Condensation in coops.

[karminski]

thanks ,hopfully i can put it in tonight if i can find 5 mins when i get home if not then its full bedding change tomorow .penny i muck out my birds fully each day no poo left behind big house with big girls in is done each morning at 6 am which they hate as i have to kick them out the nest boxes but my 2 little houses with the bantams in get done in the afternoon when i get home .although today i only done nest boxes as seeing the whole lot is being gutted it doesnt matter for 1 night .

 

[pennyblack chooks]

Hi Karminsky

Yup sounds like dry it is. I don't have horses so never considered wetting it anyway. Sounds like you have to do rather more poo picking than I do!!!! :roll:

pennyblackchooks

 

[pennyblack chooks]

Finally, people seem to be taking on board the fact that chickens don't need to be kept warm. They do that for themselves. In fact they keep us warm in duvets ! Also Leghorns are only slightly more prone to comb damage by frost and this applies to any breed with large combs, Andalusians for example. This should not be used as a reason for treating them any differently or their natural hardiness will be lost. Males of other breeds are more susceptible than their female counterparts due to the size of their combs.

I couldn't agree more Chuck. I love the fact that my chooks are living as natural a life as possible and are really hardy little beasts. That is the sole reason I wanted to keep them in the garden knowing that any eggs we had from them were laid by hens living that kind of life. They use natural shelter of trees, bushes and hedges during the day, as well as the odd human made one - our trailer for one - as well as under the coop and a small field shelter we bought so that I can continue to provide all year round woodash dustbathing facilities when the outside craters they create are a little too damp. I am lucky mine can free range and also lucky that our garden provides a good, varied environment for them and also lucky that I can have our small veg patch fenced off :roll: I realise not everyone is as lucky.

My pen idea arose because when I got them first of all almost 8 years ago we had a small suburban garden and I wasn't sure about mixing with my dogs so I had only two hens in this 12ftx9ftx7ft high pen - half covered roof, eglu attched to side as next box, on earth floor, with shrubs in pots, empty pots with dust in them, shelves and branches to perch on so that they had a very natural chook habitat with plenty of room to exhibit natural behaviour. This lasted about three days before I let them out as I realised I wanted to get to know them better and see what they made of the rest of the garden (they wrecked it but then three dogs did their bit too!) and trained my then two jack russells and one border collie to be around them and so I frequently found I had three dogs and a couple of hens in my kitchen! The pen became an overnight arrangement only and stayed that way. As the chooks could be out in the sun when they chose I completely covered the roof. The chooks always chose to sleep on perches, not the eglu, even in winter and in bad weather, so I knew it was better for them. When we moved here 4.5 years ago I added a couple more hens and got a rehome cockerel Bert and they all adapted to it very quickly. All subsequent hens have. And so did Herb - another rehome cockerel I got after Bert died (of old age)

My main aim with my chooks now, having been forced by the rat problem to stop using this covered pen, is to try to re-create as similar 'outdoor but protected' conditions as I possibly can with this 'frog lodge at night - free circulating air, as near to outside temps inside the coop as possible and dry and mite free so that the girls and Herb are just as happy and as healthy in it as they were in the pen on branches overnight (before the rats spoiled it all).

So far it seems great. Really, really easy to keep clean and dry (still no condensation since getting some more aubiose- but am going to add more holes tomorrow anyway for the above reasons) Easy for them to access. Even Edna has decided it is fine now and the wisteria has been foresaken. They have worked out to come out when the door opens!!! No eggs in the nest boxes yet though - but then most of them were either in moult or have decided to moult because of all the changes I suspect. When I get the first eggs in the nest boxes I know we have cracked it :lol: :lol:

pennyblackchooks

 

[karminski]

i have 24 birds in total so yep a lot of poo in the mornings and even more tomorrow morning as i got home when it was dark and we were having a major monsoon :x so no run clean no house clean no nothing tonight but i have the auboise now so its all hands on deck tomorrow for a good gut out and mite attack i so cant wait .

p.s i like the sound of your set up 17 17

 

[pennyblack chooks]

but i have the auboise now so its all hands on deck tomorrow for a good gut out and mite attack i so cant wait .

Yes that's a lot of poo picking.

Good luck for tomorrow 99

 

[eggcentric]

This is an excellent thread on the subject. Many thanks to all who contributed.