BarredBuff
El Presidente de Pollo
You sound like you've been busy!
Wifezilla's Rampage - Weekend Update w/ pics
- Thread starter Wifezilla
- Start date
kcsunshine
Almost Self-Reliant
Congrats on the book cover work. Your SIL sounds like my DD. We cannot be civil about politics or religion. I finally declared a truce and said we would speak of it no more. But, she's the only one I have so I just quit telling her she's wrong! lol
Great work on the duck pens and food projects. My chickens always get a thick bedding of leaves in their pen for fall and they have them worked into little pieces just in time for the spring garden. They get put on the compost pile and worked in with the finished compost so the poop isn't so strong. I usually put straw down when it gets cold and rainy to be sure their little toes don't get too cold and it gets added to the mixture too.
Great work on the duck pens and food projects. My chickens always get a thick bedding of leaves in their pen for fall and they have them worked into little pieces just in time for the spring garden. They get put on the compost pile and worked in with the finished compost so the poop isn't so strong. I usually put straw down when it gets cold and rainy to be sure their little toes don't get too cold and it gets added to the mixture too.
- Thread starter
- #643
Wifezilla
Low-Carb Queen - RIP: 1963-2021
Thanks everyone!
BB, I still have to finish making salsa (roasted peppers on the gas burner while I was "on break") and bag up the pumpkin I cooked down last night. I just got out of the tub and soaked all the duck muck off of me so now it is safe to move on to kitchen projects
BB, I still have to finish making salsa (roasted peppers on the gas burner while I was "on break") and bag up the pumpkin I cooked down last night. I just got out of the tub and soaked all the duck muck off of me so now it is safe to move on to kitchen projects
BarredBuff
El Presidente de Pollo
Salsa NOM NOM 
Ive been busy today as well. Canned Applesauce and Potatoes. The picked 10 gallons of pears, cleaned and sprayed rabbit stuffs, cleaned from under cages, collected the last herbs to dry, repotted two herb plants. Im almost wore out.......
Ive been busy today as well. Canned Applesauce and Potatoes. The picked 10 gallons of pears, cleaned and sprayed rabbit stuffs, cleaned from under cages, collected the last herbs to dry, repotted two herb plants. Im almost wore out.......
- Thread starter
- #645
old fashioned
Almost Self-Reliant
Another suggestion for critter litter is shredded paper if you have a shredder. I finally broke down & got a cheapy ($20) at WM and have been shredding all our junk mail, newspapers, papers the kids bring home from school, etc. It makes great litter in the coop and can go to the compost too, saves on garbage space & almost free...just the cost of the shredder and I don't have to buy straw. 
savingdogs
Queen Filksinger
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Really? I tried this and everything was so soggy in one day. But you are in Tacoma......it HAS to be soggy where you are too.old fashioned said:Another suggestion for critter litter is shredded paper if you have a shredder. I finally broke down & got a cheapy ($20) at WM and have been shredding all our junk mail, newspapers, papers the kids bring home from school, etc. It makes great litter in the coop and can go to the compost too, saves on garbage space & almost free...just the cost of the shredder and I don't have to buy straw.
- Thread starter
- #648
Wifezilla
Low-Carb Queen - RIP: 1963-2021
I can use paper in the quail pen because it is covered and our climate here is dry. If there is a lot of rain, it does get nasty. I tried it in part of the duck pen and it wasn't pretty.
old fashioned
Almost Self-Reliant
You know it gets very wet & soggy here What I had meant was to put the shredded paper inside the shelter so that it is protected from the weather.
Our 'coop' is just a lean-to built off the side of the garden shed that is roofed, and in the winter I enclose it with fence sections (one of our yard fences blew down in a storm a few years ago & I saved a couple that were complete), then I wrap it with tarps. So the inside stays dry & fairly draft free. For ventilation, the make-shift walls & tarps are put up about 4-6 inches below the roof, leaving a gap at the top. Some rain gets in, but not too bad. About once or twice a week I'll turn over the litter with a pitchfork & add another couple of inches of straw &/or paper for a 'deep litter' method. The chickens usually only sleep in there at night & free range the outside yard during the day. Inside this 'coop' is a nest box with a small entry opening (pics are on another thread here somewhere), and the top lifts up so I can get any eggs & easy to clean out when needed. It's pretty good sized for nesting in, but not big enough for everyone to sleep in.
Edited to include that in the springtime all litter is cleaned out & dumped in the compost. Then as we mow the yard in the drier summer months, those clippings are spread inside the coop to begin the process all over again.
What I had meant was to put the shredded paper inside the shelter so that it is protected from the weather.Our 'coop' is just a lean-to built off the side of the garden shed that is roofed, and in the winter I enclose it with fence sections (one of our yard fences blew down in a storm a few years ago & I saved a couple that were complete), then I wrap it with tarps. So the inside stays dry & fairly draft free. For ventilation, the make-shift walls & tarps are put up about 4-6 inches below the roof, leaving a gap at the top. Some rain gets in, but not too bad. About once or twice a week I'll turn over the litter with a pitchfork & add another couple of inches of straw &/or paper for a 'deep litter' method. The chickens usually only sleep in there at night & free range the outside yard during the day. Inside this 'coop' is a nest box with a small entry opening (pics are on another thread here somewhere), and the top lifts up so I can get any eggs & easy to clean out when needed. It's pretty good sized for nesting in, but not big enough for everyone to sleep in.
Edited to include that in the springtime all litter is cleaned out & dumped in the compost. Then as we mow the yard in the drier summer months, those clippings are spread inside the coop to begin the process all over again.
savingdogs
Queen Filksinger
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I need to adopt your methods, old fashioned. My chickens just endured mud. I gave them planks to walk on and put straw down over the gravel. I need to roof and tarp the run but the dang wind, snow and rain keep wrecking my efforts. I need to get my hubby to help and build a real roof.
