The road less traveled...back to good health! They have lice, mites, scale mites, worms, anemia, gl

[aoxa]

I'm sorry...I must have missed the pics of your actual coop but I saw parts of your barn. I've found that ventilation that starts at the bottom and moves air up and out of the coop seems to be best. I think people get confused about the whole ventilation issue and start worrying about "drafts". Drafts are the worry of those who do not understand how animals live and thrive. A wind blowing directly into the coop at the place where your birds roost is a draft...a wind blowing into other parts of your coop is ventilation.

Here's an analogy: Say it's one of these 55-60* days and the sun is very bright. You are driving your car for a long distance, and the sun is making you too hot, but not hot enough to warrant fiddling with the AC~ but you really need some cool air. You don't want to roll down or crack the window on your side of the car...too much cold air where you be. So you crack the window on the other side of the car and it's just right for cooling the air in the car without ruffling cold air through your hair and on your face. THAT'S the idea of ventilation.

There are people out there copying the open air coops they used to build way back in the day up in Wisconsin. Almost one whole wall is open to the elements, coop covered in snow a foot deep and it stays all winter. No frostbite, no specially chosen small combed breeds, no heater or light. Just cold air and chickens roosting on the opposite wall.

My coop is my barn.






Second picture taken when this part was being used for young chicks and silkies. No heat lamp now. Would the ventilation go through the rafters? I believe that is how I understood it from Fred.

There are 5 windows total. I could open a couple on the end, as the breeze does not come that direction.
But I could also leave the middle window open on the left.
Also, there are many little slots along the walls. I think that has minimal breeze, but still allows fresh air to enter. Am I right?

 

[Beekissed]

If this were my coop, I'd crack the windows next to the roosts open at the top and the windows on the other wall open at the bottom. I'd also leave some openings like the pop door at floor level. Air has got to move and move well in the coop.


On second thought...after looking at your rafters...I'd just crack those windows in the front of the coop open at the bottom...the air flow out at the rafter level should siphon the humidity out a good bit. I still advocate ventilation at the floor level, though your coop is very large and might not need so much as mine.

 

[jockeyeba]

So funny....I've heard a lot of folks that think that Walmart is evil and I guess I just don't get that.  Not that I want to open up an political or socio-economical discussion here but the word "evil" has truly lost its meaning if a building filled with material goods is evil. 

Even the corporation....I can give you a full blown list of the corporations in this world that are what I consider "evil" and many of you would be surprised that you use their products nearly every day or frequent their stores quite regularly. 

Walmart is just a store.  Nothing more and nothing less.  For many people who live in rural areas, it is the only store with anything in it for 50 mi. or more.  You folks who live in urban areas can call it evil all you wish because you have many choices in life but some do not have so many. 

On another forum I belonged to some lady was sneering at dollar stores, Good Will and Salvation Army stores.  I guess there are many out there who have an idea on what they think is evil or bad. 

I shop at Walmart a lot...I don't sense a bit of evil lurking when I purchase foods or goods at prices I can afford.  Can't afford to frequent the places that cost more just so that folks can feel like I'm not contributing to the monster that is Wally World.

There is evidence that Walt Disney was a pedophile.....want to talk about evil, we can go there.   

 

At least Walmart isn't a union run business I know they sell too much stuff from China but their prices are good for some things

 

[Beekissed]

And Bee, I know you feel this isn't maybe the best place for talking about recipes, if I understood you right, but.....I have a little favor to ask. Would you consider asking the Bat for a real old timey recipe for just about anything? something she learned way back when? I hate it when you think you are going to see a real recipe and it turns out to be a box of this and a can of that.
I love this thread! I can't believe how much I am learning and how much it has changed my work with chickens, even though I have more than a decade of experience (call it a decade of practically ignorance).

I really hate to disappoint, but the ol' Bat doesn't even own a recipe box. All her old recipes reside in her head and don't have much to do with measurements..handful of that, pinch of this, dash of that. The Bat isn't a woman woman, no more than I am. I have a total of about 9-10 recipes in my box and they are all basic things to eat, nothing fancy or that requires a lot of ingredients.

I have one recipe that the Bat used when she had a restaurant in the 70s~a recipe for Coney Island hot dog sauce~that will make you remember how hotdogs used to taste. I've made it many times over the years and it is always licked clean...people actually standing over their plates just eating hot dog sauce and nothing else.

It's only one of the few from back then that I could snag...the rest are in her head. I've only gotten a few of them out...her recipe for homemade bread that comes out each and every time to perfection. Her crock pot recipe for brown beans, the recipe for grits that made me finally like them...scratch that...LOVE them and crave them, her recipe for hot pepper butter..that isn't a butter but a sandwich spread that I cannot eat any sandwich without. I've even been known to bring it with me to eateries so that I can actually enjoy the sandwiches there.

I have her no fail banana nut bread recipe and one for oat burgers(she has been a vegan for many years and is just now coming back to eating animal proteins again) that is to die for~truly~and will make you content with not eating meat. Her long grain brown rice recipe that will make you actually love it above all other renditions of brown rice. And my grandma's pickled beans recipe....and that's all we have written down. The rest is passed down in the kitchen and into our heads.

Oh..and the recipe for laundry detergent. That's it...10 recipes for life, I guess.

She and I have many more in our heads for canning, basic one dish meals that require no measurements, etc. That's how us country women roll, I'm afraid.

 

[aoxa]

If this were my coop, I'd crack the windows next to the roosts open at the top and the windows on the other wall open at the bottom. I'd also leave some openings like the pop door at floor level. Air has got to move and move well in the coop.


On second thought...after looking at your rafters...I'd just crack those windows in the front of the coop open at the bottom...the air flow out at the rafter level should siphon the humidity out a good bit. I still advocate ventilation at the floor level, though your coop is very large and might not need so much as mine.

Okay.. So the windows behind the roosts on the far back of the coop or on the right of the picture? I'm thinking you mean the right of the picture. Just want to clarify.

Because I have one open on each side at the moment.

 

[Beekissed]

The window(s) on the right...in the front of the picture. But it wouldn't hurt to have those ones in the back open as well...which you've already done. Having trouble with frostbite this year? Or was that last year? Have you found the adjustments you made since last time are working?

 

[stonykill]

a few pics of my gnarly bunch of Pekins after their baths and fresh nustock.

before you look at the pics know they look FANTASTIC now compared to monday morning. Or yesterday for that matter.

 

[Bulldogma]

Bee - what kind of poultry netting do you have? I know you recommend electric poultry fencing to a lot of folks.

 

[Beekissed]

Those are some pretty gals...so much prettier than the scovies we used to keep, though I love me a scovie. They look great to me and look like they will make a full recovery. I'd let them out in the general public and cool air, though...but that's just my rough survival of the fittest side talking.

 

[aoxa]

The window(s) on the right...in the front of the picture. But it wouldn't hurt to have those ones in the back open as well...which you've already done. Having trouble with frostbite this year? Or was that last year? Have you found the adjustments you made since last time are working?

It was last year this happened. This year no issues at all, but it hasn't gotten all that cold yet.

5 was our very lowest (without windchill) -12 with.

I do notice some differences in combs this time of year (like dry skin), but nothing looks like frostbite.