Is it ok that my hens get a little muddy? They have shelter, and their nesting boxes are dry, but we are having heavy rains and the floor of the coop is getting really wet. I have wood shavings in the boxes, and I asked my hubby to pick up some straw. I'm worried that they will get sick if their feet are wet. Hubby says they are farm animals and not to worry. Our temps have been in the 50's and lower at night, is that ok? They all seem fine, I'm new at this and I don't want to make any stupid mistakes!
LisaLu
What to do with muddy floor of coop?
Mine have been walking on ice and it hasn't bothered them.
Mine are on ice as well. They are fine for now. When it gets really muddy I put down a thick layer of hay. Especailly for my feather legs. hehehe
Mine really love it when i clean out the horse stalls and throw a few wheel barrows full of it into their pen. They scratch for days in it.
mine have been playing in snow..hasn thurt them..i do have a think layer of wood chips in the coop..
Ditto. Do what you can but don't worry over much...they do well on everything, so long as it's not permanent...Bit of hay would be a great addition...
They probably won't get sick, but some shavings to dry it out will make it nicer for you when you collect eggs! I am sure they would appreciate it.
And your boots will appreciate it too!!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, I feel so much better. We put in hay and they are loving it. I want to give them all a bath, but we have more rain comming on Friday. And yes, it does rain in Southern California! We just had 3 days of it, and more is on the way. We really need it too.
I love my chickens! I'm up to 4 eggs a day, they are all brown, I can't wait to get all my birds laying. I am hording the eggs, they are sooo goood, I look forward to having more so I can share.....
Another question if I may:
A few of the eggs had little brown spots on the yolk. They didn't smell or anything, so we ate them, they tasted fine, we're still here, so I don't think it hurt us, but I was wondering if it was due to their age, they just started laying. I don't have any roos. What do you think?
LisaLu
They are probably just little blood spots. Especailly for first time layers. It does not mean bad eggs. Congrats!!!
no worries with the little spots. as long as they are fresh, enjoy to hen fruit!! I had hens in my back yard for years with no roo and had the same thing.
Glad your girls like their hay.
Have any of you tried pine pellets? When I get a flood or any wet issues, I use pine pellets, but I don't know about using them with chickens in the barn.
I have a paddock almost wired in. I'm thinking of using it for chickens and then making an entrance for them into a stall from it.... I hope I wouldn't have to stop using the pellets. They become like fine shavings once wet and poof up.
My only worry is that a chicken might try o eat one before it puffs...they are too big though right???....???
They almost look like the pellet form food. I use that in the bottom of my ferret cage for littler. I dont use it for the coop. I have the same fear that the chickens may eat it.
I used to think that about my horses too so I always sprayed them down to poof em up first. We'd used them at the Dept of Ag for the impounded, starved horses and always sprayed them for fear of eating them. But....once we had a flood and I poured them in Cyn's stall - his is lowest and the rain water all wound up in his stall - he dove at em but he spit 'em out before I could even get to him. Snort. If only I'd had my camera!
Guess he was not a follower of Euell Gibbens? LOL
I don't know if this will work with chickens but I used to work with a lady who would take home the big bags from the paper shredder and use them in her horse stalls.
Hey LisaLu!
I live in Vancouver, WA, where it rains 85% of the time... well OK, at least it feels like it does.
My girls' run got really muddy, so I threw in straw. They love it. The one thing I noticed was that the shavings in the coop are going "sour" sooner as well. so I've been making sure to keep those fresh and dry.
I figure, they've got somewhere sheltered to be and mud and rain doesn't seem to bother them. As long as you have hardy breeds... I'm sure you're just fine! :-)
Lazy:
I don't know if I could live in that much rain, my dogs hate it, they won't even go out to go potty! But it would be great to have green trees everywhere! I don't find the desert landscape pretty at all. We are lucky that we are surrounded by hills and valleys that are green most of the time, except in the summer when we all die in the 100+ temps.
The chickens seem to be doing just fine, the straw helps a bunch, I just hope it will break down in my compost pile. I gave them warm rice yesterday - OMG - they went crazy! I only got 2 eggs this am, could the rice affect them that quickly or is it just the cooler temps? I've also noticed that they like to lay later in the day, is that normal?
LisaLu
Weather changes will make them do that. We give ours rice all the time and I seriously doubt it would affect yours that way as it hasn't ours;-) Chickens are funny though...
Backyard Poultry and Mother Earth News both have articles on deep-litter composting using the chicken coop. http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/issues/4-1.html is the BP index; unfortunately they don't have the whole article online. But it's based on 6 - 10 inches of straw or leaves or whatever, tossing the kitchen waste into it, and the hens accomplishe at least half of the composting; you take it out of the coop and put it in your compost bin to finish, or your garden if you're not planting for about 3 months. They CLAIM it keeps the odor virtually nonexistent.
Edited for grammar! Begging all kinds of pardon!
This message was edited Feb 17, 2009 11:29 AM
I put hay down around Thanksgiving or a little bit after that, we had some warmer than normal days and a little bit of cold. No odor at all until today. I know it is time to rake out and add more hay now. Will probably do it the 1st of March. then put it into the compost bin (that i do not have yet) and it will be ready for when the taters need some added soil. I think I am going to do trash can taters this year.
brigidlily, the magazine Hobby Farms has the same article and you can add the leaves or whatever to the chicken yard too, and that helps break it down too..the chickens will really aid in composting..and there are alot more tips in it this month..but i get so many leaves that my girls would be buried!! lol
I am going to try to grow my taters in leaves. I tried tires last year and it was a huge wash out.
wow never heard about growing taters in leaves. Do tell.
There was a thread on it but I don't remember which forum. I am going to make a round cage out of wire and stake it to the ground. Then I am going to put just a few inches of soil in the bottom and lay by seed tater in a shallow crevice and cover it with about a 6" layer of leaves. As the plant grows up through the leaves I will keep adding leaves until i get to the top of the cage. Then when the flowers wilt it will be time to pull my stakes and rake away the leaves and pick up all my clean taters. At least that is the plan. LOL Somebody on the thread said it would work and had the pics to prove it. So I am going to give it a try.
wow that would be great if it does, I am going to do the trash can same idea but with soil.
I saw a thread where somebody had done that too. It was a 30 gal can and they got good results.
I have used this method for potatoes and it works great:
Scratch up the top couple- few inches of soil where you want to plant the potatoes. Set an old tire on top of the area. Fill the tire with hay (preferably partially composted hay). Wet down the hay. Place your cut potatoes on top of the hay (IMPORTANT - it is much more effective if you cut the potatoes into pieces containing 3-4 eyes each and air dry them for at least 24 hours until they scab over, thereby reducing the risk of rot). Add another tire on top of the first and repeat adding of hay, then wetting it down. Wait for potatoes to grow up through the hay. Add another tire and repeat with the hay, etc. By seasons end you will have tires stacked up 4-5 high. When you are ready for harvest, just un-stack the tires and pull away the hay, and you will have plenty of pre-cleaned 'taters. One note - mice tend to burrow and chew on the potatoes if you are in a high mouse population area (translated - everywhere). Measures should be taken to reduce mouse population - get a cat.
very good, we are learning or getting ideas of what to do with that hay in the barn.
I tried the tires last year and it was a bust for me. I think mine may have stayed too wet and didn't get enough sun.
I've got lots of chicken wire, so I'll give it a go with all that straw, sounds like a great way to recycle. I've had good luck growing taters in bags of potting soil. I just buy the $5.00 bags, cut the top off after putting large holes in the bottom for drainage, and set it in a small hole in the garden. Harvesting is easy, and it helps ammend the garden soil as well. This year I'll try the straw and layer with potting soil in wire rounds. Hope it works, I love home grown potatoes! Thanks for the idea!
LisaLu
hmmmmmmm I may have 3 or 4 different ways of doing them this year and see which works best.
Well got my tators and onion sets yesterday. Gonna get them out today in the dirt. I dont have the trash can to do it that way yet but I do have the tires.
I planted my potatoes yesterday, I used wire cages and layered used straw from the coop and potting soil, I just made layers....then I had to plant red and yellow tulips around the outside of the wire cage....I thought that would look kinda cute! Now we wait and hope it works.
LisaLu