What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[kevtheplumber]

Having seen a few wooden houses recently im starting to worry about the height of the roosting bars, in the wooden ones i have seen was one bar ie broom handle size roughly 8-10 inches off the ground, in the eglu its about an inch. With the build up of poo it looks like they are just sitting in their own poo at night until its cleaned. If they actually do wrap their feet around as in the wooden ones it means they are getting dirty feet, which doesnt seem right to me, seems like a bit of a design fault and that the roosting bars should be a bit highr off the poo tray. Anyone any views on this and anyone with wooden coops who could explain their set up?

[moochoo]

I've had a wooden house, an eglu and a cube although I don't have the wooden house anymore. In the wooden house there was one roosting bar, about 10" off the floor of the house which none of the hens used. They much preferred to sleep in the nest boxes! I personally think they felt unstable on just one smooth bar.

All my girls now sleep in the eglu/ cube sleeping area with no problems. I don't think that being so close to their poo trays has any impact on the cleanliness of their feet as they walk through their poos during the day anyway and it's so muddy at the minute I don't think I could work out which was which on their tootsies!

[The Dogmother]

I've had both sorts in the past too, and can't say that I have ever had any problem with them getting poos on their toes. I leave it a week before cleaning out the poo trays, but it never seems to get high enough to touch their toes.

[Olly]

I think the depth of the tray and the height of the bars is designed to avoid this, unless there's a huge build-up - I only clean mine out once a week, and it's not normally high enough for them to reach it when perching.

 

The Eglu is very different to wooden housing (not that I've ever owned a wooden coop) and I know that when it was first manufactured there was a lot of speculation that hens kept in an Eglu would not 'roost' properly, would suffer foot deformities and so on. I've kept hens in an Eglu/Cube for three years and never had any problems, and I think it would have been reported by now if this was a problem.

[majorbloodnock]

Let's not forget, though, what we're all trying to achieve; namely appropriate conditions for our chickens.

 

Keeping chickens in dirty conditions means they're put at a disadvantage compared with their natural parasitic and biological enemies, so it's obviously sensible to avoid that extreme. However, is cleaner always better, or is it preferable to just avoid the extremes and let them live in as natural conditions as possible? I'd suggest the latter.

 

In the wild, chooks poop on the ground, just like most other animals. They also scratch around on the ground, eating plenty of what they find there. If their bodies weren't adapted to deal with a certain amount of chicken, horse, cow and sheep manure in their diet, they'd have died out long ago. Given that, the odd bit of chicken droppings picked up on their feet in the hen house is (IMHO) neither here nor there. Far more important, in my opinion, is adequate ventilation and clearing out the poop trays often enough to avoid the build up of ammonia that makes them susceptible to lung infections, and that has nothing to do with roosting bar height.

 

I'm afraid I forget where I read it, but I saw a fairly recent study providing persuasive findings to suggest the healthiest children aren't those who wash their hands most, but those who grub about on farms. I'd suggest chooks aren't so different; we certainly should avoid "too dirty", but can also fall into the trap of "too clean".

[The Dogmother]

In the wild, chooks poop on the ground, just like most other animals. They also scratch around on the ground, eating plenty of what they find there. If their bodies weren't adapted to deal with a certain amount of chicken, horse, cow and sheep manure in their diet, they'd have died out long ago.

 

 

Same applies to my dog! I'm all for a speck of dirt doing no harm.

[majorbloodnock]

In the wild, chooks poop on the ground, just like most other animals. They also scratch around on the ground, eating plenty of what they find there. If their bodies weren't adapted to deal with a certain amount of chicken, horse, cow and sheep manure in their diet, they'd have died out long ago.

 

 

Same applies to my dog! I'm all for a speck of dirt doing no harm.

 

Agreed, but dogs do tend to take all this a stage further, don't they.

 

It's amazing. I have a friend whose family dog is a Highland terrier. He (the dog) realises that livestock get worried if they smell a dog nearby, so rolls in manure. Presumably he thinks a half a ton of angry bull will be less alarmed if it's approached by a small, furry yapping cow pat with teeth. Me, I'd be mighty alarmed at the thought that whatever I relieved myself of an hour ago might come back to bite me later.....

[rabbitfluff]

On the Omlet roosting bars, don't they poo on the bars themselves with them being so close together instead of in the poo tray? I had to make some new roosting bars a couple of months ago for my wooden house and didn't put a big enough gap between them and was forever (exageration!) having to s"Ooops, word censored!"e off the poo. An extra 3" gap seems to have done the trick.

[The Dogmother]

In the wild, chooks poop on the ground, just like most other animals. They also scratch around on the ground, eating plenty of what they find there. If their bodies weren't adapted to deal with a certain amount of chicken, horse, cow and sheep manure in their diet, they'd have died out long ago.

 

 

Same applies to my dog! I'm all for a speck of dirt doing no harm.

 

Agreed, but dogs do tend to take all this a stage further, don't they.

 

It's amazing. I have a friend whose family dog is a Highland terrier. He (the dog) realises that livestock get worried if they smell a dog nearby, so rolls in manure. Presumably he thinks a half a ton of angry bull will be less alarmed if it's approached by a small, furry yapping cow pat with teeth. Me, I'd be mighty alarmed at the thought that whatever I relieved myself of an hour ago might come back to bite me later.....

 

heee....heee Ruby does tend to roll in poos too!

 

On the Omlet roosting bars, don't they poo on the bars themselves with them being so close together instead of in the poo tray? I had to make some new roosting bars a couple of months ago for my wooden house and didn't put a big enough gap between them and was forever (exageration!) having to s"Ooops, word censored!"e off the poo. An extra 3" gap seems to have done the trick.

 

I can't say that I've every had to remove anything more than the odd poo from the roosting bars - the newer plastic bars are a godsend; they are like Teflon, so the poo comes off really easily.

[Plum]

Huh one of mine specialises in landing enormous smelly curry poos on the bars so they can all stand in it and tread it down the ladder and smudge it about

 

Probably part of their master plan to make my life as difficult as possible.

[majorbloodnock]

Huh one of mine specialises in landing enormous smelly curry poos on the bars so they can all stand in it and tread it down the ladder and smudge it about

 

You could always try offering them mixed corn or layers pellets instead of chilli seeds......

 

[chick wiggle]

In the wild, chooks poop on the ground, just like most other animals. They also scratch around on the ground, eating plenty of what they find there. If their bodies weren't adapted to deal with a certain amount of chicken, horse, cow and sheep manure in their diet, they'd have died out long ago.

 

 

Same applies to my dog! I'm all for a speck of dirt doing no harm.

 

Same applies to my kids Too much mega hygiene doesnt give them the immunity they need to fight off the more horrible bugs, i guess the same could be said of most livestock.

 

Well, thats my excuse and Im sticking to it

[The Dogmother]

You're probably right Sandie; whilst mindful of hygiene, I've never fussed too much about Rosie and she's got a really strong immune system.

[Jac and Rory]

I have a friend whose family dog is a Highland terrier. He (the dog) realises that livestock get worried if they smell a dog nearby, so rolls in manure. Presumably he thinks a half a ton of angry bull will be less alarmed if it's approached by a small, furry yapping cow pat with teeth. Me, I'd be mighty alarmed at the thought that whatever I relieved myself of an hour ago might come back to bite me later.....

 

First thing my Highland terrier did after the chooks arrived was to find the biggest curry poo and have a good roll in it - didn't stop him getting pecked on the nose. Had to buy the Omlet netting just to keep him out of the poo...

[rabbitfluff]

Huh one of mine specialises in landing enormous smelly curry poos on the bars so they can all stand in it and tread it down the ladder and smudge it about

 

Probably part of their master plan to make my life as difficult as possible.

 

You say difficult, they'd say interesting. It's part of their enrichment programme to make your life as challenging as possible so you don't get bored. You should probably thank them.