Recent content by Scotty from BI

Did you have food out or food in the soil that the chickens scattered out of the feeder?

not deep liter, filled with dirt, sand and mulch. Looked for tunnels without luck already. found some droppings in my storage area of the coop even though there is no food laying around. All food kept in sealed dog food containers, possibly a few crumbs but I am good about cleaning. Surprised...

thanks, I was curious to hear peoples experience with this method of rodent control. Everything was pretty good until I tried to leave the hanging feeder available in the run. The entire run is covered in 1/4 " hardware cloth top bottom and two feet around the perimeter underground and they...

it is gigantic, run over a hundred feet long about 6-8 feet wide, coop proportionate to run for 8 chickens.

Even though they are confined to a closed run and coop?

No they are not picking on each other, I don't want it to start

Thanks guys, I guess my concern was that they might start to become more aggressive toward one another with no food when they emerge from the coop

I would like to withhold food from the flock for up to about three hours in the morning. Let me explain. until recently, I have been waking up every morning when the chickens wake at the crack of dawn and putting food in their closed run. I put the food away at night to keep rats and mice...

I have a run that is enclosed that is about 60 feet long and about 8 feet wide. I have 8 large breed 2 year old chickens which doesn't seem like that many but they poop like there is 20 in there. I have been going around every day a couple of times a day with a dog poop scoop and picking up...

camera plays tricks with the appearance. The width is about 5 feet. probably a little more narrow than I would have liked but I had limited property in which to build the shed and coop and run which are nested like Russian dolls. I have cameras through out their spaces and love watching them...

Wild fires and other natural disasters aside, I have found that it is best to take them off their perch at night or in the morning if I need to treat them. But I get what you are saying. I think if you have established a rapport with your birds and they are not afraid of you, you can foster...

The forecast is for temps around 21 degrees next week with scattered snow flurries. So yes we get some freeze, but not that often.

My original intent was to try to simulate free range in their diet by offering the things that they might eat if they were foraging in addition to their feed even though they are confined. As you said, chickens are forgiving and up until now, they seem to have been doing pretty well, other than...

I have had chickens for about 9 years now and it is an ongoing and continuos learning experience for me. There is no shortage of advice by "experts". But in reality, most of what I have learned about chickens, my chickens have taught me. My flock consists of 8 large breed mixed chickens...

I keep hearing that it is better for confined birds to just eat the formulated layer feed and not supplement with "treats". Problem is it sounds kind of boring for the chickens. I love throwing snacks out and watching them scramble to get as much as they can. I feel like what I am giving...