Single hen

[telechookies]

Hi,

 

Bought two hens for my mum as a mothers day present as a surprise, she was shocked but in a nice way and I think getting use to the idea.

 

Main reason for buying them is reading about how low maintenance it is to keep them. Had them since Friday and my mum has already had to clean out the droppings tray as they were producing loads of poop and are quite smelly!

 

She only fed them a few greens and left over rice on Saturday evening in addition to the feed that they have hanging in the run.

 

How much poop is normal for 2 hens? My mum cant be cleaning out the tray everyday.. also assume in the summer the poop smell will attract flies?

 

What is everyone elses experience?

 

 

Dipsy

Laa-Laa

[Guest]

I have 8 girls and clean the poo trays out every day, it really only takes minutes so for 2 chickens it shouldn't be a big job (pardon the pun) at all.

 

If your mum adds some garlic powder to their mash/pellets, that makes the poo virtually odourless. A cple of tbsps mixed into a grub full should work and it's also good for them.

Edited March 29, 2009 by Guest

[Guest]

by the way, re flies, we have a cple of fli traps hung on the garden fence, they really help to keep the flies at bay and I also add a few drops of citronella oil to some water in a mister bottle and spray it around the run.

[fluffyknickers]

I have three and poo isnt a major problem. Mine do sleep in the nest area so i do take the pooh out of that every morning when i let them out (takes only a couple of minutes if that). Once a week i then empty the trays which is easy as i line them with newspaper so just fold itup and bin it (or compost if you have one) and re-line.

 

I would add bokashi and garlic to their pelletts.

 

Michelle x

[Margalot]

I use newspaper to line the poop trays and then cover it with Aubiose bedding.....its brilliant! It helps to dry the poop out so much easier to pick it out daily also helps to reduce any smell.

 

And if you then do not have time to poo pick every day, its makes a much easier job of cleaning out.

 

I was using just newspaper to line the trays, but since discovering Aubiose have not looked back....so absorbant!!

[Guest]

we use aubiose, i forgot to mention it as I just assume everyone uses it and/or knows about it!

[telechookies]

Thanks for all the recommendations will try them out and let you know how we get along.

 

The lawn is being desacrated at a rapid pace with all their scratching also looks like they like to do the mess on the grass as much as in the eglu.

 

We were thinking of rotating the eglu one a week, but I think we will have to do it every other day if the grass is to have a chance of growing. Might need to think about moving them to concrete and laying woodchip.

 

Lots of mess up the side of the eglu too, not sure what they are doing?!

 

Like to think we will keep the gals in a clean environment but maybe they like being dirrty?

[BarbaraJ]

i only empty mine once a week (5 chickens) as don't get time during week though with the lighter evenings may now. i use newspaper and aubiose, have to use garlic and bokashi in food to keep smells down. i also put red mite powder in the trays to smell good

[iar fach goch]

I was horrified at the amount of poo my three produced when they first arrived, but after about a week they seemed to settle down, I think the journey must have upset their little tums! I now only have to empty the poo tray once a week (which is lined with newspaper) and move the eglu once a week. However they do free range a lot of the time.

[Hen Watch]

Same here I just change the poop tray once a week.

 

BUT...... when they first arrived it was a different story. Like your mum, I had to change the poop tray every other day. I think the stress of transportation, new feed, location etc takes it's toll and I did wonder what I'd let myself in for. But it soon settled down after about 2/3 weeks.

 

When I first had my girls in Spring I moved the eglu every 3 days and grass regrew nice and dark green. But now I am lazy and they live in one spot with Auboise horse bedding on the run floor.

 

They will scratch a lot. I try and let mine have their own area of garden behind Omlet netting with a bit of grass and a bit of mud to dig over. They still scratch the lawn but I reduce the destruction by keeping my lot in their run on reallly wet days as I find with my clay soil, the lawn gets soggy and they wreck it within minutes. Only happens in Winter though.

[sti chick]

i have 12 chickens and that is a lot of poop. At night i put lino down under the perch so the poop lands on that, then i take it out and bag the poop up. That way they have a very clean and non smelling house.

 

lin

[telechookies]

Hi,

 

Been using auboise for about 4 days with garlic powder in their feed looks like it has done the job, not smelly at all anymore thanks everyone

 

Moved the eglu over onto concrete with wood chip cover, bit concerned they will get bored in the wood chip run although we do let them free range for a few hours seems like they have an appetite for tulips!

 

seems to be bullying , Laa-Laa has a bloody wattle.. hope this is normal..

[Ain't Nobody Here]

That's good news . Glad it worked .

 

You might need to be careful of the bloody wattle, you might want to disguise it with purple spray as chickens are attracted to blood .

 

I've no experience of this, it's just what I've read on the forum!

[Abbey Road Girl]

How much poop do the hens produce?

 

How wide is the ocean, how deep is the sky...

 

Ah, but you can use in in your compost bin, offer it on freecycle or join your Local Exchange and Trading Scheme (LETS) and trade it for other goods and services.

[cluckynikki]

I have had my first two girls fora dayand a half now and am horrified at what has happened to the grass in the eglu run .. it is turning all brown and yellow.

 

Is it from all that runny poo they are producing? I hope their tummys will settle down soon after the shock of being moved in to such a confined space after free ranging in a field.

 

I am going to have to move the eglu onto a new patch and won't be able to let them out to free range until the Omlet netting is delivered next Wednesday. Will my grass survive that long?

[Egluntyne]

It will recover when the Eglu has moved.

 

Why not put it on a permanent site, on slabs?

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I had my eglu run on grass recently (as a temporary measure) and was horrified at the amount of poo and how it got squished flat so you couldn't pick it up . The grass also went pale like you describe.

 

It just proved to me how brilliant Hemcore (or similar) is at absorbing the poo. Any wetness ( ) gets dried up and nothing is left sitting on the surface to be walked in.

[Steph101]

Mucho poop. We've just re-turfed our garden - kiss your grass goodbye.

Free ranging my chickens all day hasn't helped though, but I don't think the grass would have survived no matter what we'd done. We've now got them on a permanent site with rubber chippings. I'm feeding them salad and cabbage so they get some greens every day.