any poultry plans for 2013

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karminski

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well my plans are to get the runs mud free and dry :lol: :lol: all starts tomorrow hopfully but i wont be holding my breath ohh and sorting out new chicken coops as well wether i build my own or buy some , seen some cute dog kennels on ebay that can be easily converted for the smaller birds temtped to get a couple ready for the new run .
and no i wont be hatching :lol: :-)10 promise ;)
 
I am not returning to the UK until our enclosure is completed Karmiski. Then the chickens can free range to some extent with a reasonable level of security. Been a long job and will post all about it (as it's rather unusual) in due course. Then we need to find a permanent house where our chickens will be secure. Drove down to friend's and saw chickens wandering all over the place. No foxes as the hunters have wiped them out.
 
Need to make my garden a little more chicken friendly so can free range a few hours a day.
 
not jealous of you really chris :-)17 and your birdies can have a relaxed new year knowing theres no foxes :D
 
Drastic cut back I'm afraid due to age, illness and loss of egg outlet from March. Some good layers to go but will keep a nucleus of my favourite White Leghorns. Might need to set a few eggs to breed some young males as two of the males are getting old and I wouldn't know where to go to get suitable replacements.
 
i'll be cutting back but only on the big girls not my little banties but i might have to wait as none of the big girls have passed away in ages they all seem to be fighting fit :lol: better this year then last must be the non stop mud bath tonic they are having .
well today i was going to start laying the slabs but i cant the allotment ground is just to boggy to be pushing heavy wheelbarrows around on so i'll scrub the houses clean instead :D
 
What happened to your egg outlet Chuck? We have a similar problem with males. We only have one Blue Laced Wyandotte cock and where over here we would get a replacement I don't know? We had 3 in England and they all went in quick succession -this one was a last minute purchase for export. Same with our other Buff Orpington. TNN's and Bantam Leghorns we have second cockerels which we bred when we arrived. So New year sees Wyandotte and Orpington eggs in the incubator as soon as they start laying.

Going to dig out what looks like what was a spring in the chicken enclosure. There is an old track leading up to a boggy area. Just above that point I sank a post into the ground three feet down with no stones or roots. So I think there is a fissure in the rock which once supplied water to the house, but became unused 30 years ago when mains water was connected. Great for watering the chickens.

Funny that in England there is too much water and it's a problem and here there isn't enough and it's a problem.
 
karminski said:
well today i was going to start laying the slabs but i cant the allotment ground is just to boggy to be pushing heavy wheelbarrows around on so i'll scrub the houses clean instead :D
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Karminski. Can you get hold of any scaffold planks? I've put them on the ground in the past & used them as pathways for the wheelbarrow wheel. Simple but effective...
 
yep already using them but i cant do the whole site in them :lol: some slabs are 1 end of the site covered in brambles and the rest are on the other side on a plot we have been trying to clear as we have had to give it up should of explained that :-)05 , wheelbarrowing them up the main paths aint to bad its the small paths between peoples plot that i dont want to trun up and making all yukky doesnt look nice and its to risky in case someone slips on the mud its bad enough that the place has been under water and people keep driving in with thier cars .
i did manage to give the houses a good clean and attack the mould and to even get all the houses open so they could have the day airing out havent doe that in ages :-)17 but someone mentioned on another forum { nothing to do with chickens } that laying the slabs down will make it smell really bad as someone did that on a plot next to hers ages ago and it put her of but surely putting slabs down wont smell as bad as just have yukky soil not that i'll being doing the whole run only half of it .
 
chrismahon said:
What happened to your egg outlet Chuck?

The chap who transports them is changing jobs and will no longer be able to take them but it has come at a good time.
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We had slabs under one coop and run Karminski and the smell wasn't an issue because we threw old bedding onto them and periodically scraped off the compacted poo. In our system chicken poo has as much value as the eggs. We eat the eggs and we put the 2 year composted poo into the veggy plot and effectively eat that as well! In the very old days selling eggs was not enough to recover your costs because the intense egg laying pedigrees and hybrids were not available. Profit came from selling composted poo.
 
Listening to gardener's question time the other day they said the best compost accelerator was chicken poo. I poo pick the hen house every day and put it in the compost bin.
 
well i put the faverolles onto large pavement slabs i had to as their legs were not standing up to the mud anymore and they went directly down on to flooded mud and they dont smell i even throw thier old shavings bedding down onto the only to small sections that are not slabbed but i dont care as long as they are of the mud , going to start on the big girls early sat morning as it looks like i only need to do halve thier area as the other end is slopped and dries pretty quick .
starting work on the new run again this weekend the guys are booked for sat 1 to help take roof of sat lunchtime and the other 2 to rebuild it properly so all going well as long as i can get the other door to fit the banties and favs will be in there for the 12 of this month :D :D once they are in there they will be deep littered on shavings which will get cleared out once a month depending how dirty they get but at least they shouldnt get to wet.
 
Hey Wrigley, there is always one that becomes a pet. So we just accept it. The last one was our Frankie. Taken out of the cockerels pen because he was being bullied. Found him with his head stuck through the chicken wire so the others couldn't peck it. We put him with the hens to keep him out of trouble. Wow, did he change. Turned into a magnificent cockerel and so aggressive to intruders. All the others went and we kept him.
 
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