2009 Omlet cube and run for sale

[holistix]

Hello there

 

I got my first ever chickens on Thursday last week - 3 ex-batts from Cranleigh

 

I have a classic eglu with a 4m run and as yet they haven't been out to free range.

 

They have settled in brilliantly, as if they've never known any different. They eat and drink out of the grub and glug, eat their grit, put themselves to bed...they have been very kind to me being a nervous novice

 

I do have a few questions though, so any words of wisdom would be gratefully received...

 

[*]I am feeding them ex-batt crumb. They seem to have their heads in all day, is this normal? Also they seem to spill as much on the floor as they are eating. I have tried putting less in but it doesn't seem to make a difference, and they seem to always go for the food in the grub rather then the pile on the floor. Again, is this normal? I am worried about attracting vermin but not sure what I can do about it as their run is on grass.

 

[*]One of the girls seems to like to sleep in the nest box rather than roost. I'm assuming it's always the same one but don't know for sure. The problem is that in the morning there is always one egg in the nest box, and another on the roosting bars which has inevitably been trodden on with varying degrees of cracking Is there anything I can do about this? I don't like to think of one poor girl having to lay her egg on the roosting bars, and that her efforts are sometimes going to waste

 

[*]One of the girls, and it may be the same one as I refer to above, seems to spend alot of time standing on one leg. When she walks, she seems to be able to take her weight on said leg, and her mobility is not impaired or hindered in any way. But when she is standing still (eating most of the time ) she is always on one leg. Should I be concerned ?

 

[*]Last but not least, would anyone care to share their housekeeping/cleaning regime? Yesterday, on their 3rd day in residence, I removed the roosting bars and cleaned, cleaned the tray and replaced the newspaper I had lined it with and de-poo'ed and topped up the nest box. I know that I will need to take the eglu apart and thoroughly clean at some point, but how often? What cleaning products do you recommend? (so far I have just used hot soapy water and elbow grease) and how often should I be doing what I did yesterday? They are producing ALOT of poo

 

Sorry for some many questions and such a long post, I just want to make sure my girls have a long and happy retirement

 

Thank you

[quickcluck]

Well hello there, and welcome to the wonderful world of chooks!

 

Seems like you are doing a great job! The throwing food about is normal i'm afraid, when they are up for it, change them on to pellets, that could help you out..... Some people do take the food in of a night time if you are worried about rats.... it's entirely up to you. Leaving it out can sometimes make it damp over night...... but they do need their grub as soon as they are up in the morning, so if you take it in, you need to be up before them

 

They like to sleep in the nest box because it's warm and comfy,it's not great for them to sleep there, for the reasons you've mentioned, so the easiest way is to put sometime in the nest box of a night at remove it in the morning, a plant pot is always usefull.....

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the standing on one leg they all do it at somepoint in the day, and she may be getting used to getting about, if she's charging about with the others, i'd leave her to it.....

 

Cleaning is always a personal thing.... empty the trays as much as you like. We clean our bars and trays once a week and take it all apart for a mega clean only once or twice a year when we do this we use poultry sheild, and if we do a mini clean we use this too. The glugs and stuff I just wash in the sink or shove in the dishwasher!

 

We always sprinkle Diatom about in the houses and nest box to discourage an creepy crawlies....

 

Any lastly, Chooks do poop A LOT!!!!!! If it's smelly add a little horse grade garlic powder to the food, it REALLY helps...

 

Hope this helps..... enjoy your girls...

[Duncan08]

Congratulations on your new girls, they will give you so much pleasure!

 

My girls always seem to throw their food about, it drives me mad, but my dad has just built me a WIR so I added a hanging feeder, this seems to work much better and I am not finding so much wasted on the floor. I have also found in the past that not filling up the grub so much means they have to dig in a little harder and cant just sweep it out.

In the new WIR the grubs and glugs don't fit onto the new mesh so I have recyclyled my old go run and have panels attached to the new run, because they bow outwards they are lifting the entrances to the grubs higher and again I have much less spillage.

 

I gave up trying to stop them sleeping in the nest box in the I did have an upturned pot in there, but they used to turf it out. All three of them pile on top of each other in the nest box, the pooey eggs were a pain, but I didn't have the heart to keep it up. Now I am the very proud owner of they girls are now roosting and not sleeping in the nest box so I am a very happy chicken keeper

 

Ours stand on one leg sometimes, I wouldnt worry too much about it.

 

Cleaning routines - in the I found that the gap between the roosting bars and the poo tray was quite narrow and you would end up with poop build up if you didn't deal with it regularly. Fortunately I ended up with a lot of poop in the nest box so it was easy to scoop out, (with the marigolds on of course). In the winter I have been giving a good scrub to the roosting bars and poo tray once a week, mainly because it is dark when I get in, so don't have much choice. When the nights get lighter I will go back to twice weekly cleaning.

[Olly]

Hello, and welcome to the wonderful world of Omlet. I agree that a hanging feeder can reduce the spillage, and you may find that pellets get less thrown-about than crumbs (but not necessarily!).

 

Mine sleep in the nest-box, a football or an upturned plant-pot will stop this but you have to be up early to remove it before they want to lay. In theory if you do this for a week or two they will have got out of the habit, but I've given up trying!

 

I empty the poop tray once a week, I don't line it as the newspaper gets quite wet and smelly - I shake a bit of aubiose into the clean tray, and this mostly stops the poo sticking to it, and soaks up any moisture. I tip it straight into the compost heap, and hose the tray out.

 

Until this year, I used to take the roof off the Eglu and hose the whole thing down once a week in summer, and about every three weeks in winter - I would scoop poop out of the nestbox and replace it with clean aubiose as often as needed. Two of my hens now insist on roosting on top of the Eglu, which makes it horribly dirty, and I'm having to clean the whole thing weekly but without that, I probably wouldn't do a whole clean in winter if I'm honest, just the tray and roosting bars.

 

Once or twice a year I try and jetwash the whole thing. Hot water and washing-up liquid is fine, I use a scrubbing-brush but the sort designed for cleaning car wheels are supposed to be good, or pot-plant brushes. You can get special cleaner for birds but I've never bothered. Red mite powder is good to sprinkle in all the crevices after a clean though, and it smells lovely.

 

You will soon get to know your girls' habits - the standing on one leg thing sounds as if it's normal for her, so unless she is limping or anything else looks unusual, I wouldn't worry. You've got hens at the right time, as it will get better and better as spring approaches and the days get longer!

[majuka]

Congratulations on your new girls!

 

Brilliant advice already, just wanted to add that you may find that they eat slightly less as they settle in. Where they've come from they've probably had to fight to eat and they are probably making the most of being able to stuff their little faces. Once they realise that there is always plenty of food available they make not be on such a mission to eat it. One of our girls, Martha, was terrible when she first came - all she would do was eat, all day!! She did eventually realise that if she went off for a little wander then the food would still be there when she came back.