Keeping hens and ducks chat.

What a difference one week makes especially now everything has thawed out. YAY!

Cleaned both the hens and the ducks out thoroughly today and as the weather was nice gave them a good old wash down inside too and gave them a good airing to make sure they were fully dry before putting fresh bedding in. Also thoroughly raked the floor in the hens coop and the duck run instead of doing a poo pick up like last week when it was minus something silly degrees out there.


It was like musical poultry at ours today. First we transferred the hens one by one and the Cockerel in to the greenhouse behind the hens coop so they could all have a good old dust bath in there. Then thoroughly cleaned out the hens coop, their hotel, their coop dust bath and put fresh pine scented straw shavings down on the ground floor for them. Next we transferred the ducks one by one in to the hens coop next door so we could move about more freely in the duck run and thoroughly clean that out as well the same as we did for the hens. All water bowls thoroughly cleaned out and refilled with fresh water. Then we had to transfer the ducks back to their run one by one and then the same for the hens back in to their coop.

Glad all that lot has been done today. I love it when they have been fully cleaned out. No energy left for housework though:o. I always say that our feathered friends outside have a cleaner house than we do so now you know why :rotfl:

We came back in exhausted just before it got dark. Hubby made some bread for our supper and I made some soup. We think we will be eating that and then falling in to bed :rotfl: because we are both so tired. We wouldn't change our semi self sufficient lifestyle for the world though. We love it because it is so rewarding.

All for now.

Edwink

StarShapedPeg wrote: »

So lovely and sunny here today.
My little blind one is still alive and seems well. For the first time all three spent more time outside than in today and they were very busy dust bathing in the pit they!!!8217;ve excavated for themselves at the back. They looked like they were having a blast, making purring noises in the sunshine.
So lovely to read of the spring cleaning session Edwink :rotfl: must make them all happy and cosy when you!!!8217;ve spruced their hotels out!
Spring is in the air!x

So glad your little blind one is doing ok. Funny you should mention her because I was thinking about her today. Bless her, sunbathing and dust bathing too with the others. :j Awww how nice. If she wasn't happy she certainly would not be bothering to do that especially with the others.

Unfortunately we don't get a lot of sun in our coop because of our next door neighbours 2 huge trees to the East plus the tarpaulin on the roof of the coop doesn't help matters either. They do get some sun at the side to the South but it is slightly shaded this time of year for my lot. Another couple of weeks and the sun will be higher than the trees at the back of us so that's when the sunbathing will start here. That will be time to take some more photos me thinks!

Thank you so much for the update on your feathered friends x :T

Edwink

Just come in from the hens coop Brrr! It's freezing out there.

As time is moving on and we are still not allowed to let them free-range we decided to cut out a doorway between the hens coop and the ducks run. Done this mainly to give the ducks more space as they have been looking thoroughly miserable lately. The ducks run is 20ft x 4ft so not very wide but plenty big enough for a run for them. Been watching the ducks over the past week and have been feeling so sorry for them especially as the smaller in comparison hens have a 24ft x 12ft coop. So if they all share both areas it should make for happier ducks even though they are still not allow out to go in their pond. So that's all of them in a 24ft x 16ft coop and their mummy is a lot happier with that. Freezing cold mummy but happier. Was only out there for about an hour but boy was it cold.

Edwink

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Morning all :hello: Can I join you? Edwink told me to come over here and I like to follow instructions (sometimes)
We don't have chickens yet, but are intending to rescue a few in the coming months. We've just moved from the city (with only a tiny strip of garden next to the pavement) to the middle of nowhere with 11 acres (most of which, from what I can gather, is swamp :rotfl: ) We moved three weeks ago today - the following day we were completely snowed in for a week :eek: We're currently stuck at a friend's house back in the city as we left for work on Friday morning and haven't been able to get back since because of yet more snow :eek:
Still, I am assuming the weather will improve at some point :rotfl: I've read about 7 pages of this excellent thread and will likely get round to the other 30 at some point (although I really should do some more work right now).
I've never had sole responsibility for so much as a hamster so I am quite daunted by chickens :rotfl: What if I do something wrong and hurt them? What if we can't make the enclosure safe enough and the fox gets them? I'd love for them to just roam about free as we have so much space - is that realistic?? We'll likely only be getting about 4 to start with so they'll have nearly 3 acres each :rotfl: :rotfl:
We currently have no equipment and no idea But we won't be acquiring our chickens until we have both of those things so I will be avidly reading to see what I can learn :j :j

Hello Cheery

Lovely to have you on board with us. Always nice to have another on board especially a cheery one.:D

Just be warned that when you do get your hens we do like pictures of them posted on here so we know who you are talking about in your posts:D. Like putting faces to names. If you get rescue hens they will all look similar but I am sure you will think of some fab names for them once you have had them for a few days. Although they will all look similar they will have their own personalities which is how we have managed to name our rescue girls but in all honesty I know I get them mixed up.

I hope you have managed to get home after all that snow we had. Things have definitely thawed out where we are for the 2nd time in recent months.

You can use almost anything for their hut (locally known on here as hotels). The bigger the better obviously space allowing mainly for cleaning purposes. Our first hotel was so lovely and was like a little Wendy House but we had to crawl inside to clean it out. So later on when we were given a 6ft x 4ft shed my husband kitted that out for them and it is perfect for them and us because of my poor back. You can buy plastic Arc style hen houses which are fully washable and very hygienic but some hen keepers don't like the plastic side of it whereas some do. Wood is warmer for the hens though. Maybe you will just build your own. I am sure you will come up with something.

Main thing to remember make their night time sleeping hotel as fox proof as you can. For our coop we ran chicken wire all the way around the diameter of it after digging a 2ft to 3ft trench all the way around except for the doorway of course. Then we sunk the chicken wire down in to it with brick and rubble thrown on top and cemented it in all the way round. So now when our girls are safely tucked up at night there is no way a fox can get in. Also we have covered the coop roof with chicken wire too. A timely job but no fox can climb in that way either.

Very different in the daytime re foxes if hens are free range. Ours are so we have done everything possible to make sure our girls are as safe as they can be. Free range sadly always comes with risks no matter what.

I am sure there will be a number of questions you will think of before you get your hens so just fire away and someone will answer or give you some advice.

You will be ok handling them I am sure. They are incredibly soft and warm. I'd never handled anything like that before in my life before we got ours and in fact I was absolutely terrified of anything with feathers. I was pleasantly surprise how nice they were to hold, not to mention hug too.




Edwink