All Cooped Up~the coop and run thread

[Mini Horses]

Since this is a coop thread, I'll say that I've use bales of hay that have a lot of seed due to time of cut, moistened it, set in sun &/or sunny spot....inside coop, under clear tarp/window for sun....and got good sprout from those seeds. Chickens loved the early green.

If you have a coop large enough -- and decent temps -- this may be a consideration at some point before grasses appear outside. Oh, the chickens will eat & spread it once you cut strings.

The bale will be warmer than you think due to composting & thickness. You can even put some seed in it, like a straw bale garden.

My coops are wooden, mostly, with fenced runs for any I need to confine (select fertilizing of eggs, bachelor roos, etc). Otherwise, free range all. Deep litter large coops, small ones have DL on smaller scale due to size.

 

[Beekissed]

It was in the single digits last night but is currently 22* here....but at roost level in the coop today it's 32*. Been snowing since 4 am, looks like it will snow all day.

Since adding that big bucket of water under the roosts and turning it a little back there(what I could...those vines are messing up that move), it has started cooking very well. I turned a piece under the main roost this morning and a plume of steam rose out....I put my hand down in that pocket left behind by the fork full of mass and it was like laying your hand on the top of a heater. Actual warmth there, warm enough to warm my hand and then some. Hurried and capped that moisture with some dry leaves...don't want to lose that heat or humidity.

Finally....my mass is cooking!!!! No wonder the chickens spend their time in the coop standing back on that hill of litter. Like standing on a heated floor. I've got extra ventilation open above the mass and also an extra window open in the front of the coop, besides the normal open areas, to remove all this excess humidity in the air.

 

[CrealCritter]

Mine had pretty much stopped laying. Well I collected 56 eggs this morning. Notice I said "had".

 

[Beekissed]

My grandgirls (3 1/2 and 1 1/2 yrs old) were out and helped me clean out the spare pen this morning, even though it was raining on us now and again. We all got very dirty and wet, so we just went along and deposited the chicken litter around the apple saplings and then cleaned out the flower beds around the house. Took most of that up to the coop to add to the bedding under the roosts. The little one took a 2 1/2 hr nap after all of that...could barely stagger to the bed after lunch. Funny!

Each year I place a lot of woody plant stems and vines from the garden in that "sink" under the roosts so that when I add leaves and such later on, the woody stems, vines and stalks allow a lot of air flow into the mass. By spring you'll not see hide nor hair of that large, woody material...it will all be composted if I've done my job well.

Tomorrow it will be change out the tarps day!

If my back holds out, it will also be clean out the dog's house and build a dog hay house day as well. Clear tarp will be placed around the spare coop also, to block the wind and rain from my leaf and hay storage.

 

[Hinotori]

The silkies get their feet and heads muddy if I don't put straw down. Feet just because it happens. Heads they do on purpose. They don't actually get too bad. When it snows they stay very clean because silkies will NOT step one heavily feathered foot onto snow.

Yeah. Prices run about the same. I'd use shavings with the silkies, but they break down too fast and it takes more. It only takes one bale of straw in their pens.

Shavings are used in the coops

 

[Beekissed]

Yep...I'd not likely care WHERE my birds roosted all winter if I lived that far down south. Though I do like them to think of the coop as home, merely so they will lay there the majority of the time.

Likely I'd only have a lean to style coop if I lived in 9a, just so they could get in out of the wind and rain if they wanted.

 

[treerooted]

TR, I LOVE old coops...gotta pic? Love that little piece of history in the US that are quickly disappearing, about as quickly as the old barns.

Sure: here's what it looked like when we moved in. Who knows how many repairs have been done over the many years.

 

[treerooted]

Ah, found more pictures:

 

[Calista]

My birds don't seem to mind the snow if they think there is food to be had out there. The WRs will even break trail for me if they think food is coming! They find any exposed grass under benches and such and graze there.

View attachment 5245

View attachment 5246

After the dogs break trail, then they are out there every day.

View attachment 5244

Ha, ha -- those pix of your chickens and dogs in the snow just made my day! (Imagining the flock members saying, "Hey, Henrietta, what's the deal with the ground this morning, anyway?")

 

[Calista]

We use a paddock setup I found in an old issue of Backwoods Home:

http://www.backwoodshome.com/save-time-and-energy-with-the-fenced-chicken-coopgarden/

Along with the deep litter method, it's worked out great. I'd like to free-range but there's simply too many critters around here that love the taste of chicken.