Too many chickens for my space

[gsim]

Cetawin nailed it. You need ventilation in two walls, minimum. Use deep litter and by all means put poop planks up centered beneath all roosts. 24" width best. More easily cleaned if they are covered with linoleum. I use an 8" drywall finishing knife to scrape mine every AM. I open all 4 windows wide too. I never have to touch the litter or nesting. My coop does not stink except a poop smell when I go out in AM. It is gone in 10 minutes every day. I plan to change litter every spring, unless I see mites.

You will have a sick flock if you do not act now. Even so, confinement 24-7 is not good. Chooks need sunlight, even if it is a cloudy day, there is ultraviolet light present and they need it as we do. And breathing that smelly, damp, contaminated air 24-7 cannot be good.

 

[Mahonri]

It's work, but I have linoleum on the floor of my coop. It gets swept and mopped every week.

When we hatch them it's easy cuz they are little... but those fuzzy butts grow up.

Many of us have had to sell or rehome because of this.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Seattle and coastal Washington have roughly the same average winter low temps as Atlanta GA (with the average Jan low being just above freezing), not *too* much colder than the rest of GA, but with WAY WAY less summer heat. If that isn't "mild", I don't know what is, except maybe Maui

(Of course the rest of Washington state has a rather less mild climate, but that was sort of my whole point)


Pat, experiencing very Puget Sound-y weather here for the last week or two, but expecting that soon enough it will remember it's Canada and require shovelling.

 

[Kristy in WA]

Quote:
For wintertime that should be pretty good (this should be on the usually-downwind side of the coop not the upwind side, and you will probably want some sort of flap to close it down however much is necessary and maybe sometimes to prop horizontally to keep rain from blowing in if the opening is not well enough protected by a roof overhang).

In a mild climate (dunno where in WA you are?) a crossbreeze is useful for getting extra air exchange, so if you ARE in a mild part of the state it would have some value to cut a matching opening on the opposite wall too; but if you are somewhere it's going to be in the 20s or colder for most of the winter, at night anyhow, then you would only be having the downwind vents open ANYhow, thus no particular need for crossventilation til warmer weather arrives.

For summertime you will want (a lot) more ventilation than that, but again, you can worry about that later

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

Thanks Pat! We usually have weather in the teens and 20's all from December through Jan, and then up in the 30's in Feb/Mar, then it finally get's a bit warmer. The vent side actually goes into the hay storage area of the barn, so it's completely closed, so no worry of bad weather coming in. The hay storage area has a big huge open door, so it is basically like outside air, just without the wet or true wind blowing. There are 2 windows on the opposite wall, which are not able to open, but come spring, I'll try to get dh to make them with some hinges. So, do you think that will be all right for the winter? Kristy

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
I think that sounds like an excellent arrangement for a normal coop situation (where the chickens have a run and are not excessively crowded). If you keep on with that many chickens in that little space with no run, it is probably not going to be nearly enough (although certainly better than nothing), but if you can take care of those problems I think you will be in good shape! And, make those windows openable for summertime when you get a chance and you should be good then too

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Kristy in WA]

I hope they can survive one more day "as-is", then tomorrow we'll get the hole cut and buy some new pine shavings ( a bunch) and redo the whole thing, AND work on the outside run. That will be the most challenging. AND advertise the Banties on Craig's list. Whew! Lots to do! Happy Thanksgiving! Kristy

 

[abooth]

It's a lot of work now but once you are done you will have less everyday work. You and your chickens will be much happier.

 

[accio! chickens]

Quote:
Seattle and coastal Washington have roughly the same average winter low temps as Atlanta GA (with the average Jan low being just above freezing), not *too* much colder than the rest of GA, but with WAY WAY less summer heat. If that isn't "mild", I don't know what is, except maybe Maui

(Of course the rest of Washington state has a rather less mild climate, but that was sort of my whole point)


Pat, experiencing very Puget Sound-y weather here for the last week or two, but expecting that soon enough it will remember it's Canada and require shovelling.

I know right, where is our snow? Sigh.. my horses look like mud pits right now.

 

[Kristy in WA]

Quote:
I think that sounds like an excellent arrangement for a normal coop situation (where the chickens have a run and are not excessively crowded). If you keep on with that many chickens in that little space with no run, it is probably not going to be nearly enough (although certainly better than nothing), but if you can take care of those problems I think you will be in good shape! And, make those windows openable for summertime when you get a chance and you should be good then too

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

Ok, got the outside run almost finished, had them out there today, we just have to physically take them from the henhouse to the run, and then put them back again. Still working on the little chute for them to use. Got out all the yucky fluff, replaced with new fluff, put up 3 perches for nighttime, hung the nest boxes, put the waterers under the nest boxes so they won't sit on those and poop on them, and tomorrow, we'll put up the shelf under the roosting spot with the linolium, and then put the feed under that, so they won't poop on that! Whew! It's so nice in there now! We also cut a hole in some of the top boards, and I want dh to make a screen door, so we can just open the door and there will be plenty of ventillation! I'm going to take pictures tomorrow and post to my blog, and then put the link here for everyone to see! Oh, and someone came today and took all the Banty hens, so we just have 2 adorable little banty roosters to find homes for, or we may just let them stay, depends if they get picked on or not, or if they can hold their own with the big chickens! I'm really happy with all the advice I got from this thread, and I think we're almost ready for winter. They even have a red warming light inside the henhouse hanging from the ceiling. They're totally living in luxury now! Kristy

 

[chookchick]

Wow! Sounds like you have been really busy--great job! Most of us have linoleum on our floors, under the litter, and it is very easy to keep clean. The tarp does not sound like a great idea--I think they would just scratch it up. Do you have a dropping board? It is a great way to collect 90% of the poop the produce and get rid of it easily. It will cut down on your coop cleaning and litter changing tremendously.

BTW BYCers--Eastern WA is WAY colder than western washington, they are like two different states in climate, politics, geography, etc...Western WA is just cold, soggy, and not quite frozen most of the time. You DON'T want to live here! (repeat that)