The Heritage Rhode Island Red Site

[cmom]

I love them all, even Runt.

 

[cmom]

My husband gets a little upset with me because I get too attached to all of the birds.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

I love them all, even Runt.

Me, too! They have such personalities!!! I know they're all bones, guts, and juvenile feathers right now... and I can't wait to see how they look when they put on muscle and their adult feathers! I think I'm just reaching (or about to reach) the halfway point to adult plumage. Don't they usually start molting and getting adult feathers around 22 - 24 weeks? Seems like I read that somewhere...

 

[cmom]

Quote:
From my experience, it's not rocket science, I'm just kidding. Mine go through several molts and some go through heavier and some much lighter molts. It would be nice if they all molted the same at the same time but they don't. They will molt several times but after they reach a year old then it is pretty much once a year and again each bird will molt differently. Some will go through quick molts and some can last much longer and also the degree of their molts. Some of my birds will probably start molting towards the end of next month and others will continue well into the fall. Good luck and have fun...

 

[waddles99]

How do you guys clean your runs? I just got finished cleaning my tiny run ( 6 x 8 ) and I am just curious how people with 300 birds and massive runs do it. Is there some kind of system? I refuse to believe that people shovel out thousands of square feet of run every couple of weeks. There has to be an easier way to do it. Even with a tiny run it takes about an hour.

 

[cmom]

How do you guys clean your runs? I just got finished cleaning my tiny run ( 6 x 8 ) and I am just curious how people with 300 birds and massive runs do it. Is there some kind of system? I refuse to believe that people shovel out thousands of square feet of run every couple of weeks. There has to be an easier way to do it. Even with a tiny run it takes about an hour.

In my case my runs/pens are so big that the birds have it all scratched in before I can do anything. I have sprinklers in my pens so they get turned on most every day for awhile. All of the pens have trees in them and the birds pretty much scratch and sand bathe under the trees. I do clean out the poop pits under the roosts in the coops. It takes a good day to clean out under the coops.

This is an old picture. The trees in the pens are much bigger now.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

From my experience, it's not rocket science, I'm just kidding. Mine go through several molts and some go through heavier and some much lighter molts. It would be nice if they all molted the same at the same time but they don't. They will molt several times but after they reach a year old then it is pretty much once a year and again each bird will molt differently. Some will go through quick molts and some can last much longer and also the degree of their molts. Some of my birds will probably start molting towards the end of next month and others will continue well into the fall. Good luck and have fun...

I knew they would molt at different times and to different degrees, but was wondering when I could expect that wonderful stage (NOT!) to begin. Have you ever experimented with Feather Fixer or something similar? It's supposed to speed up the process... or at least that's what it claims.

I'm having good luck so far. All of my birds are alive and healthy... and yes... it's been a blast so far! I expect it to only get better from here!!!

How do you guys clean your runs? I just got finished cleaning my tiny run ( 6 x 8 ) and I am just curious how people with 300 birds and massive runs do it. Is there some kind of system? I refuse to believe that people shovel out thousands of square feet of run every couple of weeks. There has to be an easier way to do it. Even with a tiny run it takes about an hour.

A large enough run doesn't have to be "cleaned", per se. Nature will break down the waste and the chickens will turn it under most of the time. In a small run, diluting the ammonia with water will help, but a weak acid can be added to neutralize the base (alkalinity caused by ammonia) of the soil. Using straw, pine shavings, hay, etc. to absorb some of the waste will also help. If possible, the easiest solution is to enlarge your run, or use a chicken tractor to move the chickens around and allow the soiled ground to "rest".

In my case my runs/pens are so big that the birds have it all scratched in before I can do anything. I have sprinklers in my pens so they get turned on most every day for awhile. All of the pens have trees in them and the birds pretty much scratch and sand bathe under the trees. I do clean out the poop pits under the roosts in the coops. It takes a good day to clean out under the coops.

on the large pens.

Cleaning coops...

 

[waddles99]

In my case, i think i have too many birds, lol. I need to get rid of some. I usually just sell them on CL as layers. But I did get some more ameraucana I wasn't planning on getting so that doesn't help. I think i have about 12 birds in that 6 x 8 run. That works out to about 4 sq ft per bird. I need to cut that number in half. I could never afford to make my runs big enough that I wont have to clean them. Sturdy and on a budget don't go hand in hand. I would ideally like to hire someone with a post hole digger, put 4x4s in the ground and use 2x4 welded wire on the front sides and sunk in the bottom.

 

[Ur-ur-ur-urrr]

In my case, i think i have too many birds, lol. I need to get rid of some. I usually just sell them on CL as layers. But I did get some more ameraucana I wasn't planning on getting so that doesn't help. I think i have about 12 birds in that 6 x 8 run. That works out to about 4 sq ft per bird. I need to cut that number in half. I could never afford to make my runs big enough that I wont have to clean them. Sturdy and on a budget don't go hand in hand. I would ideally like to hire someone with a post hole digger, put 4x4s in the ground and use 2x4 welded wire on the front sides and sunk in the bottom.

You would be getting the (what I consider the minimum recommended) space if you give each bird 8 square feet of run space. I understand the budget thingy. I've never been able to buy all the materials I need at once. I build my pens as I can afford them, which basically means when I run out of money, I stop building. When I get a little money, I buy a few more things for the build. I've been building on my new coop for over 3 months, and it still isn't completed. It's close, and I could move birds in right now, but I won't until it's completely done. I have my 11 RIR running around in a temporary pen (roughly 12' x 12'), and my basement (YUCK!), where they get closed up every night. I can't wait until they get to move! The moral of the story is... do what you can when you can. Slacking up on adding more birds might help. Just saying...

 

[ShrekDawg]

Have you considered deep litter in the run? Might not help or be possible with lots of birds but for the small run (or even if you expanded a bit) it might help not needing to clean it and alleviate boredom. I'm planning on trying it in my new run. Right now I have 8 birds in a 6x12 dog kennel run and a 3x3 coop kit (both too small, they're bored and loud working on building a new coop but haven't worked on it in about a month or 2) but the new coop and run is going to be bigger and I'm gonna try it. I can't do deep litter in the coop but in the run I might try it. What I was originally told was about 3 inches of wood chips (chips not shavings because apparently the varying particle size makes them break down faster. I have found shavings really don't break down) and 3 inches of leaves, grass clippings, garden/kitchen scraps, etc., whatever really. But then I heard the deeper the better and a foot deep should be the minimum so now I might make it deeper. 6 inches chips, 6 inches leaves and stuff. But the basic idea with it is the chicken poop and chicken scratching it composts it and it's essentially compost right in the run. And supposedly it requires no work, just adding more dry material when it starts to smell. And the added bonus of there being bugs and goodies to eat in the material, thus providing something to do. And being healthy for them. There's a lot of good things I've heard from it and it would sure be better than the barren dirty dirt/shavings/poo/whatever mixture I have in there now haha so I'm trying it whenever we get this thing built. Anyway, i know you all are pretty experienced and may have already heard this idea but i figured I'd throw it out there since it's a good alternative to building a bigger run or cleaning all the time. And hopefully i can eventually get some RIR