Guest guest Posted April 12, 2004 Report Share Posted April 12, 2004 Heidi What do you suggest to handle the poop problem? We decided to get chickens this year, something my husband did years before I came along. Yesterday, my brother-in-law informed me that one main disadvantage was poop everywhere . . . you can't sit outside . . . it's on your shoes . . . At this point, penning is not an option. With the chicken tractor, how do you move the small fence that surrounds the little house on wheels or slides? Gayle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 12, 2004 Report Share Posted April 12, 2004 hmmm, I hate to bring this up, but although he still sells the book ostensibly on chicken tractors, Salatin has moved away from them in favor of other systems. Andy Lee, the poorer man's Salatin, actually declared chicken tractors to be inhumane because, due to their low headroom, their shltered areas can become hot enough during the summer to give brain damage to chickens. There are other human issues, also, not the least of which is crippling of the birds when the trailing edge of the moving house runs over their legs. (yes, been there, done that. Sure, it leads to a surprise chicken supper, but...) Salatin and Lee lean towards pastured poultry setups that are called 'day ranges.' This usually means the use of electified fencing and some sort of portable hoophouse. A lot to go through for a few birds, but it's what we do here at the CSA. It allows the chickens to truly range, gives them plenty of surplus headroom and, frankly, probably gives them better predator protection from everything but hawks, owls, vultures, etc. Good dayrange 'feather net' is available from Premier Fencing. Premier has a great webpage and is one of the few places on the web that is willing to do COD. I'm happy to answer chicken questions offline. -Allan Balliett Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 13, 2004 Report Share Posted April 13, 2004 I wanted to jump in on this thread as we will be receiving 6 chicks this week, and are currently in the process of coop/run building. We have done some reading in _Chicken Tractor_, _Keep Chickens_, _Chickens in Your Backyard_, as well as some other great books...we also toured at least 10 local urban chicken coops to get an idea of how other people are housing small flocks in the city limits, and what the realities are for those of us who are not engaging in country living. I highly recommend these sites: www.thecitychicken.com www.backyardchickens.com These books and sites all talk about the issue of what to do with manure, and everyone we have talked to suggests that regular maintenance (cleaning the coop for example) takes care of odors. Also feeding table scraps (which will rot at some point) is a choice, and if you are in high rat areas you may think twice about this. Originally I had thought about doing a tractor as we have 1/2 acre yard which we share with a neighbor. However, the logistics began to seem quite a lot, and we have decided in favor of having a primary coop with a generous pen/run, and switching runs periodically, in order to give the earth in each spot a rest. I also think it is possible to build temporary runs to " day space " in different areas of the yard we might like de-bugged, but I personally thought the tractor seemed a little confined. Here in the rainy northwest we also will have to provide the birds with dry areas for wintertime rain. One family, who started with only 3 birds and the goal of " free range " in their similarly sized 1/2 acre yard reported that was a complete failure, and they almost cooked their birds! The chickens were suprisingly social, and spent most of their day perched on their back door porch mat POOPING, so any time they went outside (which was frequently) they had to deal with the chicken poop on the mat. Also, the chickens basically went all over the placing pecking up the garden, flowers, anything they could get at. If the family attempted to eat a meal on the table on the back porch, the chickens would hop up and take food off their plates. If the young children had food they were nibbling on while playing in the back yard, the chickens would get aggressive and steal food from the kids. Slowly they began fencing different areas of the yard, fencing off the back porch, the garden, the blueberry bushes, and finally realized the best thing to do was to fence the chickens! So they created a 15' X 60 run/pen area around the coop, and they let the chickens out to " roam " in the yard about 30-60 minutes each day, toward dusk. Of all the coop/run situations we viewed this was *the most generous* space we saw chickens in. We saw very happy birds living in much less space, and every family we talked to also gave their chickens " roaming " time, much the same way folks take their dogs on a daily walk. Our run will probably be about 15' X 30', for 6 birds I think that is plenty, and we are happy to give them a daily " explore " . We are using large quantities of discarded building materials--every week so far my husband has come home with truckloads of free lumber, today he came home with free *fence posts* of all things. Zip ties or heavy duty long staples are enough to secure wire to posts. One of the web sites I mentioned shows a chicken coop built out of discarded wood pallets! Another site shows how one lady used an old metal tool shed--truthfully this seems like the easiest way to go, as the adaptations needed would be minimal! If space is a very serious issue, you might want to consider bantam chickens, as they are 1/4-1/5 the size of full size chickens, and will need less space, will poop smaller poops--and they are reputed to be more interactive with humans. Eggs are smaller too. We have also been investigating ducks, if the chickens do well here, we might add 2-3 ducks next year, some Khaki-s or Indian Runners which are extremely prolific egg-layers. At this point I think the responsible thing to do is see if we can provide a good home for chickens before introducing other fowl. And for our urban location I think ducks would require a greater level of care and attention to be content (swimming pool, which would require *frequent* cleaning/emptying/filling). I really recommend you find some folks locally who are raising chickens and talk to them a lot, see their coops, get to meet their chickens. Ask them in particular what they hate and what they love! I am certainly no expert, we are just getting started, but I found doing research locally, talking to families and getting to see (and smell) coops and runs up close has been so important! We also talked with friends about folks they knew who were *not* providing good homes to chickens and other fowl, to find out what *not* to do. Enough outta me, so excited to be getting our chicks this week, 2 Araucanas, 2 Black Australorps, and 2 Gold Laced Wyandottes. I've waited to have chickens for 3 years. We eat dozens of eggs each week, so I can hardly wait for the first eggs--which are many months away! Cheers, Leann Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 13, 2004 Report Share Posted April 13, 2004 Heidi Schuppenhauer <heidis@t...> wrote: > Really, the chicken tractor IS the answer to the poop " problem " . Then the poop > becomes " fertilizer " . The book really explains it all. The whole little cage > moves, on slides or wheels, depending on the design, or you can leave it in > one place and add straw daily Hello Heidi, Leann and Allan We have ordered 125 chicks (50 meat and 75 laying - both mixed in sexes), expecting some loss of life. So I don't think the chicken tractor will work. I can't find the feather net on http://www.premierfencing.com. I really think we may get quickly to the point where we might have to fence the backyard where the kids play. My garden is far enough away, on the other side of the buffalo pasture, that I don't think I have to worry about the garden plants. My husband and his aunt, before my time, used to raise 500 chickens annually . . so he is as expert as I can get. We pulled the 10x10 brooding coop out of the bush. My husband has two weeks to remove any rotting boards before the chicks come. April 26th is the big day!! I am worried about the dog, a border collie. Someone mentioned pouring water over their dog's head to teach him to leave the chickens alone. But until they are big enough to roam, that won't be an issue. I could always use some " test chicks " to train the dog so he is not overwhelmed on the big day. Hmmm that might be the best . . . I could set up the pressure washer and have fun tormenting the dog until he leaves the " test chicks " alone!! Gayle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 14, 2004 Report Share Posted April 14, 2004 Heidi Schuppenhauer <heidis@t...> wrote: > and now that the chicken > flu is in Canada (and carried by wild birds ...) is it really a good idea to let them > mix with their wild cousins? Heidi You are aware that the United States had the chicken flu before Canada, aren't you? It is the same strain, H7. I point to a CNN article dated February 9, 2004 long before it hit Canada. http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/02/09/wbr.bird.flu/ here's another. . . . http://sarsnewswire.com/birdflu/BirdFluNewsUSA.asp Gayle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 14, 2004 Report Share Posted April 14, 2004 " Bruce Stordock " <stordock@t...> wrote: > Is this what you were looking for Gayle? > http://www.premier1supplies.com/store/prod_display ..html?prod_id=403 & pcat_id= & cat_id=ALL & criteria=poultry Yes, thank you Bruce! Gayle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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