Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Shelly Smith on January 19, 2011 at 9:06am

Kari - I just built a 8x5 coop with a raised roost and now have 6 chickens. I planned for 3, but friends gave me chickens as gifts!! Be careful about your enthusiasm :-) I've only had them for about a month but I went with "self-composting" flooring -- Dimaceous Earth (DE) and woodchips and after a month it's still fresh looking/smelling. Summer will be the test, of course. In the roosting box (5'x1' space), I have straw and I've had to clean that each week. But it's raised and really easy to  pull the dirty straw out and add new. I'll post a pic of my coop ... before I got my chickies. By the way -- I put a door on the outside of the roost (accessible from the outside) so I don't have to go into the coop to clean it -- I'm really lazy.

Permalink Reply by Kari Brane on January 20, 2011 at 10:10am

Thanks for the info!  I see you have your coop in a shady spot (It looks great!)....I have two options for mine 1) along the south side of our neighbor's house (the "hot wall") or on the north side of our house which is mostly shady.  I've heard chickens do well on a south wall, but I also wonder where these people live....I'm afraid they would roast!  Thoughts?

Also do you compost the straw from the roost?

Thanks for all the great info!

Permalink Reply by Shelly Smith on January 20, 2011 at 10:44am

I'm not sure about the heat ... good question. I have moved the coop to a little sunnier spot ... an agriculturist told me I might consider a lamp for 18 hours of light ... which is best for chickens and egg production. So far, I'm getting 5 eggs a day with 6 chickens, so I'm not too worried about kicking up the production. Seems good to me. Re sunlight - I'm from Ohio and there is NO sun most days of the year, so I figure it's hard to really go wrong in NM. No matter where I put the roost, they'll get way more sun than chickens in the east. Lucky ducks (btw, my chickies are offended when I call them that).

Permalink Reply by Dawn B on January 19, 2011 at 9:51am

The chickens will kill the grass with thier scratching. They dig for bugs and love a nice hole to dust bathe in...so dont worry about the nitrogen killing the grass, it will never get the chance!  I use the deep litter method in the coop and only have to clean it a few times a year. There is alot of info on the web on deep litter method. Have fun!

Permalink Reply by Kari Brane on January 20, 2011 at 10:10am

And it doesn't stink only cleaning it a few times a year?  (I have a husband with a sensitive nose :).....)

What's the size of your coop and how many chickens do you have?

Thanks so much!

Kari

Permalink Reply by Dawn B on January 20, 2011 at 10:48am

not at all. smells like the pine shavings and straw I use in the coop.  My main coop is about 8x8 with a large outside run. I have 14 hens and 1 rooster in there. The only time it has had any odor is when it was so cold recently and they refused to leave the coop for a few days. The key to that method is good ventilation. deep litter, and keeping it mixed up. The mixing I let the chickens do by spreading some treats and letting them scratch for it

Permalink Reply by Shelly Smith on January 20, 2011 at 11:01am

Cool coop!

Permalink Reply by Jennifer on January 22, 2011 at 7:15pm

If you wanted to do a tractor you could, but just build a chicken run and put the tractor inside the run - thats the set up we used to have. When I had seven hens against my neighbors fence we cleaned the tractor out about every other month - and no one ever complained. I would strongly suggest the south wall over the north. Chickens are really easy - just dive in - it wont take you long to get your own routine going!