Utah!

[RedIII]

i am happy you found our posts helpful

also a good bait for voles and gophers and animals like them is onion, its good because it has a strong smell they can smell far away and its also a common thing they eat anyway. oh and if you have any holes in a building like your house or whatever stuff it with steel wool, it will stop them and if they try to eat it it will shred their insides up.

Oh, great. I guess that means I'll be planting an inverted cage when I put onions in the ground next year. Them's MAH onions!

Ara, vinegar may work well to help sanitize the coop. Whenever I have to clean out the plastic carriers that some of my girls sleep in, I use regular dish soap. I figure that if by chance I miss rinsing some, it's not nearly as harmful to them as some of the chemicals out there. I have hosed down an old coop with bleach water before, but it had a couple of weeks to dry before any chickens went in there.

 

[themadchicken]

I picked up a coop on ksl.com. I'm super excited! It was only a bit more than our budget for building it, so it made sense. We just have to get the run built on to it. Is there anything special I should do to clean it before letting my girls in?

Sorry not to god at spelling but clean the coop out VERY good and then spray done with Lysol. It will kill every thing you cant see. I would spray it down really good a couple times, then do a deep cleaning,

 

[Daloorashens]

All you talking about the mice is cracking me up!!

Red... I forgot to say that I fence off my garden with chicken wire... actually I had it fenced off before I got chickens again, because I didn't want the neighbor kids running through the dirt right after I'd planted it... and then I just left it there because it kept kids in general out and now it keeps the chickens out=) It's 3-ft tall chicken wire held up with those inexpensive posts that you can push into the ground with your foot, with some heavier duty posts on the ends that DH helped me pound in... works great and I can step over it to get in and I have gates on the edges.. I also have a 2-ft fence around my flower beds, with that green plastic flower fencing. But, my backyard is fenced, so the front doesn't have all the silly fencing that everyone can see...

Ara.. I agree with madchicken, clean the daylights out of that coop a couple of times.. better safe than sorry, letting it air out in the sun will help any chemicals dissipate, bleach dissipates really nicely, especially in the sun, no residual chemicals... better safe than sorry... if it's totally dry before your girls go in, you should be golden..... that's my 2cents=)

 

[aravis227]

Thanks for the advice! I'll do a scrub and bleach water clean this weekend and plan to move them in next weekend to give it time to dry.

I have another coop question, what is the advantage of raising it up? Mine doesn't currently have legs, but we were debating whether to put them on or not.

I love all of the posts about sprouting grains. I'm going to try that this winter, too! I've never been a big grower (my mom is the green thumb of my family), but I'm planning to do a garden next year. Hopefully I get something other than a brown patch in my yard!

 

[Cynthia12]

Here is some great info on pumpkin seeds..good dewormer, or not. http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/10/chickens-pumpkin-seeds-and-worms-oh-my.html

 

[PressOn]

Advantage of legs is that it helps keep it dry inside. Helps prevent rodents and snakes assuming that you have kicked out the rat ramp. Helps the hens feel more secure. I would strongly suggest having outside perches about 4.5 feet off the ground for them to sleep on. This will help prevent the poop from building up inside the coop.
Always PressOn

 

[Cynthia12]

Thanks for the advice! I'll do a scrub and bleach water clean this weekend and plan to move them in next weekend to give it time to dry.

I have another coop question, what is the advantage of raising it up? Mine doesn't currently have legs, but we were debating whether to put them on or not.

I love all of the posts about sprouting grains. I'm going to try that this winter, too! I've never been a big grower (my mom is the green thumb of my family), but I'm planning to do a garden next year. Hopefully I get something other than a brown patch in my yard!

I love having a raised coop. My birds use it often. During the summer and the winter..and, when it is windy. If I am keeping them in the run while I am going to be gone for a while, they can use it in the summer for the shade, or, go where the shade is on the other side of the coop, but they like the dirt under there. Also, in the winter, they really hang out under the coop...it's a foot and a half raised. They will either go under there during the rain or snow, or back in the coop.
Just saw PressOn's answer, and yes, I also have a roost in the run.

 

[Cynthia12]

Lisa, I am only seeing very few sprouts happening! I thought I was going to wake up with all of these big bulging wheat sprouts. This wheat has been stored since the 70's. We've wondered if it was any good. Well, we will see. If the wheat in an ancient Egyptian tomb will sprout, mine should! lol

 

[RedIII]

I'm getting tempted to try this fodder thing. Our birds have already cleaned up every berry or edible plant they can find, with the exception of the lawn. I keep moving some boards around on the ground out back so that they can eat the grass sprouts that come up underneath them. I'll bet they'd like a little sprouted wheat.

So, I don't think I have a pecking order in my flock. It's more like a pecking loop. My RIR is the boss, pecking everyone from the black Am cockerel on down. The BO and BSL are next in line to dole out punishment for insubordination. The BO is pecked by the black Am cockerel. The cockerel, in turn, is hen pecked by several of the other pullets, including the blue AM, who's become a saucy, bossy girl. These girls are pecked by each other, and rank above most of the youngest pullets, save for the Leghorn. When someone picked on the Leghorn's buddies, she dishes it out to the offenders. The youngest girls also square off with the BR's. The turkeys are usually mild and sit off to the side of all this, but everyone will peck them. However, beware a turkey's wrath, for the white ones will sometimes get ticked and chase one of the chickens around, no matter their rank. And the wild turkey is the only one who can boss around the RIR, who's at the top of the whole thing. Everyone somehow ranks above someone else. If I were to try and make a chart of this, I'm pretty sure it would be one big snarl.

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Aravis, I agree on the raised coop...it just gives you more square footage to use as run space, and the shade is automatic, and it stays dry and not muddy under there in the winter. Mine are under there 90 percent of the time.

Cynthia, my sprouts took a while, I think on day 2 or three I could see the litttle white heads. I am on Day 7 and this is what it looks like, just moving slower...but it is coming! I think I had quite a few not sprout, I need to spread them thinner next time...and the trays sag a little in the middle so the water pools there and the edges are sprouting much thicker than the middle. Will make some amendments to my next batch. Fun to watch it though! It really changed alot from yesterday to today.