4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[bruce]

Hi chicken people we are new to hens and got our first point of lay five six weeks ago, thanks for the ccmments re yew trees, very helpful and we have now moved them across the garden just to be safe. We have two cuckoo marans ,two calder rangers and a hen who lays sky blue eggs who I believe to be a skylight or some such breed.she is named bluebell and is lovely. She was the underdog if you follow me, but after feeding up she is now socking it to the other guys. We admire her for that..At this stage I have a confession , we do not have an eglu (will we get chucked off? hope not) we like wood as a material more than plastic. We are seeking expertise and advice. I shall come to the point . Each morning the news paper in the base of the hen house is damp: we are thrilled with the girls and especially their eggs and want the best for them (yeh yeh I know should have bpught an eglu ok point taken) So our hens dont want to sit on the perch( they havent read the books obviously) They enjoy huddling up in a crowd on the floor and I cant say I blame them in this cold snap! My wife who is is normally well informed tells me it's wee! well I don't think they do that. The house is weather proof and professionally built so I have increased the venti;lation at the top,to no avail. Question ? do hens perspire ?

We line the base of the house with newspape,r wood shaving,s and straw all on a couple of plastic trays (Yeh i know) each morning we have to change the paper. Any ideas serious ones please will be most appreciated. Has anyone else had this problem. Cheers ,Bruce

[BeckyBoo]

Hi there, you won't get chucked off for not having an Eglu, there's plenty of people on here with wooden houses!!

Not sure what it could be, I had a wooden ark for a while when I got the ex-batts and their house was paper then bedding but they roosted on a bar above it so it was never wet. Hens don't wee as such, any "wee" comes out with their poo I think. Hay can hold damp, it's not supposed to be a very good bedding for hens as it can harbour spores (mind you, the hens on farms seem alright clambering around on the hay bales but still!) You could try a different bedding, Aubiose is the bedding of choice on here, you get it in horsey type suppliers but it's gone up to £10 a bale in my local shop, but it is pretty fab and I get it when I can afford it as it soaks up wetness SO well. Hemcore is next best I reckon, followed by Dixons Dustless and Flax (MUCH cheaper!) Mind you, my friend uses shredded paper from work, nothing cheaper than free! Are you definitely sure your hens are POL? I only ask because they tend to sit on the floor when they're young then start roosting as they get older. That said some hens ALWAYS want to sit rather than perch. Unless you can block the floor so they HAVE to perch.....?

Anyway, no help at all am I, but it's late and I'm putting off the rest of the painting, good luck, hope you find out what's causing the damp.

 

BeckyBoo

[Olly]

We welcome all sorts on here, Eglu not essential!

 

I am sure someone else will know more about this, but ... having recently had a new introduction to my flock, I was keeping her in a separate run and putting her in the Cube at night. I don't get home from work till after dark, so she was roosting in a cat-carrier in the run until I could get up the garden to take her out and move her. I was very surprised to find that she was damp underneath when I plucked her out of the box.

 

The first time I did this, I was so worried that she was injured in some way that I had to turn her upside down and shine the torch on her tummy, no mean feat in the dark and boy was she unappreciative! It happened every time, and I concluded that when they roost in a tucked-up position, they must perspire. She was in a ventilated plastic carrier with a thick layer of aubiose on the bottom, so it definitely wasn't rain or dew.

 

Someone else on here will know the answer, I'm sure.

[Redwing]

Perhaps the layer of straw/shavings isn't thick enough? shavings on their own laid in a thick layer would be good as there are bigger gaps in a pile of straw for any damp to reach the paper and a layer of shavings is more dense

 

Aubiose is excellent and if you only used it for the poo trays it would last a long time as its very compressed in the bale and goes a long way.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Don't know if this is the same thing at all, but when I empty the poo tray (which is lined with 2 sheets of newspaper) the paper is usually quite damp. I just assumed it was dampness seeping from the poo .

[Egluntyne]

That would be my suggestion too.

[Plum]

Mine sleep in the nesting box in hemcore but newspaper under it. The paper is damp and I think its water from their poo, but it could be moisture from the hole.

One of my hens does very wet poos. Perhaps yours is the same. They are dry to touch though with the hemcore.

[bruce]

Hi Beckyboo,Redwing,Aint"Ooops, word censored!"odyhere,Eglutine,Olly,and Plum. Thanks a lot guys for your helpful comments, this afternoon I am a bit concerned as the snow is thawing and the girls refuse to go in before dark, as a result they are wet and bedraggled, does this matter? will they catch cold? Should I be rubbing them down with wife's best towels? all advice appreciated. Cheers Bruce

[Egluntyne]

Maybe the second best towels would be a better idea.

 

I think I would dry them if the are very wet.

[TheCoop]

I would also suggest it is pee!

 

My 3 are doing more & more poo in their sleep area (we don't have an Eglu either, just a wooden coop) and I find it gets very damp in there.

 

When I clean it out (and let it dry out ), I just put a ton of broadsheet newspapers in there, then put a piece of corrugated cardboard on top, then more newspaper, followed by a generous sprinkling of Aubiose (plus an extra handful in the 'wet corner' where most of it seems to end up ), then a ton of straw for them to snuggle into.

 

Seems to work, though I do find I need to change this more often than I used to ahve to do. Maybe it's the time of year - they don't want to get up (and who can blame them in this weather!), so they pee/poo where they are...

[bruce]

Hi The Coop thanks for your infomation seems our girls are fairly normal hope it's warmer in Devon than in Norfolk right now cheers Bruce