Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

blushingbride_3

hi everyone!

i have 4 ex bats i rehomed in feb & love bits however they stink! and have trashed my garden!lol

now hopw do you look after your ladies in the winter? mine are living in a mud bath even though i have a tarpaulin covering the run,

I have a omlet cube with a 2 meter run.

I am considering buying materials to build a walk in run or just getting another extension for the cube.

Any suggestions? what do you do?
Is it cruel keeping them in their run all the time?

angelavdavis

Why not get a couple of sacks of bark chips to relieve the bogginess. Come spring, the chooks will no doubt have ground these down, so you can then spread them on the flower beds to give your plants a boost.

I have four chooks in a omlet cube with a run extension as well as the standard run. I have also built a run around the outside that is actually run into the flower borders which allows them to venture out a little more but this isn't foxproof so this is just during the day when we are here. I plan to extend this further into the borders (you can't see the run as the bushes have grown to such an extent but the chooks love digging around the bushes for goodies).

My chooks do like roaming the garden, but as you say, they do make an awful mess and destroy my vegetables, so this is a treat now and again.

shegar

blushingbride wrote: »

hi everyone!

i have 4 ex bats i rehomed in feb & love bits however they stink! and have trashed my garden!lol

now hopw do you look after your ladies in the winter? mine are living in a mud bath even though i have a tarpaulin covering the run,

I have a omlet cube with a 2 meter run.

I am considering buying materials to build a walk in run or just getting another extension for the cube.

Any suggestions? what do you do?
Is it cruel keeping them in their run all the time?

My hen run is approx 10 foot X 8 foot, its roof is covered in corrugated sheets and 2 of the sides, the main things with hens is that they dont like wet and muddy feet so they soon go off lay when they get wet, my hens having been laying since march I bought them POL .I let them out on the rest of the garden if its not raining , but they do have a large hen run and they are on soil so they get plenty of grit and grubs etc. they have a hen house attached to the run where they have no cold winds or get wet so they do lay well, im getting 6 eggs out of 6 hens a day , :Tmy hen run is about 5 foot high so Im kinda bent a bit in there but I can get in nicely to dig the ground over for them , they love a good svratch on freshly dug over earth. :rotfl:

edmund_blackadder

Chickens have had their first experience of snow today ... Is there anything different we should be doing for them (apart from keeping the food and drink free of snow and ice) or providing them with?

It seems quite difficult for them to escape from the snow since the whole garden is covered and so is the floor of the run but their chicken house is left open for them. Are we to assume that since they aren't running back and hiding in their house that they are fine in the snow?

mrs_motivated

chickens are great - I have lots and lots (well about 30), some rare breed, some hybrids and some tiny serama (salad eggs) ...... oh and quail too.

and I love my girls....... got two fuffy RIR chicks - about two weeks old too....

tracyk

edmund_blackadder wrote: »

Chickens have had their first experience of snow today ... Is there anything different we should be doing for them (apart from keeping the food and drink free of snow and ice) or providing them with?

It seems quite difficult for them to escape from the snow since the whole garden is covered and so is the floor of the run but their chicken house is left open for them. Are we to assume that since they aren't running back and hiding in their house that they are fine in the snow?

I give mine porridge in the cold weather and I have some powder that I mix into it that's got extra vitamins & stuff in it...

Frugaldom

I'm just using the usual cider vinegar in water each day but have started adding Citricidal (grapefruit seed extract) in the mornings. Worst problem we have is the hens refuse to shelter when it rains, prefering to get soaked, then they go in at night and their straw gets damp. They're free ranging, so no place to shut them in completely, but they seem lively enough and we're still getting a few eggs from them and the ducks. Extra thick layer of shavings in coop plus extra layer of straw in their nest boxes is about all I've done so far, plus using hot water in mornings, which they seem to like.

ljonski

As advised i smother their wattles and crowns with petroleum jelly to protect against frost bite. They currently spend the night in a small cupboard on the stairs in the bad weather. also i wonder Do theyeat/drink snow as their water is now constantly frozen and i go outside with a hot kettle 3-4 x a day ?

edmund_blackadder

ljonski wrote: »

As advised i smother their wattles and crowns with petroleum jelly to protect against frost bite. They currently spend the night in a small cupboard on the stairs in the bad weather. also i wonder Do theyeat/drink snow as their water is now constantly frozen and i go outside with a hot kettle 3-4 x a day ?

You are currently letting your chickens sleep in a cupboard in your house??

edmund_blackadder

nykmedia wrote: »

I'm just using the usual cider vinegar in water each day but have started adding Citricidal (grapefruit seed extract) in the mornings. Worst problem we have is the hens refuse to shelter when it rains, prefering to get soaked, then they go in at night and their straw gets damp. They're free ranging, so no place to shut them in completely, but they seem lively enough and we're still getting a few eggs from them and the ducks. Extra thick layer of shavings in coop plus extra layer of straw in their nest boxes is about all I've done so far, plus using hot water in mornings, which they seem to like.

We have a similar problem ... ours are free rangers too but don't shelter from the rain either even though they could go and hide in their coop if they wanted. We are still getting the occasional egg too. In this snowy weather they mostly huddle by the back door to the kitchen and as soon as the door is opened they are in like a shot. We let them have a wander around in our kitchen for about 30 mins to let them warm up .... then we shoo them out into the cold again! haha

Ours love hot corn on the cobs (especially in the cold weather)