The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[CoopChick719]

it is coop cleaning day. I hate hate hate doing it, so dusty that even with a face mask I spend a week hacking crap up out of my lungs. Upside is it smells so nice and clean when I'm done, with fresh hay and all.

Have you thought about using deep litter in your coop? I only clean out my coop once a year. It's dusty more this time of year because there is hardly any litter material in the coop but I have been adding just cut grass clipping and damp leaves & it cuts the dust way down.

yeah, I do use deep litter. Semi because it never really seems to decompose. In the winter it cakes and ices and freezes, but it gets turned over in the spring when it thaws. It is too early for grass cutting here., but I don't collect the clippings anyway. Had a week straight of rain and it came in the door and ran under the litter...top was dry, bottom stunk. So I got out the wet stuff, left the dry powdery stuff and cleaner hay.

Lala, Are you sure you & I don't share the same coop just miles apart from each other?! I need to clean mine out soon too. I've been dreading it because of the same reason--I hack up yuck for a week later even w/a face mask. My litter never seems to truly compost. I have a wood floor so that may be 1 part of it.

Does anyone think that if I put small vents in the floor that might help with the composting action? We have some old heat register vents from the house in the garage I could use.

I just shoveled all the dry dusty bedding in the run out to the uncovered runs to fill in holes & get that composting as well. Hoping the girls will scratch some of that nice dark dirt I uncovered so I don't have to dig too much more. My sister let her girls go wild in the garden last Spring before planting. She said she barely had to dig anything it was so worked over!

 

[amenfarm]

Lala, Are you sure you & I don't share the same coop just miles apart from each other?! I need to clean mine out soon too. I've been dreading it because of the same reason--I hack up yuck for a week later even w/a face mask. My litter never seems to truly compost. I have a wood floor so that may be 1 part of it.

Does anyone think that if I put small vents in the floor that might help with the composting action? We have some old heat register vents from the house in the garage I could use.

I just shoveled all the dry dusty bedding in the run out to the uncovered runs to fill in holes & get that composting as well. Hoping the girls will scratch some of that nice dark dirt I uncovered so I don't have to dig too much more. My sister let her girls go wild in the garden last Spring before planting. She said she barely had to dig anything it was so worked over!

Do you mist your deep litter? It sounds like it's too dry for composting. Composting a DL needs heat, moisture, organic matter and air. When my neborah's sweet gum tree was taken down, the tree company dumped the mulch in a spot for us--smelled great, and works wonderful in the run.

 

[Leahs Mom]

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I don't have a dirt floor in my chicken house either. What I do is start the base of the floor with some "live" dirt from the garden. Can add a bit of peat moss too. Then the pine shavings over that.

I can't say it ever really "composts" inside, but it does do better with that beginning layer of dirt mixed in.

Then when it gets too deep, I put it out in the kennel run where it can compost as it's exposed to the weather. They still dig through it and have a healthy base that supports life. My deep litter in the run is about 12" deep now and my plan was to have it out there composting over the winter, then dig some out from under to put on the garden. It's a very nice soil under there. All beginning with wood chips from some cut down trees than topped with the litter from the hen house as it gets too deep inside.

One of my daughters is going to come over and dig some out for her garden too. There's so much nice soil under there that we have more than we can use on the gardens. I wish I had a pull-behind spreader. I'd put it in there and spread it over the 2 acre pasture - especially on a back are that really needs a good soil build-up. Then...

After it's somewhat dug out the process will start all over again.


Going to look into getting a back-pack sprayer to spray raw milk on the pasture too. Anyone recommend a brand/type of back-pack sprayer as the best/worst?

 

[lalaland]

mine are always out in the rain also. it is real wet here , Ihad a bucket feeder that needed filled last night thankfully, hubby did it I think the mud was 2 inches deep..hunting worm that come up for air.......busy day i have chicks hatching, realized a candle warmer the old sit a glass jar candle on type is the perfect thing for infusing oil for salves (speeds it up so no taking jars in and out of the sun and no double boiler which i don't do anyway..) I will spend hours collecting plantain, wild violet etc...

I've made salve with plantain, but wild violet? what do you do with it? recipe?


I've been studying up on candling and am going to try it tonight if it isn't pouring outside.


Adding moisture to the litter seems so counterintuitive when in the winter there is too much moisture from poop.....I know it would help compost it, I'm just reluctant. I have added leaves in the fall, both damp and wet. I've added dirt, but maybe not as much as it sounds like Leah's mom adds. Wish I had a dirt floor! But the trade off is the trailer with a wood floor with a nice long 3 foot tall space under it for shelter from rain and sun and snow....

and it is mud city!!! the little coop run is yucky muddy and stinky even with a tarp. I've been getting an inch or more almost daily for more than a week. Can't be healthy, I could add hay but think it will slow down the drying out. I can't wait for dryer weather.

 

[lalaland]

oh, I forgot, found this great picture chart of the states of chick development. Kind of fun, especially since I forget each time how fast chicks grow.


http://lancaster.unl.edu/4h/embryology/ChickGrowthDevelopment17x22.pdf

 

[amenfarm]

I've made salve with plantain, but wild violet? what do you do with it? recipe?


I've been studying up on candling and am going to try it tonight if it isn't pouring outside.


Adding moisture to the litter seems so counterintuitive when in the winter there is too much moisture from poop.....I know it would help compost it, I'm just reluctant. I have added leaves in the fall, both damp and wet. I've added dirt, but maybe not as much as it sounds like Leah's mom adds. Wish I had a dirt floor! But the trade off is the trailer with a wood floor with a nice long 3 foot tall space under it for shelter from rain and sun and snow....

and it is mud city!!! the little coop run is yucky muddy and stinky even with a tarp. I've been getting an inch or more almost daily for more than a week. Can't be healthy, I could add hay but think it will slow down the drying out. I can't wait for dryer weather.

Try just misting it with a sprayer, you could add buttermilk or yogurt, ACV. Remember, if you compost anyway you do add water, just not a soaking water. I have a concrete floor, the only reason i don't regularly need to mist is I live in a humid climate,and have 2 wire only walls, that mists for me.

 

[mlowen]

@Lalaland:
I have a "dirt" floor (gravel, 1/2 inch hardware cloth, soil) then oak & maple leaf deep litter. I need to mist it, too. My lots drains too well & the coop/run just stays so dry the fine dust covers everything (even rough spots on the walls.) So, I think this chicken keeping is like hair. No matter what you have, you wish it would do something a little different.

 

[misbhaven]

I've made salve with plantain, but wild violet? what do you do with it? recipe?

Violet leaf (Viola odorata) is highly demulcent, which means that it contains significant amounts of mucilage that help soothe the skin, reducing inflammation, redness, and cooling irritated tissue. Violet is also antiseptic, and this combined with its soothing relief, makes it a wonderful infused oil to have on hand. Susun Weed (Healing Wise, Ash Tree Publishing, 1989) writes about ‘Aunt Violet’ as a wonderful remedy for breast inflammation, mastitis, cancer and cysts, and a water infusion made of fresh or dried violet leaves can soothe inflamed throats during a cold or flu. Violet’s mild taste makes it palatable to children, and indeed, violet leaves and flowers are wonderful when freshly picked and added to a spring salad. A salve made purely of the oils of these two plants combined with some natural beeswax is all I need to combat diaper rash in my household, and there is lots left over for myriad other uses.

Read more: http://www.motherearthliving.com/natural-health/herb-infused-oils-and-salves-with-plantain-and-violet-leaf.aspx#ixzz31dlhuiRH

Violet and Plantain Herbal Salve:

• 1 cup infused oil
• 1 ounce natural beeswax or beeswax beads, grated
• 1 teaspoon vitamin E (to preserve the salve and prevent rancidity)
• 1 teaspoon rosemary oil extract, optional (to further antioxidant protection)
• 20 drops tea tree oil (to add antifungal and antiseptic strength)
• 10 drops lavender essential oil (to offer topical pain relief)

​

Here is some info...and a basic recipe but basically add it to any recipe you have infused the same way as other herbs/flowers..etc​

 

[lalaland]

msbhaven, thanks! I havent read susun weed for years! you brought back memories. loved her stuff on menopause, I still think of it now and then. she had a wonderful description of riding out the waves of heat (hot flashes) but I'm guessing that won't be a familiar reference to you if you are using the salve as diaper rash in your household

I was walking up my driveway (too much rain to be driveable) and thought, who the heck is walking barefoot down my drive? I took a closer look and it was bear tracks. Couldn't get down the driveway fast enough to get to the chicken coops - but the bear didn't bother them or the bird feeders, she must have come out of the woods cutting across and not gone past the house.

you can see the claw marks above the toes, and the hind foot print at the end of the first print.

Guess I better get the chicken run's electric fence up and running - its a good bear deterent.

 

[lazy gardener]

Kassaundra, thanks for the Comfrey info.