Articles by patandchickens
Patandchickens'
Big Ol' PageVENTILATION
Or,
Go out there and cut more holes in your coop!
Now! Really truly!
Why is ventilation such a big deal?
Because chickens are amazing producers of moisture, ammonia, and heat, that's why. Small but mighty! (Mighty messy anyhow).
1) Ventilation removes...
Pat's Big Ol' Mud Page:
How to Fix A Muddy Run
When chickens spend a bunch of time in one area, a common consequence is bare dirt, which in wet weather becomes mud. If you confine your chickens to a run, you are quite likely to have a mud problem eventually, unless you live in the desert or...
Pic by SyzyQlou
The Cold Coop: What to do (and not do!) about it.
The 'heat budget' of a chicken coop
You can think of the temperature of your coop as being like a bank account. It starts with whatever amount of money it starts with, but on a day to day basis the balance will depend on how...
ISA Browns
...a.k.a. Hubbard ISA Browns, Hubbard Browns...
...are a line (or breed or whatever you want to call it) of sex-link layers, created by crossing certain Rhode Island Red roosters on certain Rhode Island White hens. I say "certain" because the strain is about 30 years old now and has...
Here is the chickens' summer home. The 'run' part is 4' wide by 7' long, 30" high in the tall portion and 20" under the house. The house itself has a 4' x 2'6" footprint and gives the chickens up to 3'3" of height inside. The house is easily detachable from the pen, and the roof is detachable...
"A tractor from scraps I had
lying around"
This was built to quarantine a grown pair of turkeys, but I expect to use it next year as a grow-out pen or maybe for some meat birds. It's not meant for northern winters, but would be ok year-round in a very mild climate. Dimensions are 8'x8'...
As you might have guessed from my username,
my name is Pat, and I have chickens.
Here are the original three that got me hooked in the first place -- ISA Brown sex-link pullets from the local feed store. Got them just as 'utility animals' for eggs, but then I discovered what interesting and...