newcomer here

[starpaws]

Hi everyone, i am new to keeping garden chickens. I have 2 POL, a light sussex and a Bluebelle. Both settled in well
What advice for swilling down the paved areas please ? I want to keep the pong down and have heard that Stalosan is good. However being new, if this is sprinkled down where the hens go, don't they ingest it or do you have to exclude them etc ?
What do others of you do to keep the outside areas sweet ? they have a 6ft x 3ft paved area leading onto a 9ft x 3ft grassed.
The run cannot be moved about by the way.
Cheers, Debbie

 

[Wrigley62]

Welcome Debbie!

I have no idea what you are talking about 07 I'm from the States and I have not had chickens long enough to give that kind of advice, but there are A LOT of very experienced and helpful people that I'm sure can and will help. Someone will be along very soon.This is a GREAT site!

Good luck and again, Welcome

Wrigley

 

[Marigold]

Hi Starpaws and welcome to the Forum. I think Stalosan is usually used to sprinkle on earth runs and then dug in to sweeten the ground, rather than used on paved areas but I may be wrong. When I had my first chickens I had a paved area and thought like you, that it could be hosed down but it didn't work for me because of the nasty sludge which resulted from the hosing that had nowhere to go except out on the lawn, and stank horrible. Drainage is a problem with paved areas, and unless they are covered they can get rather nasty just from the effect of rain on the droppings. Also in winter, if wet they freeze over and are a deathtrap.One solution to help with draiange and hygiene is to put a layer of something like woodchips over the concrete, then you can poo pick every day and compost the droppings, and it will be more comfortable for the girls as well, they will like to scratch in it and this may save the grass to some extent. From time to time you could water the run and chippings with diluted Poultry Shield, which is the disinfectant made specially safe for chickens. You can also use this to clean the coop, drinker and feeder regularly. If your concrete part is covered you could use Aubiose, which is shredded hemp stems, lovely and soft and very absorbent and warm underfoot. It would be worth putting a corrugated clear plastic roof on this area anyway as then you would have a nice dry end for their feeder and dust bath, and for them to shelter if they want to.

 

[starpaws]

Hi Marigold, thnaks for that, some great ideas and will get hubby busy, yet again, poor love, once we get some dry days. I think we will cover the paved bit, make things less yukky. Now i think the woodchips are like the play bark for kids ? Not the pine smelling stuff from a gerden centre ? If the woodchips do get wet might they go mouldy and perhaps the spores would affect the chickens ?
Off for a brew and to dry out after cleaning the girls out in torrential rain. They will be sailing boats down our street soon x

 

[dinosaw]

Hi Starpaws, Stalosan can in theory be used anywhere as long as it is covered otherwise it just washes away. Its main purpose is as a disinfectant, its meant to kill worm and fly eggs on contact as well as coccidial oocysts, it does also make the run smell nicer as well but that is secondary. If you ever do decide to use it it is perfectly safe around chickens and you don't need to exclude them beyond when you actually sprinkle it down.

 

[bantiekeeper]

Hi Starpaws, Welcome to the forum. I use stalosan in my covered run when I change the woodchip. After removing the old stuff I turn over the earth floor, sprinkle the stalosan to keep the nasties away and put a new load of woodchip on top. Would not personally use bark chippings due to the spores. The chippings from the tree surgeons seems fine. Agree that the droppings washed to the edge would smell and be difficult to control. If it is possible I would try and poo pick on a daily basis. My girls love scratching about in the chippings.

 

[Marigold]

One idea to help retain some gass on the lawn bit would be to cover this with mesh, pegged down, either the sort of plastic stuff you grow clematis up that you can buy by the metre as Netlon, or metal chicken wire mesh. The idea is that the grass can grow through for the birds to nibble but they can't scratch it up and destroy it. Without this the relatively small grassy bit will be a muddy mess within a few weeks and will then never recover, if you are not able to rest and rotate the grazing. You will still need to treat this area as a food crop, ie pick up droppings daily and keep it as clean as you can, or the grass will be killed by the droppings. Even two hens can make a tremendous amount of mess!