Texas

[TherryChicken]

Your yard looks like my goose coop and parts of my back yard. My laundry room flooded yesterday as well. My washer and dryer bottoms are wet, so no laundry for me till it's all dried. We found the issue though and fixed it so that it does not happen again. Which is wonderful. Also discovered a leak in the kitchen of the apartment Henry is staying in until he can move back home. I think all this rain will delay them moving the mobile home onto his property. But that's OK, as long as it still gets done when the weather permits. The rain already stopped here at my place, but it was an intense 30 minute storm. Rain coming down so hard and thick I couldn't see more than 20 feet in front of me. And it was coming down sideways in hard waves. The sun is peaking out, but my yard is so soaked it won't dry today or tomorrow.

After this series of storms I will be going under my post and beam house to check for any movement or sinking, and doing the same to my chicken coop. Flooding like we had in the back yard is rough on post and beam foundations. Good thing I have a lot of bottle jacks, concrete blocks in 3 sizes and pressure treated wood on hand to shim the house up with. Lol.

man ol man, poor you, glad you could get it fixed though

 

[winteree]

oh yeah we are sold moldy hay too. Makes me really mad

flipping people

 

[Brookshire11]

I need some too :/
About time to open the nesting boxes and fill em up!
Plus I put it down in my run..they love digging in it
I'm afraid to go into the feed store though!

 

[TherryChicken]

flipping people

no kidding

 

[Starfire669]

yeah that's why i quit shopping at the feed store in Arlington they sold me straw that was nothing but mold in the middle of the bale and then wouldn't take it back  

I have been using leaves from the trees on my and my parents property mixed with wood shavings as bedding. I was told using straw could be bad for my chickens respiratory system, and that the ducks and geese might try to eat it. Is straw OK to use as bedding? And how much is it? How long does it last for? And how long does it take to compost? The leaves take forever to composet. The wood shavings I use I get from TSC for $5 a bale, and compost at a good rate.
Sorry for all the questions, I originally planned to use straw and then got afraid it could hurt my flock.

 

[harley1975]

Canton..like by Uvalde?

Canton Tx is east of Dallas on interstate 20. When you exit off I20 go south until you come to highway 64 and turn east dog ally will be on the right side. They have all kinds of animals there. Yo can look it up on the web it 1st Monday trades days canton Texas.

 

[Starfire669]

man ol man, poor you, glad you could get it fixed though

It was a simple fix. The gass station does not maintain their propery, I have to go back there every few months to clear my fence. I tried telling them that they were responsible if their negligence damaged my wooden privacy fence, they still didn't do squat, they let the grass get 3 feet tall before bothering to cut it. So I go back there and pull baby trees out, and cut the bigger stuff with my reciprocating saw to maintain my fence. Sux that I have to do their work for them though. It was all that build up that caused my back yard to flood into my laundry room. By clearing some of the weeds and grass out we got the water to drain, we plan on putting a pipe under the fence so that the water can drain out. I wish it would flood their back yard, lol. I am so mean.

 

[winteree]

I have been using leaves from the trees on my and my parents property mixed with wood shavings as bedding. I was told using straw could be bad for my chickens respiratory system, and that the ducks and geese might try to eat it. Is straw OK to use as bedding? And how much is it? How long does it last for? And how long does it take to compost? The leaves take forever to composet. The wood shavings I use I get from TSC for $5 a bale, and compost at a good rate.
Sorry for all the questions, I originally planned to use straw and then got afraid it could hurt my flock.

i don't use straw as bedding just as nesting box material. for the rest of the coop i use pine shaveings but in the run i use about a 6 inch layer of sand. but my grams used nothing but straw for bedding she only had one chicken that needing help with her crop over the years. i don't know if ducks etc would eat it it shouldn't be a problem if you break the bale apart and cut the straw in to bite sized peaces so they don't choke on it. one small bale runs me about $9-$14 depening on the season. But the thing about composting straw is that the pile has to be big and "going" in the middle to kill the wheat seeds etc or your compost pile will be full of wheat next season.

 

[Brookshire11]

I might cry.....I've been putting off getting my chocolate Orps until next spring...now I think the breeder isn't continuing them next year. They took them off the website

 

[magpiesing]

Y'alls yard looks about like ours. Rain had quit earlier so thought I'd let the gang out. It last about 30 minutes and it all started again. This time with plenty of lightening and thunder! We went to check since the coop was open but everyone was inside. It rained pretty hard so when it let up some we went out to check again and a few were out under the tree limbs. They were wet but not soaked.
We had to clear the ditch we dug in front of the coop...sand had filled it back in. Plus we cleared alot of debris that was keeping the water from draining around the coop. It looks like a little creek now! It's quit raining again...hopefully for a while but, I still hear rumbling..

I use real hay...we don't get straw around here. Hay is mostly for nest boxes but does find it's way to the floor and I've used it in a pinch when it flooded the last time. We are currently using a combination of pine bark and pine shavings. We were using the shavings plus leaves but that all went out in the last flood. The bark works ok for drainage and keep their feet off the dirt but have to use shavings because the bark isn't absorbent enough to dry the poo so it's no help with odor control.