Feathers are either pretty, and may be picked up, or good fertilizer out there on the ground In the coop, they blend into the shavings, also fine.
Mary
We also have a feed bag cut to fit over each lid, because the cans are out in the coop, which is large enough to hold them, and the chickens do land on those lids often.
Mary
Sooner or later rodents will chew into those plastic bins!
Two recommendations here, both learned the hard way by me: Use metal garbage cans, on bricks or some surface that isn't damp, and keep the feed in it's bag from the feed store, so you have the lot numbers on it.
Of course you buy feed...
So sorry for your birds! I also think that adding new birds now is a bad idea, and having both sick hens euthanized at the same time is best.
Consider ducks! they don't get Marek's disease and are also really interesting birds to have. Little ducks, big ducks, or any sizes in between...
Mary
Found our errant pullet today, on a nest in the barn. When she went to eat at the coop, I moved all TWENTY eggs to a dog crate in the same location, and she actually went back to set on them. She's locked in there right now, and I'll move her, crate and all, to the coop 'chick area' tonight...
Three nights ago one of our May pullets failed to come in, and the next morning she showed up when i went out to do morning chores. Then for two night she's been a 'no show', but came out this afternoon for treats when I heard her at the barn. Again, she didn't stick around to get locked in...
I have chicks I buy from hatcheries vaccinated against Marek's disease, and then isolate them for almost three weeks. Chicks hatched here or from farm stores go right out to the separate chick area at the coop instead.
So far no Marek's disease in my flock, and the unvaccinated birds would be...
I keep older hens as long as they are apparently healthy, and egg production can be zero or nearly zero for many of them. Chickens need about 14 hours of light daily to produce eggs, and without a light in the coop early mornings my older birds especially just quit until spring.
I have six...
Insulating the roof helps with summer heat, which is a good thing. Must be covered with plywood or the birds will eat it! And then critters will move in, if any gaps are available at all. Wasps, mice, rats, whoever, ask me how i know this! And rats will eat eggs and kill chickens, and chew...
Your pen looks good, but it won't keep small birds (who bring in lice and mites) or smaller predators out. Rats and weasels (stoats?) will kill birds and can easily invade this wire. Also a big dog could break through that welded wire.
Very handsome ducks!
Mary
And three commercial flocks in Ottawa county, and a backyard flock each in Monroe and St. Clair county, reported this week.
The migrating birds are mostly gone here, but certainly they are flying overhead. :he
Mary
More AI, three flocks in Ottawa county, one each in Monroe and St. Clair counties. Again!
And if the northern lights were visible here last night, i didn't go outside to see them. Maybe tonight?
Mary
So sorry! Our current bantam chicks were raised in a separate but visible coop area, and gradually opened up to the flock while everyone was free ranging, when they were six and seven weeks old, fully feathered, and locked in their brooder area every night. After a week or ten days, their area...
All the best from me too! Glad you didn't see more maggots this last time, it's such an awful situation.
Permethrin in the area and on her everywhere (safe dose only) because of those errant eggs and tiny maggots. If she doesn't have a major health issue that started all this, she may make...
All good so far, but in my experience there will be fly eggs and then maggots elsewhere on her body, so look hard, spray her with permethrin as directed, and be vigilant! Most fly eggs take 24 hours to hatch, and the maggots grow fast, so keep up your program!
She can't be exposed to more...
Screaming guineas? No way! And the neighbors, who are good with roosters and our chickens who stay home, won't be pleased either.
We've having more brush cleared along the fence lines, and insecticide on the horses and my clothes, and winter will help a bit too.
Mary