HELP aggressive chicken

[Olly]

Another one here who only empties the poo trays weekly. If I could smell ammonia, I'd clean them out straight away but that doesn't happen. Ditto food and water, I have a big galvanised drinker and I clean it once a week and just top it up in betweeen. We are generally far more bothered about cleanliness than the hens, in my view.

 

I know what the DEFRA regulations say. My hens don't get out of the run much, so I try and give them greens, at the moment they are munching their way through bolted cauliflower plants from my friend's allotment. I do give them vegetable peelings, but very rarely cooked food and no processed food, dairy or sugar.

 

Must be doing something right, I'm approaching my fourth henniversary without having had any major problems!

[beach chick]

I do think it is very easy to over-complicate things because we all try so hard to make it right for our girls! and what works well in one situation can be very different in another, depending on housekeeping style, amount of birds per space etc.

so basically for me it comes down to what works for you (lifestyle, time, money etc) and what works for your birds (health, comfort, hygiene).

[Lavenders_Blue]

I poo pick daily in the coop, simply because my girls poop all over their nests and then sit in it to lay and get filthy eggs

 

The run doesn't get poo picked, it just gets raked over regularly and the woodchip changed when it obviously needs doing, My girls are hardly ever locked in their run so they don't spend an awful lot of time in there - usually just first thing in the morning and then back in as and when they want some nosh.

 

Their outside pen (soil) gets dug over regularly - partly to encourage the soil to drain better (heavy clay - the girls stamp it down to a solid mass incredibly quickly!) and partly to freshen it up so there isn't loads of poop just sitting on the surface for them to keep treading in.

 

I disinfect the coop maybe every couple of months.The bedding gets changed much more regularly though - probably every few days for the newspaper lining their sleeping quarters and every couple of weeks for the shavings in the nest box.

 

The galvanised drinker gets power hosed pretty much daily becuase it seems to get an enormous amount of woodchip flung into it making the water all soupy. The feeder gets disinfected when I remember.

 

My ex batts have been with me for a year now and they seem to be happy and healthy enough so I must be doing something right!

 

Oh and who else's chickens head straight for the MANKIEST most stagnant water they can find when let out to free range? Sometimes I think my girls must be indestructible the places I see them drinking from when my back is turned!

[groovydad]

HAHA...I started with an eglu but I my girls outgrew it and I got carried away with cleaning every day. Now they have a bigger hime and I am more laid back.

 

My gingernut girls have a covered walk in coop made out of an old greenhouse with covered roof (holes drilled in for ventilation) and mesh on one side instead of greenhouse panes. The floor is concrete with a narrow channel down the middle open to the ground. This is meshed on the bottom to prevent with intruders but still allows for drainage when I jest wash the lot every six weeks. I poo pick the floor of this once a week.

 

My nesting boxes are those big square boxey (4 boxes) Ikea expedit bookcases with a broom handle attached to the front so they can roost. These are cleaned of poo every dau/other day and fully cleaned out once a week. I fully disinfect these with a spray and clean down every 12 days or so.

 

They used to have an expensive roost with run but I got a large pet carrier at a car boot sale and they found it in the garden one day and crowded in for an afternoon nap. Now i've put it in the coop, raised on brick and they sleep in there each night.I simply close the door on it and shut the latch. The plastic build and the handle make it really easy to pick up and clean every couple of days.

 

They have a covered run in front of this which is half meshed and on a deep soil/woodchip floor. This only gets cleaned out quarterly but raked through every few days. Now that winter is here, i'm considering concreting the floor as the smell collects quicker and they'll be spending more time inside. It would be far easier to clean the poo out but need cleaning far more.

 

It's funny how you can spend tons of money and time on your hens but my little "Ooops, word censored!"s seem far happier with the stuff I had lying around and cobbled together . And they seem happier with me not cleaning them out as often, I think it unsettled them.

[jomeena]

Oh now i feel so mean. Mine have just finished their 7 days on wormer and that ment no treats and no roaming about the garden for a week. They had to stay in the run and eat their chicken food.

Think they hate me now. Good job its only every 6 months.

[Wolfie]

Perhaps we are weird but we clean out the hens every morning (we only have four hens). It only takes a few minutes to do. And their Omlet water troughs are washed each night and their food is put away in the utility each night. The food containers get washed at least once a week. When we get back from work, the girls go garden wrecking whilst one of us skips out the walk in run. It takes a few minutes. They have fresh water put in their grass run. We have a rule - if you wouldn't drink it - don't ask your animal to drink it. Decades of looking after horses and cows!

 

OK, we are weird ....

[PeckyBeak]

They have fresh water put in their grass run. We have a rule - if you wouldn't drink it - don't ask your animal to drink it. Decades of looking after horses and cows!

 

OK, we are weird ....

 

No, not weird, just sensible, hygienic and very caring for your girls.

[txswanie]

I clean my cube and run once a week, that goes for the trays. Sometimes in very hot weather I clean it twice to keep down the flys. I have never smelled amonia, I guess I would freak out if I did and go crazy with the disinfectant. I don't poo pick daily, only poo at the front of the run where I will be stepping or a particularly disgusting curry poo. I do hose those down and spray with disinfectant when I see anything gross. I change water daily and use whats left to water nearby plants. I wash food dispenser once a week and fill it up when needed.

I was much more clinical and a little obsessed when the girls first arrived, I was scrubbing everything and freaking out at any sign of illness (it was mostly in my imagination) I calmed down somewhat and I have to say I enjoy them more now.

I feed treats in the late afternoon but never dairy or meat. They love corn on the cob and apples. Ok, I admit this, I try to give them organic crumbles and treats. I try to eat organic and I eat their eggs so it makes sense to me.

Colette.