Keeping hens and ducks chat. 7 July 2015 at 5:07PM edited 27 April 2021 at 11:46PM in Greenfingered MoneySaving 3.4K replies 350.7K views

edwink

Better_Days wrote: »

It's fascinating watching them dust bath. They lie on their side with legs and wings akimbo, and with one leg scratch up the compost over themselves. They wriggle around and the compost gets into the depths of their feathers. They also close their eyes and 'duck' their heads under the compost. On a warm day with the sun shining they seem to go into a trance of bliss, making this low trilling sound of absolute contentment. It is very relaxing to watch them enjoying themselves so much.

Awwwwwww!!! Better days that is such a beautiful photo. The hens are really having "better days". Bless them. I really enjoyed reading your post. Thank you.


Edwink

Dizzy_Ditzy

Do many of you get monster eggs? My light Sussex likes to lay then frequently. The last one she did was on Saturday and it was a whopping 97g :eek:

Few weeks ago she did 4 in 5 days :eek:

Davesnave

106g is the record here. :eek:

Had a 79g yesterday, but that's normally as big as they go.

edwink

I have never weighed any of our large eggs. We do get some occasionally. I will weigh one when I get one.


106g and 97g are whoppers. Well done those hens!!!


Thank you for posting on this friendly hen thread!!


Edwink

ali-t

Fellow henkeepers, how do you get rid of poo. Its the bane of my life. I have tried sweeping and raking the grass, mowing the lawn to sook up the poo with the grass and recently borrowed a leaf sucker/blower but cant find anythkng that works well. Im fed up traipsing it through the house, it getting stuck on shoes etc. The coops are cleaned out twice a week but the large enclosure is terrible and stinks after a few days. Now there are 10 ill be ankle deep in poo before i know it. Help!

Dizzy_Ditzy

There is only one way I can get rid of poo and that's daily poo scooping I'm afraid :eek:

Some of the "fresher" ones or liquidy ones don't get scooped up straight away otherwise I'd be scooping my guts up too

Interested to hear if anyone else has a better way

suki1964

As a newbie hen keeper Im still poop scooping daily, and still the poo gets EVERYWHERE lol

So I got a cheapo pair of croc look alike's and leave them at the back door. Whoever is going out to the hens slips them on


We use a long handled shovel. just scoops it all up bar the runny ones, for their coop its the latex gloves, just grab it and chuck it in the compost bin

No smells yet, but its been teeming it down this week so the ground is getting waterlogged so I have a feeling its going to get harder to keep them clean

ali-t

queen_of_cheap wrote: »

There is only one way I can get rid of poo and that's daily poo scooping I'm afraid :eek:

Some of the "fresher" ones or liquidy ones don't get scooped up straight away otherwise I'd be scooping my guts up too

Interested to hear if anyone else has a better way

What tool do you use to scoop?

for the coops i use a cat litter scoop and thick gloves but the grass is a different story. Yuck. I dread to think what it will be like in the winter when the grass cant be cut to get rid of it

Davesnave

ali-t wrote: »

What tool do you use to scoop?

for the coops i use a cat litter scoop and thick gloves but the grass is a different story. Yuck. I dread to think what it will be like in the winter when the grass cant be cut to get rid of it

I don't scoop at all outside. No time for that, but then the area is way bigger than the standard 4m2 per bird for free range.

In winter you probably won't need to cut the grass, as it won't grow much. If you do need to, then there's mowers/strimmers out there that will cope, but they'll cost.

Sometimes our hen area has large parts virtually underwater in winter and the gateways 20cm deep in mud, so mowing then would be very difficult.

Inside the hen house we use vinyl flooring pieces laid on shavings and clean them off (after scraping the poo onto the compost heap) using one of those through the long handle brushes, attatched to a hose. This beats paying out loads for shavings.

Horseygirl123

ali-t wrote: »

What tool do you use to scoop?

for the coops i use a cat litter scoop and thick gloves but the grass is a different story. Yuck. I dread to think what it will be like in the winter when the grass cant be cut to get rid of it

I use a manure scoop and rake, the ones you use for collecting horse muck.