What do you wish you had known before you got your chickens

[Hannahs Hollow]

Travel? You mean I can't take them with me????

 

[PrimroseMom1]

quote name="Hannahs Hollow" url="/t/817826/what-do-you-wish-you-had-known-before-you-got-your-chickens/300#post_12259563"]Travel? You mean I can't take them with me????[/quot

Nope

 

[AussieHens96]

I didn't realise how many holes these guys could dig - or how much consistent work you put in to care for them. They aren't always simple and easy to look after, we've certainly had problems with mucky bums in our Isa's (all good for now), but it has been worth it.

 

[hosspak]

I didn't realise how many holes these guys could dig - or how much consistent work you put in to care for them. They aren't always simple and easy to look after, we've certainly had problems with mucky bums in our Isa's (all good for now), but it has been worth it.

I hear ya... When I put the garden in our backyard we had to dig, break up, and pick-axe the ground because it's rock hard. It took over a month. When I finished the run, in less than 15 minutes the girls had 4, 8 inch deep holes just inside the door. None of my yard tools were touched.... I hate them...lol

 

[newbie32]

I hear ya... When I put the garden in our backyard we had to dig, break up, and pick-axe the ground because it's rock hard. It took over a month. When I finished the run, in less than 15 minutes the girls had 4, 8 inch deep holes just inside the door. None of my yard tools were touched.... I hate them...lol

 

[Hannahs Hollow]

I hear ya... When I put the garden in our backyard we had to dig, break up, and pick-axe the ground because it's rock hard. It took over a month. When I finished the run, in less than 15 minutes the girls had 4, 8 inch deep holes just inside the door. None of my yard tools were touched.... I hate them...lol

I decided my run wasn't dry enough in the rainy weather this time of year so I cut a hole in the side of my green house that has been decomissioned for the winter. It took 2 weeks for them to annilate 2 ant colonies, get rid of all those pesky tomato seeds, turn all the soil over and remove half of it with their sand baths. I think this has worked out for me. Now to put screen doors at both ends to take care of condensation.

 

[hosspak]

I decided my run wasn't dry enough in the rainy weather this time of year so I cut a hole in the side of my green house that has been decomissioned for the winter. It took 2 weeks for them to annilate 2 ant colonies, get rid of all those pesky tomato seeds, turn all the soil over and remove half of it with their sand baths. I think this has worked out for me. Now to put screen doors at both ends to take care of condensation.

Or screened windows... I dug a hole in order to fill in the one they dug near the door, hoping they would use the new hole. They dug out the old hole and filled in the new hole with litter which camouflaged it pretty good. Now I have 2 holes and a sprained ankle.

 

[PrimroseMom1]

I decided my run wasn't dry enough in the rainy weather this time of year so I cut a hole in the side of my green house that has been decomissioned for the winter. It took 2 weeks for them to annilate 2 ant colonies, get rid of all those pesky tomato seeds, turn all the soil over and remove half of it with their sand baths. I think this has worked out for me. Now to put screen doors at both ends to take care of condensation.

The ground where the chickens are is not very rich. Every year at this time I pick up bags of leaves that people put by the street after raking them, I just dump them in the chicken yard and the chickens spread them for me. The chickens end up mulching down the leaves and each year the dirt is a little richer. I pick up lots of bags of leaves this time of year.

 

[Katt66]

That when you plastic off the whole run for the winter it would be a good idea to have a latch on the screen door that opens from BOTH sides. Because the all summer long way of getting out of the run by reaching through the wire and flipping the latch open from inside doesn't work quite as well when there's plastic over the wire. XD

 

[hosspak]

That when you plastic off the whole run for the winter it would be a good idea to have a latch on the screen door that opens from BOTH sides. Because the all summer long way of getting out of the run by reaching through the wire and flipping the latch open from inside doesn't work quite as well when there's plastic over the wire. XD

What's wrong? You don't like getting locked in the run... I have a gate at one end of my run that could be accessed from the street, and one day I noticed that one of my girls stopped laying because there were no eggs from her (she has stopped for the winter) so I put a padlock on it, locked it, then went to go back into the house.... Only then I realized that I entered through that gate that I just locked... Needless to say I was NOT calling any of the family members that thought I had a chicken problem for help....