The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[lalaland]

Booster's comb looks just the same, no change! Now that he is in his own coop, he is much more relaxed and has actually started to treat his ladies, instead of bowling them over in his rush to get food!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Booster's comb looks just the same, no change! Now that he is in his own coop, he is much more relaxed and has actually started to treat his ladies, instead of bowling them over in his rush to get food!

Good to hear the separation is working. I MUST have additional housing before next winter. I have all kinds of schemes but I did last year too.

The small hen shed that we can have free will need to be put up on a trailer to move and I'm thinking right now that it's too small to bother with all of that. I think we will be getting their kennel panels even if we don't take the shed and they have a bunch of them so I'll be ready to have an enclosed run for new housing when I get it.

I always like to have a pen to be able to keep them in just in case they can't range. Lets them get outside even if it is confined.

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote: I would take the shed. So many uses for it. I really like using their old run for storage & keeping everything close to the chickens. Maybe You could take it apart & move it that way?

You could always put it across from you current one and just divide them with fencing if you wanted to keep them separate.

I am going to take my old tiny coop down but I wont sell it. I am going to use it as their feed station next year or maybe just an extra place for them to go in the winter. I haven't figured it out yet but I have a lot of ideas. First I have to so repairs. It started rotting out at the hinges last year

All that $$ & it started rotting after only a year!!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Wow. Rotting. That is frustrating!!!!!

Would it make a good hawk hide out in the yard somewhere? I don't remember the size of it but I know some of them are about dog house size.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I would take the shed. So many uses for it. I really like using their old run for storage & keeping everything close to the chickens. Maybe You could take it apart & move it that way?

You could always put it across from you current one and just divide them with fencing if you wanted to keep them separate.

I am going to take my old tiny coop down but I wont sell it. I am going to use it as their feed station next year or maybe just an extra place for them to go in the winter. I haven't figured it out yet but I have a lot of ideas. First I have to so repairs. It started rotting out at the hinges last year

All that $$ & it started rotting after only a year!!

We bought a shed coop kit off of CL when we first started out with our chicks in Sept 2012. The wood is literally falling off in places now after only 2 winters. Granted this last winter was bad, but for what I paid I wanted it to last so much longer. It will be a summer fix it up project if not fall. As many changes as we have made to the shed coop, we just can't tear it down and build another. That thing will last to the point that it is all repair / modifications.

 

[Leahs Mom]

That's so frustrating. Those are expensive and shouldn't be shoddy.

 

[ki4got]

just an fyi...

I had to learn the hard way apparently.. everyone around here was out of shavings a few weeks ago, but southern states had gotten some from another distributor. I ran out of the other shavings I'd been using in the brooders so decided this would do, since it's what I had...

if you get shavings from a new source, check them out for cedar shavings mixed in with the pine! I changed the bedding yesterday, and within the last 24 hours have lost 7 chicks! soon as I realized what was going on I moved them to the other brooder (which hadn't been cleaned yet) and dumped it all out. it doesn't seem to affect the birds outside, and I really didn't think much of it at the time, but it does have a bit of a cedar-ish smell.

that is the only thing that has changed in the last day that might explain chicks in one brooder only dying off like that. they were all nice and plump, well hydrated, but the legs and facial skin was a lot darker than I'm used to seeing.

fortunately I did pick up a bale of the stuff I usually use (statesman fine shavings from southern states) when I went by there the other day, but thought I'd use a bale I'd already opened first...

thought I'd add, the bale does say pine shavings, but the SS manager I spoke with said unless it said 'pure' there isn't anything they can do about it unfortunately other than give me my money back for the bale I bought... the other bale I'm taking back tomorrow to swap for the right thing. but all chickies are cleaned out (even the 'only slightly dirty' brooder) since it had so many in there at once... my third brooder is also put into use right now, for the weaker ones that seem to be having a hard time recovering. didn't notice problems immediately but they may have eaten a few bits possibly, don't know for sure.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Karen - since the bale was marked "pine shavings" and there was no mention of cedar on it, were you able to see/smell the cedar? How can someone know if there is cedar mixed in?

This is something I've been concerned about with TSC pine shavings. Sometimes the smell is very strong and other times it's not. Not sure if I'd be able to discern if there was cedar in there.

 

[ki4got]

Karen - since the bale was marked "pine shavings" and there was no mention of cedar on it, were you able to see/smell the cedar? How can someone know if there is cedar mixed in?

This is something I've been concerned about with TSC pine shavings. Sometimes the smell is very strong and other times it's not. Not sure if I'd be able to discern if there was cedar in there.

it's marked on the back 'check out our other products' and includes cedar shavings as one option, so don't know what to say... it's a white bag so you can't look in either.

the statesman shavings are super fine and soft (dust free) and perfect for the babies. I've never seen any signs of cedar in them and it always smells 'piney'...

ETA my sniffer isn't always reliable, especially with allergies.

 

[lalaland]

Good to hear the separation is working. I MUST have additional housing before next winter. I have all kinds of schemes but I did last year too.

The small hen shed that we can have free will need to be put up on a trailer to move and I'm thinking right now that it's too small to bother with all of that. I think we will be getting their kennel panels even if we don't take the shed and they have a bunch of them so I'll be ready to have an enclosed run for new housing when I get it.

I always like to have a pen to be able to keep them in just in case they can't range. Lets them get outside even if it is confined.

I'm with afl, take the shed! You just never know what you might like to do - a broody area? to raise a single breed? quarantine?

I would take the shed. So many uses for it. I really like using their old run for storage & keeping everything close to the chickens. Maybe You could take it apart & move it that way?

You could always put it across from you current one and just divide them with fencing if you wanted to keep them separate.

I am going to take my old tiny coop down but I wont sell it. I am going to use it as their feed station next year or maybe just an extra place for them to go in the winter. I haven't figured it out yet but I have a lot of ideas. First I have to so repairs. It started rotting out at the hinges last year

All that $$ & it started rotting after only a year!!

thats awful that is already rotting. Do you have access to barn paint? I swear that stuff can rescue just about anything. I ignore all the usual preparation instructions on the label and just slather it on. It seems to soak into wood and kind of stabilize it. A shed that I got last year had some areas where the plywood was so weathered it was just about in strands, I planned on replacing some of the worst parts, but thought I would get it painted just to hold it over til I got around to fixing it. I painted the whole thing, gave the bad areas a second coat and ended up not bothering with my plans to replace some of the wood because it came out so great.