A clever heated sand box for chickens caught my attention recently.
Build a box to hold one of those heated kennel pads and add about 5 inches of sand. Prop up an old window or panel of plastic to keep out snow and rain and you’ve got a nice warm spot for your flock to enjoy.
Would an increase in Winter egg production offset the cost of electricity to run the pad?
Image credit goes to Deb Bino from the Urban Chicken Podcast.
Our creek flooded and turned the duck pasture into a big lake.
We thought they were gone for good when they decided to stop sleeping in the coop.
They showed up a few days later, but still wouldn’t go in the coop.
Today I was able to lure them back to the front door of the coop with some feed. The plan is to keep luring them back with the hope that they’ll decide to sleep in the coop tonight.
We miss our duck eggs.
How do we transfer chickens from the tractor back to the coop?
Anna has them conditioned to respond to the sound of some feed being shaken in a cup. A handy trick to have when chickens get in an escape mood.
The training is simple. Just do a lot of shaking every morning before you feed your flock. Anna’s method involves calling our girls “chickees” in her best 3rd grade teacher voice.