I wish I d known grown birds would peck the wee ones

August 25, 2013 Posts No Comments

Segregated chickensJoe had two answers to my
question about what he wished he’d known about chickens when he
first started.  He wrote:


“I wish I knew about
baby chicken leg problems like spraddle
leg. By the time we realized something was horribly wrong,
too much time had passed to be able to fix it.



“The second is more
related to the picture. I wish I knew how hard integration of
baby chicks was. When it was time to start raising generation 2,
we figured the maternal instinct would make it easy to let them
adopt the new babies. By the time we realized that the grown
birds would peck to death the wee ones, we had to learn about
segregation.



“We hadn’t allowed
for a coop design to have two partitions inside the hen house. I
was able to split the yard, but every day I have to haul the
little ones back into a cramped makeshift coop area for the
night till they get bigger. This would be much easier if I had
built the henhouse with a removable partition and two doors.



“Thanks for the
great product, we love having low maintenance clean water for
our birds thanks to a DIY
kit!”



This is one of my
favorite entries so far because Joe’s second point was also on my
list of things I wish I’d known.  Maybe this post can save
other new chicken-owners from repeating our mistakes!

Drainage around a chicken coop

August 24, 2013 Posts 3 Comments

Homey chicken coopHelen wrote in to share her lessons in coop
locating and building:


“The one thing I learned after
starting with chickens is to make sure there is drainage into
their run.  My run was at the bottom of a slope where I throw tons of snow from my
driveway.  Well, spring run off and heavy rains gave me
lots of mud and stink. 



“I just finished building a new
chicken coop, 24 square feet and only spend about $175 getting
most of the materials from friends or the dump.  The green
wood is from an old out house.  Notice the

moon on the door!”



Don’t forget that
tomorrow’s the last day to enter our contest to win a free EZ Miser!  I’m looking
forward to hearing what lessons you’ve learned since beginning
with chickens.

Planning for chicken manure collection

August 23, 2013 Posts 11 Comments

Roosters asking for clean waterRobin
Edmundson‘s entry
has to do with planning her coop and run to make manure collection
easier.  She wrote:


“We have had chickens for many years
now and there are a bunch of things I wish I had known about
chickens then, that I know now.  I wish I had known how
fabulous chicken poop was for garden fertilizer.  We’d have
designed the coop a bit differently.

“As it is now, we toss all of our yard and garden debris, weeds,
and kitchen scraps into the coop.  The chickens stir it all
up, eat the bugs it draws, poop all over it and it composts
brilliantly.  In the spring and fall we scrape the top
layer off, dig the next 8 inches or so up and dress all the veg
garden beds with that black gold.  It’s made a huge
difference in the quality of the garden.





“If I could redesign the run,
I’d have a couple of different areas for them alternate
between.  It would make aging the compost a bit easier –
the chickens could start the new area while the first area rests
and then it would be good and aged by the time we need it on the
garden.



“Best of luck with the new waterer! 
I’ve attached a pic of a couple of roosters standing in an empty
birdbath as if demanding we try out your new waterer.”