My eco solution to rat problems

[Swissy]

Hi everybody

I'm living in Switzerland and ordered me a Eglo go up. We have 4 chicks and they are very happy with that product. We have also a WIR and the chicks have a lot of space to be with shadow, grass outside. I just have some questions for the colder and rainy weather. Now I covered the WIR with a good plastic-cover, so it should'nt get wet inside...but how do you clean the WIR, if the chicks rest all day inside becouse of the weather and ***** inside? It's Pretty unconfortale to do so. And how do you clean the Eglu in winter time? Also clean it with water? It's wet and it is not so soon dry - that not good for the chicks so? Or do you fill the Eglu with some grass, wood pieces or something in this colder months? How often do you clean the Eglu in winter? Now in summer time, we did it actually every day...is it nesecairy to do that also in the coler weather?

Sorry for my english…:-)

regards

Simone

[Luvachicken]

Hello Simone,

Pretty good English I thought 

Most people pick up poops most days or every few days and perhaps more often in the summer.

Lots of us have wood chips or a hemp bedding inside our runs and this makes cleaning easier.

Inside your Eglu, lots of us also use a hemp bedding (aubiose) inside the poop trays. Then you can poo pick as necessary and change the bedding if it doesn't look warm and cosy. You can use a damp cloth to wipe them clean and quickly dry them with paper towel.

A spare set of roosting bars also helps in the winter.

The birds do stay in the Eglu for more hours in the winter so do make it more messy than in the summer.

Children's garden tools are also very useful for keeping the run area tidy. 

[Cat tails]

I have made a how-to-clean-a-Go post somewhere. I don’t use water, summer or winter, as I don’t have running water in the garden. I’ll have a look and see if I can find my previous post.

Found it! 

 

[Cat tails]

As to your other questions:

I actually clean the coop less often in summer than in winter. Summer once every two weeks as said in link above. Winter once every week. They spend less time in the coop in summer than in winter.

[Swissy]

Wow...this community works:-)

Thank you very much for your ideas! The thing with the newspapers I'll definitly try soon...at the moment I still clean it daily with water...but in winter, we have to turn of the waterpipe becouse of the cold weather (danger of freezing)!

But I still doesn't got, how you clean the WIR even you have there some woodpieces or so...because it's too small to walk in...so you do that not very properly?!

Thank you very much!

Have a nice evening!

Simone

[Swissy]

and something else...where do you put the sandbath in wintertime? in the WIR it is too small...

[Cat tails]

It depends on your walk in run (wir). Normally they are such a size you can walk in them. So you can get in and poo pick, meaning you fish the poops out between the bedding. Most here do this with either gloves or small shovels or rakes. Most have either wood chips or something like horse stable bedding called Aubiose on the floor of the run. You could try and get a shovel or rake on a long stick for this.

I don’t have a wir, but just the run attached to the Go. I definitely don’t fit in that run! My run floor is just bare earth and I don’t poo pick. It just sort off disappears into the ground. I do hose it down with water once in a while. 

What is currently on the floor of your run?

[mullethunter]

If you can’t fit inside the run (I’m lucky that I’m tiny so I do fit in) the only way you can clean out properly is, like Cattails said, by using tools with long handles. If you have a deep layer of wood chippings you might find you won’t need to clean out very often. The chickens will constantly mix everything and the droppings will decompose.

I would use a smaller sand bath for winter that does fit inside the run, or under the Eglu Go house.

Your English is better than a lot of English people! And certainly better than my Swiss-German or French!

[Natspringy]

My quarantine is a small run I cant really fit in..Definitely can't stand.  I lay on a bin bag and used tissue/ spades to poo pick.  At night when they were in bed I sprinkled sanitiser on the floor to keep nasties at bay; I did it through the roof as it's so hard to get in!

I've just added woodchips in my main run and the difference is amazing. I do a daily poo pick of the worst and rake it over the every 3 to 5 days, depending how filthy, I sprinkle sanitising power on the chips and turn them over. But it's easier as I can walk in this one. I imagine that it's still doable with a smaller run. The woodchips have made a big difference.  Re dust bath mine don't have a container - they didn't use it- but they dug themselves holes which i fill routinely for them with dust bath ingredients. Added benefit is that it gets spread around the run. I've found a year in the soil is dusty enough now there that I don't add that much in anymore.

Re water for cleaning the Eglu, baby wipes/wet wipes are brilliant! Very grateful to cattails for that one. On less messy days I flick the poos into the tray and then change when necessary. 

Like everyone else said - your English is great! 

Edited August 25, 2018 by Natspringy

[Swissy]

Hi everybody

Thank you so much for your advice! Well...we do have the Eglu go up with the 2m walking run and the chickens can go out all day on a huge place of nature...there I defently don't pick any poos...but inside the wir, it's getting dirty if i dont do that properly...so at the moment I don't have anything put in the wir, it is just grass there (or it was once gras and now it is just brown:-), but for the colder weater I think it's better to fill something in for isolation the Ground.

So at the moment also our kids are helping to clean the small wir, and so I hope it should work ok! But the sandbath I think it's defenetly too small space under the eglu, is it?

PS: my English is not that good, but it's enough to get in touch with you guys:-)

Greetings from Switzerland

Simone

And also an other question...

Does anybody have an automatic dooropener from Hentronix? We do have one and it works great...but now I would likt to fix it better with screws...does anybody know how to do that? 

Thank you!

[Cat tails]

I think I understand were the confusion is coming from.

WIR is short for Walk-In Run. Meaning a human can walk into it, because it’s human height. I think what you are referring to is the normal run attached to the Go Up, same height as the Go Up. These are definitely harder to clean.

If you get some transparant plastic covers for the run, the chickens will be much drier in there, once the weather gets worse. I have the transparant tarp that is actually made for the Cube, but it fits ok. See picture. If you have these covers on the run, your chickens will have more space for a dust bath and will be more protected against the weather. Do you get much snow where you are?

Like I said, my chickens are on dirt (which long long ago was grass too), but I have dug in some paving stones to prevent them from digging to far down. I definitely never poo pick my run. Let nature take its course. It really depends on what you prefer and what you will put on the ground in the run. Do not use straw, as it will get dirty very quickly and lice and mites will live in the straw.

[Swissy]

Yes, exactly! I have the same run attached to the Eglu...your run looks perfectly similar to mine! I also coverd the run with a plastic-cover. So do you have the sandbath under the pink Eglu? And you really never pick poo in this little run? In winter-time and on rainy days they spend much more time in this area, so it is getting worse, is it? And do you think, that the chickens don't miss a pole in the Eglu to Sleep? In our huge run, there are lots of wood-sticks and trees, and they love to hang around on this places...

And yes...in Switzerland we get pretty much snow during the winter time...:-)

[Cat tails]

Honestly I never poo pick the run. In winter it gets enough rain to wash it through once in a while. I try and find a picture of the run, when my dad rebuild the floor.

For a sand bath I have little plastic box type (hard to explain, it’s actually a toy box in the shape of a Duck from Ikea...) but some use a kitty litter box, without the flap. I have his in their open pen. This pen is on paving stones.

Chickens will sleep on the roosting bars and are fine with it. 

Make sure you remove the snow from the run and the house regularly. I’ve noticed that the door on the back will not open if there is too much snow on it. The cold is not a problem for chickens, but it’s not good if they have to walk through snow the whole day. As long as they have a place without snow, they should be fine. (My chickens are actually deathly afraid of snow... they won’t come out of the house if there is snow... )

[The Dogmother]

My current flock don't like snow either  mind you, the last couple fo winters, all poultry has been under prevention measures and confined to the run anyhow.

It is important that you have a waterproof, covered run with more than enough room for the number of birds that you have. Bear in mind that it will need mucking out and the litter changing more frequently in the winter when the birds are in there more or less constantly. Ground sanitising powder was a godsend last winter when we had that dry snow which blew into the runs.