Chicken Happenings

Over the past couple of days we have been feeding our chickens a mix of pollard, calcium carbonate, rolled oats, powdered milk and water. The mix is divided into two portions to feed both of the flocks.

Our mix is:

• 175 grams of pollard;
• 75 grams of rolled oats
• 1/2 cup of powdered milk;
• 1/4 teaspoon of calcium carbonate and
• 3 cups of water

The pollard mash is mixed up and then fed to the chickens twice a day. They have shown themselves to be VERY interested in this feed mix and don’t seem to miss their chicken pellets at all. In fact, the chickens are SO excited by their new feed that we are now having to teach Howard not to peck us. He has drawn blood on me once and has pecked my darling wife’s gumboots quite savagely. He is being taught by being booted up the cloaca (well pushed away vigorously, really).

Today our young rooster was sent to a new home out in Forcett and the hens were moved from their run into the larger run. It was sad to say goodbye to our little rooster, but it is a hell of a lot nicer than the alternative … a fight to the death with the dominant rooster.

My darling wife, gorgeous daughter and I had a great time catching the young pullets so that we could take them from their old run to the grown up chicken run. Ferrying the chickens from run to run wasn’t too hard, once the chickens were caught, they settled down very quickly and it was easy to carry them the 200 meters or so. The older chickens were a little bit put out, but Howard thought that it was another Christmas present … just for him. We gave the chickens an extra feed to distract them and that seemed to do the trick.

We will leave the door to the chicken run closed for a couple of days so that the pullets get used to their new coop and settle in to their new position in the pecking order. There is likely to be some disagreements over pecking order, but then, that’s nature.

I will post some pictures of the mega-flock tomorrow.

New High Pressure Water Cleaner has arrived …

I bought a high pressure water cleaner off e-bay. It’s a Memphis Aqua 3500PSI cleaner with a bunch of attachments. I need to clean out my chicken coop on a regular basis as my white leghorn chickens are suspected to have Marek’s disease (Turkey Herpes HTV). When the white leghorns die off, I will bring the Isa Browns into the coop. Before I do that, I have to eradicate the Marek’s disease pathogens from the coop.

I’ve read a few articles on the interweb about how to disinfect the coop for Marek’s and it appears that the process is going to involve some pretty nasty disinfectants. The Department of Primary Industry, Parks, Water and the Environment (DPIPWE) have the following article on disinfecting the chickens living area – Marek’s Disease, although they don’t mention a type of disinfectant to use. I have emailed the distributor of the HWPC to find out what chemicals I can use in the device … so I’ll see what I can do.

I’ve spoken with our vet (Montrose Veterinary Surgery) about disinfectants that are effective against the Marek’s disease pathogen, and her advice is to use Hospital grade bleach. My lovely wife and I decided that we’d like to find out, once and for all, if our chickens do indeed have Marek’s or if we have misdiagnosed the problem (I’m not a vet, so that is certainly possible). So we will need to take some of our chickens to the surgery for blood tests. I’m not keen on a post-mortem analysis, as that would be throwing the baby out with the bath-water.

If it is indeed Marek’s, then I will do a dry clean of the coop. That is, removing all of the chickens bedding manually, with pitchfork, spade and broom. Then I will use the HWPC with detergent to clean the coop out as thoroughly as possible, and then spray hospital grade bleach over the entire coop to kill the pathogens. All of this will be while the chickens are out free-ranging for the day. When the coop is clean and the bleach has dried, I will lay down new straw and wood shavings in the roost.

I will also need to have my other flock tested for Marek’s. If they both have it, then I’ll move all of the chickens in together, if not, I will keep them separated and repeat the disinfection clean-up on a regular basis (probably monthly).

New Roosts in the Coop

Well, the coop was getting a bit smelly so it was time for my regular clean-up of the chicken run (I tend to do this about every month in the colder months).
My hens are starting to moult and there really isn’t enough roosting space in their coop despite the fact that the coop is big enough for at least twice as many chickens. So I pulled out the old branches and made some roosting bars from some broomsticks that I bought for that purpose ages ago.

The roost went into the coop yesterday and it appears to be a hit with the chooks.
Now the chickens are back to using the nesting boxes rather than just laying on the floor of the coop (because of the difficulty getting to the nesting boxes.
Of course, the chickens always like getting into the coop after a clean-up so that they can scatter the hay from one end of the chicken run to the other.
A while back, I cut a sally-port into the side of the chicken run so that the chickens can free-range during the day (after they have laid their eggs), and since then, the eggs have improved quite a lot. Here in Tasmania, we don’t have to worry about foxes … just birds of prey, so the chickens can free-range well into the late afternoon. They are getting much better free range food (bugs and plants) and they appear to be much happier.

This is a picture of the old coop. It was fairly small and the run was lined with crushed limestone.

Their current chicken run is an old swimming pool enclosure, giving them roughly eight times more space. The chicken run is more open as well, with only two high walls and two walls that come up to 3’, the rest of the two open walls are made up of chicken wire and nylon netting. The chicken run is completely enclosed with nylon netting making a roof to keep the birds of prey out. We have Wedge-tailed eagles, Peregrine Falcons and Brown Hawks. So far, we have not lost any chickens to predation.

All in all, the chickens like their new life in a bigger chicken run.

The Chickens Sally Port

I wanted the chickens to be able to have free access to the property during the day, and to be locked away safely at night. Since I made the chicken run from an old swimming pool enclosure, the best answer to this was to cut a door into the side of it.

This meant getting the angle grinder out (woohoo … loud toys!).

I made a simple rectangular frame from square tube steel and welded it together, then I simply clad the frame with a piece of galvanised tin.

Then I fitted a pair of hinges to the bottom of the door and a slide bolt to the top.

The door remains open during the day, and locks up tight at night to keep those pesky cats out.

The first time that I opened the door to the chicken run, the chooks were very pensive about using it.  I had to encourage them through with tasty treats.

Once they got the idea, they really got the idea! Now when we walk anywhere near the door (and if it is closed) the chickens get quite excited.

Since giving the chickens their door, the chickens have been much more content. They get more variety in their diet and they get lots of exercise running back and forth between the chicken run and the next door neighbours property.

By the way, a sally port is a small door that is usually cut into a larger door and is used in castles to allow the people inside to get in and out to make a sortie against besieging troops without being observed.

Chicken Run is Complete

Last month I told you about the completion of the Chicken Run and Chicken Coop. Well, I didn’t include any pictures of these, so here are some images of the coop and run for your enjoyment.

As you can see, the run now has bird netting over the top and is completely enclosed. This keeps those nasty hawks and eagles away!

The Chicken Coop was finished last month as well … but due to the timing, I also didn’t get photos of that for the newsletter. Here are some photos of the finished product.

The chicks from our previous hatching are enjoying the coop and scratching around in the bottom for food.

The nesting box comes out from the main coop so that there is lots of space inside the coop for the chickens to do their chicken things.

The roof is simply some roofing iron that has been screwed down to the roof trusses. I have left a gap of 10cm between the top of the panelling of the coop and the roof to provide plenty of ventilation.

My lovely wife provided roosting perches from some pieces of old cherry tree that we cut up.

Completion of the New Chicken Run and Chicken Coop

Well, the chicken run and coop have been a bit of a labour of Heracles. I completed the bottom part of the run early in the month (welded square tubing between the uprights, painted it to make it a bit more rust resistant and finally attached the steel panelling).

Next, the chicken wire went around the run. This was a pretty easy job. I simply drilled through the upright posts and ran 5mm white wire cross supports around the run. The chicken wire was then hung from the cross supporting white wire and then fixed in place between the steel panelling and the steel tube to make it strong and secure.

My lovely wife bought a 20 x 5 m nylon bird net and set about making it into a 10 x 10 m net (lots of hand stitching and then by running a nylon cord to bind the two halves together). The bird net will be secured over the top of the chicken run and will be supported clipping it to more 5mm white wire supporting lines. We get lots of hawks and eagles in our little valley and I’m not terribly interested in feeding them my flock!

The coop has been constructed from recycled hardwood framing timber and 12mm exterior plywood. This has been a bit of a slog too as I’ve been suffering from injuries and various agues lately. Building and manhandling the panels have proven to be a bit of an overextension. I’d recommend getting at least one other friend to help you.

The panels for the coop were made outside of the chicken run and then carried inside. This is because there is much more room outside the chicken run to be operating the power tools and because the doorway into the chicken run is too narrow to carry the completed coop in (I’m glad I thought of that beforehand!).

Anyway, the upshot is that, the chicken run and coop should be ready for the foul inmates by the weekend of the 21^st of November. This (happily) coincides with the current clutch of chicks moving out of the brooder in time for the next (and final clutch for this season) of chicks to move in.

New Chicken Run

The new chicken run is progressing nicely. I have finished welding the structure together and the last of the colour bond steel sheets are fitted to the outside of the run. Over the past 3 weekends, I finished the run with colour bond and chicken wire. It looks pretty good so far!

My lovely wife and daughters went through the run and cleared out the last remaining bits of old swimming pool from the ground and I’ll be making another run up to the tip to get rid of it.

I bought some timber from the tip shop to make the new chicken coop. The timber will make the floor and the frame for the structure; I’ll get some external grade plywood to clad the outside. At the same time, I picked up some corrugated iron to make the roof of the coop.

I also fixed the old gate on the chicken run on the 1^st weekend of October. Over time the door had slipped making the door impossible to open. It was out with the angle grinder and welding on a new gate latch onto the gate frame. Now it opens easily.

The chicken run, with its colour bond steel cladding, is now suitable housing for the girls’ pets. “Fluffy” an overstuffed white rabbit; and “Flower girl” a similarly overstuffed white guinea pig. We made some shelters for the pets in the chicken run with some corrugated tin and old logs. This should give them somewhere to escape to should they be threatened by the birds of prey that live around our little valley.

The lovely wife also picked up four new apple trees from the tip shop (at $2 each): two royal gala, and two ruby red. These new apple trees have been planted in the chicken run. We are hoping to stick a lemon or a dual graft lemon and lime in the middle of the chicken run. The idea behind planting the fruit trees in the chicken run is two-fold. On the one hand, the chicken run used to be a pool, so water is a possible problem and the trees will help abate the “swamp” effect. On the other hand, citrus trees are gross feeders, and with the permanent supply of chook poo that’s exactly what it’ll get.

New Chicken Run

As I mentioned previously, the new chicken run is being made by refurbishing an old disintegrating structure. The structure used to be a wall built around an aboveground swimming pool. When we moved into the property, the pool was gone except for some torn and shredded bits of pool lining. The structure itself consists of two walls of colour bond steel attached to steel posts. The other two boundaries of the structure were simply steel posts set into concrete. Overall, the area is about 6m x 10m.

To turn this into a chicken run, I needed to weld a supporting frame between the steel posts to support a low colour bond wall. The colour bond wall will reduce the wind flow into the chicken run and also reduce the access to the chicken run to unwanted animal visitors such as snakes and rats.

From above the colour bond wall to the top of the steel posts, I’ll be putting up chicken wire. The chicken wire will also cover the top of the run. The entire run will be enclosed to protect the chickens from some of our winged predators (wedge tailed eagles, common brown hawks and other birds of prey).

So far I have almost completed welding the supporting frame in place and I have clad 2/3rds of the colour bond wall in place.