Chicken zone - advice needed

Lumen wrote: »

I found this. I'm sure you know all this already :-)

How to exclude pine martens from game and poultry pens
http://www.mammals-in-ireland.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Pine-Marten-Leaflet.pdf

We already have pretty much all of those suggestions in place, including electric wire around the hen house. We also have mink traps in the hope that if they do come a'visitin, they'll be drawn to the yummy sardines before the hens.

kathleen37 wrote: »

Wow - I had no idea pine martins had recovered so much!! How excellent!!! Not seen one, yet!. Have had mink - they are fearless - one charged me and my Dad once and we both ran like girls...

Lol
They are absolute feckers, are mink.
I have seen a few live pine martens, but most I've seen were dead on the roads... I hate to see our native wildlife killed on the roads, but I figure there must be a fair few of them about if they're showing up dead on roads, if you see what I mean? Beautiful creatures... Just stay away from my hens pleeeease

Looks a nice set up now op!
A few questions...
Where are you going to install the motor for the automated door? It's meant to be directly above the highest point the door is to open, but I'm not seeing space for one on your coop?
When you say you're using a deep litter system, do you still intend to clean the poop out regularly?
I'm a bit confused about the droppings board TBH.
I'm not sure how shredded cardboard will work out for you... Worth a try but my guess is it'll get soggy and messy on you.
When you say you're putting diatomaceous earth in, what exactly do you mean? You need to be a bit careful with it, it should not be used that it's able to puff up into the air, because it can be quite irritating to the eyes and respiratory tract. It's really only meant to be used to dust cracks and crevices to keep mites and lice at bay, and I've dusted it onto individual hens, but I wouldn't like it in their environment all of the time, and I don't feel it should be used in dust baths.
Are the hens you're getting used to using nipple drinkers? If not, you'll need to supply them with a more open-style drinker until they learn how to use the nipple drinker... Hens drink an unbelievable amount of water, moreso in warm weather. They can't be left without ready access to water!
Similarly, do they know how to use a treadle feeder? It can take quite a while for each hen to learn to use them... You'll need an alternative in the meantime if they've never used one before.
You haven't mentioned what substrate you intend to use in the nest boxes?
I think the coop is plenty tall enough, and new perching arrangements may evolve as you go along
What sort of hens did you go for?

Oh excellent... The door worked out well as it happens! Our electric door is on a timer, so I'm no help to you with the photosensitive one... Just keep an eye on battery life, just so it doesn't let you down when you need it.

Deep litter system... I'll be blunt.. If you only clean up surface poop once a week, 8 hens in your coop will become rank pretty quickly. I'd suggest at a minimum doing a surface clean 2-3 times per week... More in winter because they're inside the coop for much longer hours.

Substrate-wise... I use either compost/peat moss, and/or hardwood shavings. Both are absorbent without becoming soggy. Chicken poop can be pretty wet stuff... Which is why I think cardboard will turn into sh!tty papier maché!
Substrate for the nest box... I just don't know how the hens will feel about shredded cardboard as I've never seen it used... We use straw. We've tried hardwood shavings but they weren't overly impressed. We've 31 laying hens and pullets here... They'd only lay on shavings if the other nest boxes with straw weren't vacant!


Diatomaceous earth... As far as I can tell, any evidence for it working internally on worms is anecdotal. It definitely kills external bugs like lice and mites in my (anecdotal!) experience. But I do feel that given how it works on the exoskeletons of invertebrates... I don't want it in my lungs... Or any other lungs! And I'm certainly not going to let our honeybees in contact with it either!

I hear what you're saying about the nipple drinkers and treadle feeder... But you know what? It took our oldest/cleverest hens at least a week to figure out the treadle feeder, and that was with training by me... The younger pullets took weeks to use it. One option is to keep a weight on the treadle so that it stays open, so the birds can access food without having to activate the scary treadle... And it is scary at first. It moves when you stand on it and it makes a scary noise. I habituated our hens to the noise by standing on the treadle repeatedly over a number of days. I also weighted down the treadle and scattered food around it, and baited the feeding chambers with bread to entice them to stick their heads in. Then I put the treadle on its shallowest setting so that it only moved a bit when they stood on it. With time, I ramped it up to maximum resistance to guarantee keeping rats and crows out, by which stage the hens had it sussed. They're all adept now, but for some of them (particularly shy, flighty birds), it took weeks.
Similarly, in my opinion you simply can't only use nipple drinkers at the start for birds that don't know what they are... You will be very surprised at how much water each hen needs especially in summer weather, and it could take days for them to realise how to access water via the nipple drinkers. If you set up both types, they'll eventually learn how to use the nipple drinker.

Springwell wrote: »

I used shavings for years but having had the bad luck to have a hen with fungal lung infection attributed to spores in the shavings I changed to straw pellets - what a revelation, no dust, much easier to clean out, composts down much quicker and has far more absorbency than shavings. Cheap too. I would never switch back now and I was a die hard shavings girl before!

We use shredded paper in nest boxes - free and keeps them clean and dry

We made the mistake of using pine shavings early last year, from our own trees which were knocked and shredded... Respiratory infections and swollen sinuses all round. Lesson learned.
Straw pellets... I like the sound of those! Where do you get them? I'm guessing they're used as bedding in stables maybe?