Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[pennyJo1960]

I love this thread. I come home from work and there are 50 posts in one day! I learn lots of interesting facts and some trivia as well.

there is always one of us popping off with some new topic usually
chicken related and we have allot of fun

 

[blueducklings]

I feed Purina Flock Raiser to my ducks and chickens. It is high protein without being too high and it has the niacin that ducks need without added calcium for the boys. We feed egg shells on the side for the hens to replace the calcium from laying. Duck feed works for chickens but chicken feed does not work for ducks.

Hi Duck Drover, Thanks for your input

I use to feed only Purina, both Layena & Flock Raiser, until I saw Nutrena.

Then all last year, I fed the ducks only Nutrena.

Of course, now the feed store carries Country Companion.

What is a girl to do?
I am trying to keep the protein level at 16%. with a tad of Niacin.
So now I have a bag of Country Companion in the back of my car, a bucket of Nutrena I am feeding the layers and a bucket of All Flock for the teenagers.
Pretty soon I will be taking orders off a menu.

Cafe Canard.

 

[vasher]

Hopefully no rats find our coop. It has some 1" gaps along the back where we staggered the purlins that are kinda hard to fit hardware cloth across. Do rats attack chickens? The one you built with your friend looks very nice!

 

[ForrestGump]

Rats will also dig under the coop and come in that way if your ground is soft enough.

And yes, the rats can harm the chickens. Usually they just eat the feed and crap everywhere. However, they will kill chicks and also chew on the feet of roosting chickens as they sleep. We recently lost our barn cat and now we have rats. I've caught four, but there is at least one left that is very difficult to catch. I'll have to be persistent though.

 

[TakeMeHomeJoJo]

Do any of you use a large pen (i.e. No free ranging)? We want to let our girls out into the yard, but not until we fence in a portion of it. So they are in a 10x10 pen during the day. There are only 3 of them. The floor is grass (well, was grass, now mostly dirt and poop). How do you keep it clean?! Do you poop scoop every day? Do you use sand or bedding? I'm attempting deep litter inside the coop itself, but the pen is getting kinda gross.

And sorry for the newbie questions. I'm learning on the job!

 

[junebuggena]

Do any of you use a large pen (i.e. No free ranging)? We want to let our girls out into the yard, but not until we fence in a portion of it. So they are in a 10x10 pen during the day. There are only 3 of them. The floor is grass (well, was grass, now mostly dirt and poop). How do you keep it clean?! Do you poop scoop every day? Do you use sand or bedding? I'm attempting deep litter inside the coop itself, but the pen is getting kinda gross.

And sorry for the newbie questions. I'm learning on the job!

I just hose my run down when it gets really gross, the poo breaks up and dissolves into the soil. If you want, you can deep litter the run. Use straw, hay, grass clippings, pine needles or anything else compostable. Deep litter doesn't work too well in coops that aren't sitting on bare dirt. You need the microorganisms in the ground to really get that deep litter composting. Otherwise, it's just deep bedding. Or you can cover the dirt with sand or gravel, for easier hosing down. I'm less than a mile from the beach, so the soil here is practically like straight sand, no need for me to buy more to cover the run.

 

[JulesChicks]

I highly recommend you use deep litter for run as well, healthy ground =healthy birds. You can call around to tree trimming companies and see if they have any wood chips they could drop off for you, likely for free. Grass clippings, leaves, etc can all be thrown in there. Turn it to keep it from being compacted once in a while or throw treats on it and the girls will do it for you. You can dig it out next year and use it for garden beds.

 

[TakeMeHomeJoJo]

I highly recommend you use deep litter for run as well, healthy ground =healthy birds. You can call around to tree trimming companies and see if they have any wood chips they could drop off for you, likely for free. Grass clippings, leaves, etc can all be thrown in there. Turn it to keep it from being compacted once in a while or throw treats on it and the girls will do it for you. You can dig it out next year and use it for garden beds.

Perfect! I actually have a huge pile of wood chips.

 

[TakeMeHomeJoJo]

I just hose my run down when it gets really gross, the poo breaks up and dissolves into the soil. If you want, you can deep litter the run. Use straw, hay, grass clippings, pine needles or anything else compostable. Deep litter doesn't work too well in coops that aren't sitting on bare dirt. You need the microorganisms in the ground to really get that deep litter composting. Otherwise, it's just deep bedding. Or you can cover the dirt with sand or gravel, for easier hosing down. I'm less than a mile from the beach, so the soil here is practically like straight sand, no need for me to buy more to cover the run.

My coop isn't dirt.....hmm. I guess I'll make a poop hammock to put under the roost bars. The only problem is, they don't sleep on them! They sleep on the bedding. Will they choose the roost bars when they get a bid older? (They are about 14-15 weeks now) or do I need to put them up there to teach them?

 

[pennyJo1960]

Good morning welcome to anyone I have missed