2Biosecurity Questions

[wendywoggles]

We've go part the uncovered run on slabs which are directly laid over the ground. We scrape it clean every day and every week we scrub down with water with Jeyes in it. Obviously this drains down between the cracks but a lot goes off the sides and sometimes forms puddles. If really bad we jet wash it after scraping, then use the Jeyes mix. Apart from locking the flock in their coop there is no way we can keep them away from what we are doing.

1) is Jeyes Fluid enough to ensure that it's clean and fresh in this area. smells ok.
2) is this run off water ok for the chooks as they seem to love mucky water. 07 we do try to keep them away from it till it's soaked away.

 

[Marigold]

Personally I wouldn't ever use Jeyes fluid, especially where the chickens were likely to drink the runoff, as it's so highly toxic, also I find the smell is quite revolting and sticks around for a very long time. There are several alternatives which are designed to be safe for use with poultry in organic systems and to kill worm eggs as well as general disinfectation, and also smell pleasant, eg http://www.chicken-house.co.uk/acatalog/Bio_VX_disinfectant_5Kg_Bucket.html or this one, which smells lovely; http://flytesofancy.co.uk/chickenhouses/Barrier_V1_Disinfectant.html

In my first chicken run I had the same drainage problems as you, with a slab base, and I found the slurry just built up round the edges if I used sufficient water to get the slabs clean. The water did drain between the slabs OK in dry weather when the ground below wasn't saturated, so it would have been less of a problem if the area had been covered, but in the end i decided this just wasn't sustainable and went for a more free-draining base with woodchip on top. this had its own problems - the hens scratched up the mud into the chippings and it got a bit nasty in winter, even when poo-picked regularly. Nowadays i use rubber chippings over a permeable membrane, which doesn't solve the ever-present problems of poo from above, but does prevent the mud from below making things worse!

P.S. I also used to find the bare slabs got dangerously slippery in frozen winter conditions, and when it froze hard I couln't get them clean anyway.

 

[ccm]

May I recommend Virkon S, its an excellent and safe disinfectant, DEFRA approved and in my opinion hard to beat.

 

[Chuck]

If your run off water has Jeyes Fluid in it, the chickens should not drink it.

Virkon S is indeed a good disinfectant and is readily available at most animal/chicken feed stores so no need to pay postage.

 

[Stapfam]

After several years of having a portable run for the chooks that I Moved round the garden-I decided to build a larger permanantly fixed run for them with a perspex roof covering the run area. Brick based and 6ft height and an area of 10 square metres. it was placed on an area of lawn at the bottom of the garden and we are on Clay soil. Wasn't long before the grass had gone and they were down to bare soil. I dug an area over for a bath area and put sand in it but I needn't have bothered as the chooks dug their own. I was thinking that come winter I would have to put chippings down but the run remained dry and the soil became dust. Poos were never collected once the surface became soil-They disappear within a few hours. Bit of smell came in initially but never strong and even that disappeared after a few weeks.

What had happened was that an Enzyme had built up within the soil and this breaks down the poo and smell does not exist. I do remove some of the soil occasionally and the bath area has had the odd bag of sand placed in it but other than that there is no maintenance.

2 years later and the chooks love it. Plenty of scratching area- no mud and no smell. I have watered the run a few times with a Poultry disinfectant and bath areas have a dusting of Mite powder once a week after my last infestation of the critturs.

And Jeyes Fluid- I have a worry about this as even diluted it causes me a skin irritation. I do use it in the garden but After the "Burning" sensation I had- I will not put it near the chooks. There are specific Poultry disinfectants that are safer.