Surviving Minnesota!

[jerryse]

Morning . Should be a nice day . A little cool with a breeze . Good day to work outside . I will be working in the woods today . Helping my logger . Finally got him started yesterday . Selling some walnut for veneer . Raising some money as I will need it for the cabin . So I will be cutting trails and skidding logs . Wife will have no trouble from me today . Well I could be tired , hungry and cranky at the end of the day . Just feed me and let me relax . My old donkey will be tired .

 

[BantyChooks]

Good Morning Chickeners . . . .  Took a hard-core pain reliever last night. LOL. NOW I have grown up as a chickener. I cleaned out the outdoor run yesterday. UGH! The smell (and I know each of you know this but you can LOL at how naive a chickener can be) and there was alot of  _ _ _ _!  Okay, okay, I get it NOW! Cleaning out the coop and run . . . . last year . . . . what is the big deal?  This year - yeah - now I have a clearer understanding.  So what are some other options so this never, ever happens again? Scoop it up and into a 5 gallon pail and into the compost pile immediately? Does that work? WHAT DO YOU DO?

Siggie - love looking at your chicks. It will be interesting to see the pics of them when they are feathered out. I hope you will keep posting pictures. It is interesting to me to follow the process of a broody. I would love to do that but probably never will. Never say never.

Another beautiful day. I am going to run through the house doing some cleaning and then leave for Aitkin to camp overnight. It has been over a year since I have been up there and many changes have been made.

Have a great weekend chickeners.

Why exactly are you cleaning out the run? Do you have one of them postage stamp runs?

Me, I add more leaves, old shavings, sticks, etc and let it break down. Never clean my run & don't have smell.

Coop.... The best thing you could probably do is have a low stocking density. That, and don't skimp on the bedding.

I have a psuedo-deep litter thing going. Not quite, but enough that poo breaks up and doesn't cap and make smell. I clean it about once every season, more in summer.

 

[I Love Layers]

State Qualified in 300 hurdles yesterday. Almost broke the schools high jump record too. Our 1600 relay (4×400) PRed by about 7 seconds also. I did not get home til 11:32 last night and went to bed at around 12:30. Thankfully I got to sleep in!

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Great job on the track and field Event qualifications Layers.

Took DS to the country club. Golf match in Perham today. We'll see how he does. He keeps nipping his score lower and lower.

Made some cowboy beans for a potluck. We are going up to help get a resort open for the season. Cancer diagnosis with the owner so a little community rallying to help them get a going.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Lvie my run is 10 x 12 for 9 birds. For runs you want 10 square feet per bird. In my run I have a mix of straw and fall leaves. I put in about afoot or more of bedding in that run. When they scratch through the leaves and straw poop drops down to the black dirt underneath and I really don't see it much again. The run gets cleaned out every 2-3 years. I should do it this year. My coop is pine shavings and that is cleaned first february warm up and once every one to two months. I use a open feed bag to remove roosting poop every 3-5 days. Pull them out during the day or to a corner of the coop they don't walk so the feet and eggs stay clean.

 

[I Love Layers]

Thank you BC!

Today I am hoping to build a chick run out of the old trampoline frame, since it got bent on half last year. And then i have to go rock picking to line the chicks coop with. Hopefully they can move out this weekend.
Our only heifer that we bred calved yesterday, a decent sized heifer calf. I'm not sure how many cows have calved but on Wednesday it was around 7 I think. We has the first calf and them nothing until Monday I think.
I'm also Hoping to ride this weekend, and possibly bring them in the Corrals so i can start working with them so they aren't dumb by time summer rolls around.

 

[BantyChooks]

Lvie my run is 10 x 12 for 9 birds. For runs you want 10 square feet per bird. In my run I have a mix of straw and fall leaves. I put in about afoot or more of bedding in that run. When they scratch through the leaves and straw poop drops down to the black dirt underneath and I really don't see it much again. The run gets cleaned out every 2-3 years. I should do it this year. My coop is pine shavings and that is cleaned first february warm up and once every one to two months. I use a open feed bag to remove roosting poop every 3-5 days. Pull them out during the day or to a corner of the coop they don't walk so the feet and eggs stay clean.

My run is 45' x 38' for 23 birds. They're mostly free range though as they hate being confined to a run, ungrateful boogers, LOL.

 

[ejb3810]

Good morning chicken people. Congrats on the track accomplishments Layers.

Sounds as if Jerry has a productive day on his schedule, and as I understand it Ralphie was last seen just a little bit South of Saskatoon. I am not sure if he is on a selling or buying trip ?

 

[Siggie]

Good morning! Gonna be a beautiful day today! Just have to go into work for a couple of hours and then the rest of the day is mine to finish the grow beds in the greenhouse!! So...since my broody hens seem to be great at what their purpose is...I've been walking around my barn and coop every night when I put them to bed trying to figure out a way to expand both. I have decided the best way to do this is to expand out the back for both the barn and coop. So in essence the coop will be doubled in size and then I can actually designate area on one side for brooding cages. The barn expansion is because I want sheep (for spinning my own yarn)

So between expanding the barn (not necessary but just because I want more animals) and the coop (necessary if my birds continue to brood well) and then I need to build my potting shed addition to the greenhouse and finally my canning house.....wow, as usual my summer is going to be busy! I wish I could quit my job and just work on my projects but that's what is footing the bill for the materials UGH! not fair !

Thanks for the compliments on my chicks! I am just having the greatest time with this experience and will certainly continue to post pics as long as you guys will let me LOL! I can't wait to see how they all feather out and if their colors will be splashed about or if any one attribute will dominate!! Hoping I get some Wyandottes but haven't seen any evidence of them yet.

@I Love Layers KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK ON YOUR TRACK AND FIELD!!!!

 

[EMorical]

Why exactly are you cleaning out the run? Do you have one of them postage stamp runs?

Me, I add more leaves, old shavings, sticks, etc and let it break down. Never clean my run & don't have smell.

Coop.... The best thing you could probably do is have a low stocking density. That, and don't skimp on the bedding.

I have a psuedo-deep litter thing going. Not quite, but enough that poo breaks up and doesn't cap and make smell. I clean it about once every season, more in summer.

x2. MORE CARBON!!!!! When we moved last fall, it was less than ideal for their winter room - tiny tiny - they were almost roosting on each other

and refused to enter the frozen wasteland (outside) to scrounge around so when I started noticing some problems (mountains of poo and a not so pleasant smell

) I told my DH and his response was "Add more carbon. Duh." (He's a cattle guy) So off to the coop with arm fulls and rubbermaid tote fulls of hay the bulls deemed "too horrible to eat" and I'll be danged if it didn't work

Even this spring, when it thawed, the smell was almost non existent! Yay for carbon! (In this story - carbon refers to plants/vegetation that can absorb some of those negative effects of the chicken poo, while it decomposes, and turn it into something wonderful - compost! Not carbon the chemical element

)