Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Smokerbill]

I think I heard a little hail last night around 10PM, along with a lot of rain for about 10 minutes. I'm about ready to go outside and see how many branches fell from the trees.

 

[Grandmas Coop]

If you don't want to waste money buying bedding, use a 6 inch layer of arborist's wood chips over bare earth. Tree trimming services usually give them away and will often bring them to your place to dump a load.

I have 2 runs, both protected from direct rain with a metal roof. The inner run is bone dry all the time, but doesn't smell. The crap disappears as soon as it gets scratched into the chips by the birds.

The outer run gets moisture blown in from the sides so the chips are often moist. But that's good because it attracts worms and other critters for the chickens to dig after. I call the outer run the "day run".

The inner run is totally secured with hardware cloth, and the coop building is wide open on that side. A sliding door shuts them off from the day run during the night.

I also have only removed bedding to use as garden fertilizer. I've added new woodchips a few time to replenish the layer as it breaks down over time. It's been two years so far with the original chips I shoveled in.

Pics of my setup.

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yep, I use woodchips in the run area

 

[Grandmas Coop]

Cedar's fine, I wouldn't go 100% cedar and it does need to age out, but it's impossible to get wood chips around here without some cedar. My coop (well ventilated) and run litter is probably 30-40% cedar chips, and I've never had a bird with respiratory issues.

It's Eastern Red Cedar that's the very aromatic stuff that is used in hope chests and such. It's unlikely you'd get that in a locally sourced chip mix.

I use cedar, keeps the bugs away, It never bothered my chickens

 

[Kmaria187]

Nice rain and light show last night . Drove the dogs crazy but the chickens didn't care. Sold off 4 of our new pullets to a friend that is just starting out in the back yard chicken life. She lives next door to my mom so I'll get to keep an eye on them. I'm such a chicken Mom lol.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Hey good morning Did anyone watch Survivor last night.
We did not get hail just rain lot's of rain fell.

 

[ValerieJ]

Don't watch TV at all.

 

[Kmaria187]

Hey good morning Did anyone watch Survivor last night.
We did not get hail just rain lot's of rain fell.

I did... what was she thinking ... telling him she lost her vote!!! Dumb Move!!!

 

[Hinotori]

Ive never had them eat them. They do break into sawdust with wet.

 

[Hinotori]

About half an inch of rain in 5 hours. The booms around 7pm were it. Nothing spectacular for us.

 

[Smokerbill]

Getting a little light rain today off and on. I set my kale, cabbage and onion starts outside to start acclimating to the weather and will probably plant them in the garden this weekend. And the beet seeds have started sprouting.