The REMOVABLE Top is on the Run (with pics)

[perchie.girl]

mick&cori :

Quote:
But if I put dust or sand or something in their run, it will just be mud after the next rain... Should I just keep that stuff inside the coop? They have full access to the coop at any time.

Since you said they like burn piles, my guess is that they will find mine in front of our barn and start using that. It was funny though.... I guess they decided they didn't like the ones inside.... so when we were building the run there was a rotting log, so we used a shovel and moved it. Well, there were tons of bugs in there, so we went in and got some DE to put on it. The guineas decided DE was a good dust bath and started bathing. I was cracking up.

Within the run. I am putting Saw horses with two by fours layed across. Along with a couple of bales of straw to set food on.... Then a few branches If I can find some for obstacle areas. My soil is decomposed granite.... Not really soil at all but it breaks up to look like a coarse sand. They are pretty good at making dusting bowls out of that...​

 

[mick&cori]

perchie.girl :

mick&cori :

Quote:
But if I put dust or sand or something in their run, it will just be mud after the next rain... Should I just keep that stuff inside the coop? They have full access to the coop at any time.

Since you said they like burn piles, my guess is that they will find mine in front of our barn and start using that. It was funny though.... I guess they decided they didn't like the ones inside.... so when we were building the run there was a rotting log, so we used a shovel and moved it. Well, there were tons of bugs in there, so we went in and got some DE to put on it. The guineas decided DE was a good dust bath and started bathing. I was cracking up.

Within the run. I am putting Saw horses with two by fours layed across. Along with a couple of bales of straw to set food on.... Then a few branches If I can find some for obstacle areas. My soil is decomposed granite.... Not really soil at all but it breaks up to look like a coarse sand. They are pretty good at making dusting bowls out of that...

Neat. We have 3 apple trees that just died this year... my husband said that they were 50 years old or something like that.... I was going to use those as roosts, but maybe I should just give them perches throughout??

Do you use the bales of straw to put the feeders and waterers on? Once you get the roof on, then would you be able to hang them?​

 

[perchie.girl]

mick&cori :

perchie.girl :

Thats just the poultry house without a roof. I will be doing a run area about fifty feet long by 24 feet wide initially. And we don't have grass here.

WHAT?!!?!? No GRASS?!!?!? That's just weird!! LOL! Well, you also don't have snow, so I guess its a give and take. We have been having some rain and weather in the middle 60s to lower 70s. I've been able to get so much done. The guineas decided to play in the rain yesterday, but they are feathered in... I still worried about them, so I hooked their heat lamp back up in their coop.

How are you going to do the run?? Are you still going to use the kennels?​

Right now today it will be 105 or so up there. In the shade. We can grow grass it grows quite well. It just doesn't belong in the desert. Don't get me wrong there is lots up there for them to eat out in the brush. Some wild grasses survive where the rocks and bushes shad them. but for the most part the only time its green is in the winter.

This is what my place looks like two thirds of the year.

 

[perchie.girl]

mick&cori :

perchie.girl :

mick&cori :


But if I put dust or sand or something in their run, it will just be mud after the next rain... Should I just keep that stuff inside the coop? They have full access to the coop at any time.

Since you said they like burn piles, my guess is that they will find mine in front of our barn and start using that. It was funny though.... I guess they decided they didn't like the ones inside.... so when we were building the run there was a rotting log, so we used a shovel and moved it. Well, there were tons of bugs in there, so we went in and got some DE to put on it. The guineas decided DE was a good dust bath and started bathing. I was cracking up.

Within the run. I am putting Saw horses with two by fours layed across. Along with a couple of bales of straw to set food on.... Then a few branches If I can find some for obstacle areas. My soil is decomposed granite.... Not really soil at all but it breaks up to look like a coarse sand. They are pretty good at making dusting bowls out of that...

Neat. We have 3 apple trees that just died this year... my husband said that they were 50 years old or something like that.... I was going to use those as roosts, but maybe I should just give them perches throughout??

Do you use the bales of straw to put the feeders and waterers on? Once you get the roof on, then would you be able to hang them?​

Actually want to use the bales as enrichment.... something to hop up on to get to the food or water. I can still hang the feeders/waterers over the straw bales.​

 

[mick&cori]

perchie.girl :

Actually want to use the bales as enrichment.... something to hop up on to get to the food or water. I can still hang the feeders/waterers over the straw bales.

That makes sense. I wonder if I should put another dust bath in the coop since it is raining....​

 

[mick&cori]

perchie.girl :

mick&cori :

perchie.girl :

Thats just the poultry house without a roof. I will be doing a run area about fifty feet long by 24 feet wide initially. And we don't have grass here.

WHAT?!!?!? No GRASS?!!?!? That's just weird!! LOL! Well, you also don't have snow, so I guess its a give and take. We have been having some rain and weather in the middle 60s to lower 70s. I've been able to get so much done. The guineas decided to play in the rain yesterday, but they are feathered in... I still worried about them, so I hooked their heat lamp back up in their coop.

How are you going to do the run?? Are you still going to use the kennels?

Right now today it will be 105 or so up there. In the shade. We can grow grass it grows quite well. It just doesn't belong in the desert. Don't get me wrong there is lots up there for them to eat out in the brush. Some wild grasses survive where the rocks and bushes shad them. but for the most part the only time its green is in the winter.

This is what my place looks like two thirds of the year.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/72852_boulevardbackdoor1.jpg​

Nice. You can see from my pictures that its the opposite. We have to mow once a week, sometimes 2 times a week, except during the winter... then we get snow and ice!!

 

[PeepsCA]

mick&cori :

I wonder if I should put another dust bath in the coop since it is raining....

What about putting the dust bathing material in a movable tub, so you can just drag in it or out as needed?​

 

[AnnaLease]

Mick&Cori, are those all guineas in the last picture? A few of them look a little strange... What are they?

 

[mick&cori]

Quote:
Good catch.

There are 3 turkeys (poults) in that pic. The 2 black ones and the white one with black spots. I am raising my 5 guineas with 5 turkeys and 16 white rock chickens. They have all been together since they were 1 week old.

When I become a hatching addict in the spring, I will raise the new keets with chicks and poults again. It's better than trying to integrate them when they get older.

 

[mick&cori]

Quote:
What about putting the dust bathing material in a movable tub, so you can just drag in it or out as needed?

Good idea! Thanks, Peeps. I'm going to do that tonight.