Homesteading Chicken Coop Build, Chickens, Pond, Garden & Projects

They are pretty tuff.. been around for quite some time... . as long as you keep the wind and weather away. Mine just kinda of lose sections of feathers at a time. Kinda of funny looking. But when they get their new ones the really look good & filled out.. plus feathers everywhere...... you could swear something got attacked.

 

I added some straw and wood shavings to the coop & put some fresh straw down in the run a bit ago. We'll see negative temps overnight. I try and clean off the poop shelf weekly, which sits under their roosting bars. Their poo contains alot of moisture, which along with their breath makes the air too humid and can freeze on their combs & waddles- creating a frosty bite problem. Cleaning the poop shelf and adding some of the cleaner straw/wood chips from the floor, then adding some new stuff to the floor is a good rotation for keeping everything pretty clean in there. The poo/woodchip/straw mixture that gets removed goes into the compost pile, which believe it or not will be in 3 year rotation piles.

 

The circle of life eh

 

bear 1998 the chickens are good. I only put on the lamp in the coop when it's getting really cold, like tonight, -30°F with the wind. It's triple security hung and inspected for feathers or dust prior to hanging, and only overnight. These can be a fire hazard if one's not careful. Not many feathers flying while they sleep. There is a temp sensor inside and the readings come up on the left part of the screen. If it were -5°F or above, it wouldn't be on. I also have the waterer base plugged into a gfi thermo outlet, kicks on at 32°, and works well.

 

It makes the eggs taste better!

 

They are nice! We'll have some great breakfast here at the g2g soon! Hopefully Scotty Overkill will make his scramble over the fire in his big pan!