Cochins over all the others but don't tell the others.

Yes, I have a good many photos of my MF. I will try to post some later. I actually have them all up for sale. I love them very much but just can't work with all these birds. The meal worms have taken off so well that I have to give up some things. I love my babies, they are so pretty but I don;t have the time for them.
I do have Toby (Napoleon) and Bride (Minnie Pearl) back and plan on trying to enter Toby in some shows later on. Kimberly is planning out some shows to go to so I will probably be going along with her and Nicole. But I am not so sure I will keep any other d'Uccles. They are incredibly beautiful and charming and I will miss them dearly but there is a point I have to become a bit more organized in my farm chores.
Sam Bam (aka dixiebeast) has already spoken for some of them.

I am glad you are keeping yours. I am sure Sam will be happy to find more bloodlines later on and Walter (cpantherfan) is getting into them, too, I believe. Susanne is selling hers, from what I have heard.

 

[Moonchild]

OK so what do you suggest to use for the floor of the coop? Pine shavings? Sand? Chopped hay? We are hoping to finish our coop in the next week and I need to decide!

I use pine in one coop...it stays dry and doesn't get wet from the rain. I had hay in the nest boxes and if it got even a little wet when it fell out of the nestbox..it stinks(or atleast I hate that smell)..I do rake the pine(with mint and eculyptus and DE) mixed in about once a week just to keep things mixed up and put alittle fresh in..then in feburary I spread it all over my front yard where the chickens are not.

I use sand in my d'Uccle habitat, the actual coop has a wire bottom with a removeable pan under it for easy clean. I LOVE the SAND!!!! just rake it around from time to time and when it rains it dissolves the poo!!!! AND it's all dry. I love it!
Hope this helps!

 

[Moonchild]

I was posting some of my Frizzles on here the other day and finally got a photo of my Mottled Frizzle girl. I think I will be breeding her to my last hatched son of Cowboy, Hot Steel.

AMY AMY AMY.....I know I'm on the list of the Frizzles.....BUT now I don't know which list I want to be On...Just Beautiful!!!!

 

[gvilledh]

I use pine in one coop...it stays dry and doesn't get wet from the rain. I had hay in the nest boxes and if it got even a little wet when it fell out of the nestbox..it stinks(or atleast I hate that smell)..I do rake the pine(with mint and eculyptus and DE) mixed in about once a week just to keep things mixed up and put alittle fresh in..then in feburary I spread it all over my front yard where the chickens are not.

I use sand in my d'Uccle habitat, the actual coop has a wire bottom with a removeable pan under it for easy clean. I LOVE the SAND!!!! just rake it around from time to time and when it rains it dissolves the poo!!!! AND it's all dry. I love it!
Hope this helps!

I agree about the straw/hay. I learned this lesson over the past weekend. We had gotten some straw to use when the babies were born. It wasn't asorbent enough for their run, so we moved it to the big girls run. They seemed to love it and it stayed dry and worked fine for awhile. Over the past couple of weeks, I noticed the big girls" run was smelling more, but also knew we had not been able to get in there and clean it out as well as usual. Fast forward to this past weekend with the high temperatures and me deciding to wet down the run for the girls. Big mistake. Oh my. I got some of the straw (mostly disintegrated) out on Sunday and the rest will be out in the next few days. My hope is to have sand down in the next few months.

 

[Moonchild]

WELL I may not have any MFd'Uccle eggs hatch....since I now have two on eggs and one stole all the eggs from the other hen and sat on them on the wire coop floor. Still this has happened two days straight, I spilt the eggs and put them in two different baskets and I HOPE the hens are happy I have one hen in each basket...I Pray this works out I just hope the eggs survived the fight of stealing....

 

[Jenn1399]

Rule of thumb. on the floors. nothing that will absorb and hold water. like hay or straw or even sawdust that will cause mold and or mildew. sand, pine shavings wicks dry pretty fast but has a tendancy to have wet spots.. To be perfectly honest. for my money. you can not beat a good old fashion dirt floor. it rakes clean, provides trace minerals, all the grit you chickens will ever need. wont get as cold as a raised floor in the winter.and they can scratch down to cool dirt in the summer. and it just feels natural for the chickens to scratch in. chickens and dirt go together like creamy peanut butter and jelly. smooth to work with and just plain sweet for the birds.

We have dirt floors in our coop & it is extremely low maintenance! We rake leaves & dump mower clippings in there & the girls dig enough in there that they dig their poop down & mulch the leaves & everything cleans itself! We have had backyard chickens for 15 months now & in that time I have added leaves/clipping, scraped poop off some hard surfaces (& revised some parts of the coop so that poop doesn't hit hard surfaces!) & I have never done more than that to keep it clean. I HIGHLY recommend dirt floors!

With our babies, in a sectioned part of the coop (they have dirt floor too) they weren't digging enough & I really needed to add hay & now I have to change out hay weekly & it is a total PITA. I hope they start digging/mulching more soon, since I am really over cleaning out the coop weekly!!!

 

[Patsy29332]

I agree about the straw/hay. I learned this lesson over the past weekend. We had gotten some straw to use when the babies were born. It wasn't asorbent enough for their run, so we moved it to the big girls run. They seemed to love it and it stayed dry and worked fine for awhile. Over the past couple of weeks, I noticed the big girls" run was smelling more, but also knew we had not been able to get in there and clean it out as well as usual. Fast forward to this past weekend with the high temperatures and me deciding to wet down the run for the girls. Big mistake. Oh my. I got some of the straw (mostly disintegrated) out on Sunday and the rest will be out in the next few days. My hope is to have sand down in the next few months.

I agree on the sand 100%! I have seen it at Samantha's (DixieBeast) coops in action...IMHO that is the way to go if possible...easy to clean! I hope to add sand here soon...in the meantime...I have mine on the dirt floor in the coops and in the raised coops I have them on pine shavings over small wire floors. If the pine shavings do happen to get wet though it does mold fast! You have to get that out asap! I am thinking of doing straw in my laying boxes because they keep scratching the pine shavings out of there as fast as I put it in it seems...LOL! Oh, and I use puppy papers in my hatchlings brooders until they go outside in the bigger brooder. Good luck with your choice...seems to be what works best for your environment!

 

[Jenn1399]

Oh, & in our nest boxes we use shredded paper from our shredder!!!