The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[lazy gardener]

NO WAY!!!!! I keep it in a big pot, and nurse it through the winter either in my basement or a living room window. Always start some smaller ones in the fall just in case the parent plant dies.

 

[lalaland]

Thought I'd share the mint growing outside my hoop coop. It was planted last year. Friends & family gave it to me when they dug it up from their yards. Apparently it approves of the coop. It's making a great natural weather barrier. I have the sides rolled up high & no longer need to put them down for storms. I'm hoping this year to get enough to put on the other side which is the side that gets most of the weather. I've also planted Lilly's on that side. My goal is to 3 get 3 aides covered naturally. The girls love to lay under the Lily's in front of my compost pile when it's hot out.

AFL, it looks like you have several tarps on top - wondering why - I did ahoop coop this spring, and have been using it for just a week with new chicks. Still trying to figure it out. I am having a heck of a time regulating the heat, it gets like a sauna in there even with sides rolled up.

that mint looks happy! Now that it it is hot, I make mint iced tea - throw a handful of mint into the jar when I add the boiling water and tea bags. nothing beats it on a hot day.

I LOVE citronella. I've kept a plant going for 3 years now, and have started multiple babies from it. I have a bag of dried leaves and occasionally toss a few into the nest boxes. I bought an orange scented geranium, and am working on starting a new cutting of that for the same purpose. Also, drying creeping charlie for nesting material. I hadn't thought about using pumpkins. Perhaps I'll plant a few zucchini on the west side of the run. They fruit fast. Still time for that. Thanks for the idea. They can also be trained to climb up by weaving the growing tip through a support.

Lazy gardner, interesting use for creeping charlie! how did you decide to do that?

 

[Leahs Mom]

@lalaland
Is your hoop out in direct sun? Maybe other folks have theirs in some shade?

My original shed coop is in direct sun from about 11 am - 6p. Gets terribly hot in there in the summer. I was able to put some tarps up in the attached run and it was much cooler outside of the shed so they would only go in to lay eggs. Even with the front doors, pop doors and windows open. (Front doors are always clipped open in months that the weather allows.)

When it was really hot I'd put a fan on inside at night. Even though the doors and window were always open even at night it was too hot when the weather was really hot. To be clear, when I say the doors and windows were open, there is a hardware cloth frame over the windows and interior hardware cloth walls and gate so that it was predator safe.

In the future, I'm considering moving this shed out of direct sun. It depends on how much I use it as I've moved the main flock over to the pole barn. This will be the meat bird area and probably be a rooster pad for awhile when I'm trying to decide which boy(s) to keep.

This is a terrible photo but it's all I could find in a hurry. When I put the tarps up for sun I put them at a slant so that rain would not collect on the tarps. Found that if I clipped them to "eye rings" at the top of the shed then used bungies through the fence, it allowed it to stretch and move in the wind so they didn't rip - even in very high winds. There is one on each side by the pop doors. (There is also bird netting over the kennel...just hard to see in the photos.)





These front doors are always open but still too hot inside.


The interior predator walls that allow the exterior doors to stay open.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@oldhenlikesdogs

Got the chickens some goats! [finally!]



These are Spainish with some mixture. Steeler in red collar; Twix the tan guy. Brought them home Friday and put them in a holding pen so they could get accustomed to us.



Out to work this morning. Here is their job. Grateful these boys were already accustomed to electronetting. But theirs was white so they had to test out the green... ONCE!

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

@lalaland
Is your hoop out in direct sun? Maybe other folks have theirs in some shade?

My original shed coop is in direct sun from about 11 am - 6p. Gets terribly hot in there in the summer. I was able to put some tarps up in the attached run and it was much cooler outside of the shed so they would only go in to lay eggs. Even with the front doors, pop doors and windows open. (Front doors are always clipped open in months that the weather allows.)

When it was really hot I'd put a fan on inside at night. Even though the doors and window were always open even at night it was too hot when the weather was really hot. To be clear, when I say the doors and windows were open, there is a hardware cloth frame over the windows and interior hardware cloth walls and gate so that it was predator safe.

In the future, I'm considering moving this shed out of direct sun. It depends on how much I use it as I've moved the main flock over to the pole barn. This will be the meat bird area and probably be a rooster pad for awhile when I'm trying to decide which boy(s) to keep.

This is a terrible photo but it's all I could find in a hurry. When I put the tarps up for sun I put them at a slant so that rain would not collect on the tarps. Found that if I clipped them to "eye rings" at the top of the shed then used bungies through the fence, it allowed it to stretch and move in the wind so they didn't rip - even in very high winds. There is one on each side by the pop doors. (There is also bird netting over the kennel...just hard to see in the photos.)





These front doors are always open but still too hot inside.


The interior predator walls that allow the exterior doors to stay open.

I like it. Nice.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

@oldhenlikesdogs

Got the chickens some goats! [finally!]



These are Spainish with some mixture. Steeler in red collar; Twix the tan guy. Brought them home Friday and put them in a holding pen so they could get accustomed to us.



Out to work this morning. Here is their job. Grateful these boys were already accustomed to electronetting. But theirs was white so they had to test out the green... ONCE!

I miss our goats we had pygmy and kashmir pygmy cross and that cross was gorgeous long black coat and amazing horns... they where pets and weed eaters too.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I miss our goats we had pygmy and kashmir pygmy cross and that cross was gorgeous long black coat and amazing horns... they where pets and weed eaters too.

@Lauravonsmurf
Well, then...you can answer a question I've had

How much "work" can a couple pygmy's do in the under-story of an over-grown wooded area like you see in the photos? I didn't think they'd be able to clear much in a season due to their size.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

@Lauravonsmurf
Well, then...you can answer a question I've had

How much "work" can a couple pygmy's do in the under-story of an over-grown wooded area like you see in the photos? I didn't think they'd be able to clear much in a season due to their size.

Well the Kashmir mix was an in-between size, they didn't eat me out of house and home... it was like over 20 years ago I had them, I do remember they preferred shrubbery over grass so they where excellent at eating roses and black berries back... my boys where fat little goats from yard rubbish so maybe 2 little guys equal a big goat... but honestly it was a long time ago, and they where pets, being yard waist devourers was their bonus. I got one for $10.00 and the other free. You know the local 4-H extension might be able to give you a better idea on exactly how much land 1 pygmy can clear in X days. I kept my goats in a specific area and brought them my yard clippings which they munched, that way I could have a yard & goats.

 

[Crista]

Leahs Mom
Thanks for the coop pictures. !

 

[lazy gardener]

AFL, it looks like you have several tarps on top - wondering why - I did ahoop coop this spring, and have been using it for just a week with new chicks. Still trying to figure it out. I am having a heck of a time regulating the heat, it gets like a sauna in there even with sides rolled up.

that mint looks happy! Now that it it is hot, I make mint iced tea - throw a handful of mint into the jar when I add the boiling water and tea bags. nothing beats it on a hot day.


Lazy gardner, interesting use for creeping charlie! how did you decide to do that?

I have yet to get some to dry, as it's been too wet here. But... no insects will eat the stuff, so I think it would make a great nest addition... in moderation. Other additives: mint, lemon balm, citronella, other scented greanium, oregano, lavender, Russian sage. I hope to buy a dehydrator this summer. Or perhaps I need to get busy and make one. I have plenty of options for glass to be able to make one. A bit of corrugated steel, painted black, sandwiched between plywood (for insulation underneath, and glass over the top, feeding warm air into a drying box. Might be a fun vacation project.