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BERTIE MCSQUIRTY

chicken essentials advice please

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i have bought today

 

poultry drink, grit, chopped straw for bedding.

 

still undecided which feed to go for (pellets or mash) but will speak to the breeder on friday about this.

 

i need something on the run floor, but dont know what to put down, at the moment it is just mud

 

 

can you think of anything else i need and if possible let me know what i use it for

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i have bought today

 

poultry drink, grit, chopped straw for bedding.

 

still undecided which feed to go for (pellets or mash) but will speak to the breeder on friday about this.

 

i need something on the run floor, but dont know what to put down, at the moment it is just mud

 

 

can you think of anything else i need and if possible let me know what i use it for

 

to start with we bought....

 

garlic powder (from a feed supplier, not the human stuff) makes the poo less smelly

 

poultry shield- to clean the coop out with

 

aubiose/hemcore- for the bedding and the floor of the run

 

poultry spice- to add to the feed as a tonic

 

oyster shell and grit mixed together, (oyster shell to give them a calcium boost to make sure we don't get thin shelled eggs)

 

red mite powder- sprinkled in the aubiose and around the coop when it's cleaned out, just to be on the safe side

 

************************

 

going to get some wormer at the weekend too, just to be on the safe side- there's lots about worming in the chicken clinic stickies.

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thanks for all your replies will look into getting the hemcore for the floor of the run. eventually i am hoping for the run to be in 3 sections so that i can rotate them around, i.e grow some grass in one or perhaps 3 sections and rotate the chickens around.

 

i did do a search for chicken essentials on the forum but it kept throwing up loads of different threads and after 9 pages i just couldnt find any more info that i wanted

 

although my oh has had chickens all his life before moving in with me 14 years ago, i didnt want to ask him as he told me to do my own research (which in fact has been extreemly helpful) before i even contemplate having chickens. now he is quite happy about me getting the chickens on fri

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you might find this link useful, it's from the FAQ section (just in case you didn't see it, forums can take time to get used to navigating) :)

 

http://club.omlet.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1570

 

and this link which i stumbled on while searching for info on apple cider vinegar

 

http://club.omlet.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=278687&highlight=apple+cider+vinegar#278687

 

and amusingly i found my thread asking the same question when i first started out :lol:

 

http://club.omlet.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14493&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=apple+cider+vinegar&start=0

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Bertie, if you live roughly where I think you live - aubiose (same as hemcore) is available from Welland Valley feeds in Market Harborough. If you decide to go for woodchip, as opposed to bark, there is a place signposted of the A6, near the tip just south of Kibworth, that will sell a trailer load for £10. But I think you can get it by the bagful if you take your own bags. I have a huge bag that had a ton of gravel in it from the builders merchants so keep meaning to take that and get it filled up - just haven't got round to it yet! :D

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Yep,go for Hemcore or Aubiose, & use it in the poo tray & nest box too. Straw gets soggy & it can harbour mites in its hollow centre.

 

You will need a good tought feed bin too, & a scoop.....this is a must,to keep rats at bay.

 

Also get:

Grit & oyster shell (from Omlet shop)

Garlic Powder

Some sort of vitamin top-up....Battles drink or Poultry Spice

 

& make sure you have a camrea to hand for those first photos too :wink:

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Yep,go for Hemcore or Aubiose, & use it in the poo tray & nest box too. Straw gets soggy & it can harbour mites in its hollow centre.

 

You will need a good tought feed bin too, & a scoop.....this is a must,to keep rats at bay.

 

Also get:

Grit & oyster shell (from Omlet shop)

Garlic Powder

Some sort of vitamin top-up....Battles drink or Poultry Spice

 

& make sure you have a camrea to hand for those first photos too :wink:

 

you get ordinary bins quite cheaply from your DIY store, make sure they are metal or tough plastic and are sealable/have lids- our council delivered a new blue bin recently for recycling everything (not just paper as before) so we used that to store our aubiose in and used our old blue bin to recycle instead :)

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Bertie, if you live roughly where I think you live - aubiose (same as hemcore) is available from Welland Valley feeds in Market Harborough. If you decide to go for woodchip, as opposed to bark, there is a place signposted of the A6, near the tip just south of Kibworth, that will sell a trailer load for £10. But I think you can get it by the bagful if you take your own bags. I have a huge bag that had a ton of gravel in it from the builders merchants so keep meaning to take that and get it filled up - just haven't got round to it yet! :D

 

my friend and neighbour owns welland valley feeds (and she's been monitoring my building!!!). i asked the other day but they said that my run wouldn't need hemcore but i am just uncomfortable about them in the run on the mud at this time of the year. i know where the farm on the A6 is but just hadn't thought of that i could nip in there on fri on the way back from whetstone

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I've seen a few places with free range chickens that are just on mud at this time of year :? They always seem to look a little fed up - stood around, doing nothing. My runs got very muddy when we were away for 2 weeks in the summer so I put loads of aubiose down - they perked up no end and had a great time making dust baths in it. Although they quite enjoy the rain on their backs, I don't think they really like standing around in it! But that's just my own observations - maybe I pamper mine too much! :lol:

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went out to swap my straw, and got hemcore. anyway i got home and un be known to the oh i caught him in the act...............................yes he was showing off the hen house and run to 2 of his work collegues, as they were admiring the "wonderful job" :roll: of ""OUR"" work:evil: , hubby then stated that he would like to extend the run next summer with perhaps another house at the other end.

 

i'm sure he's gone completely potty - last night he suggested that we get another kitten:shock: and he's offered to look after his workmates hamster for 3 months whilst they go off to oz.

 

CHEEK OF IT...

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Thats wonderful they'll be his chickens next.

 

I am using hemcore and it seems to work really well. But don't know how the heck I am ever going to get into the run to clear it out. Does it go on the compost?

 

as you will soon see, my run opens from every angle, so i can just rake it out etc when needing a change and pop it into the compost box.

 

i have popped into the run, the ashes from my fire, i thought that they would like this for scratching around in i did read somewhere that this was ok.

 

this morning i have been doing last minute jobs to the housing and run such as security measures. i noticed that the roof had leaked a little, then found the gap and sorted that out, fortunately that was quite easy and the roof is definitely water tight

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