Recent content by linguini

I have a coop the same size (4x8), don't mount the roost too high. it's kind of narrow for them to fly up the roost unless you make a ramp. With a waterer and feeder inside, it's kind of crowded. Our young batch (4 chickens) grew up in this coop, but they no longer roost at night in this coop...

Same here! It was easy to install, and very reliable. We've had it for almost a year.

vegetable garden and chicken coop go together naturally! easy to store coop compost and apply to yard. you may consider let the chickens into the garden during off season, they'd love that!

Beginning of our being chooks parents , I tried it all - make a sand box, use DE earth and I gave up pretty soon after. Reasons: - they never even touch the sand boxes, chickens dig their own holes -when they were 4 months old, entire flock was infected with lice (probably from wild birds)...

We use vinyl with wood chips. Easy to clean. Started with vinyl and pine shavings - too slippery for them, but wood chips totally solved the slippery issue.

We have one of this from our kids - and it's still lying around. What can you do with it? Unfortunately there is a hole on the cover, so can't really keep the rain out (I tried duck tape, but still leaks). And if we leave it out, it'll just accumulate water and breed. mosquitoes!

Treats definitely work better than sticks - but only work when it still has day light. They should go back to the coop on their own. And since your run is predator proof, it's safe even if they choose not to go in. We have three coops and one covered run - all connected and predator proof. 3 of...

Is your run predator proof?

How do you manage to keep the chickens eat up the entire garden? how large is the area, and how many chickens? I planted wild flowers in two zones in our chicken yard. Started out with using chicken wires to fence the flowers in. When the flowers were all in full bloom, some were 4-5 feet...

you can get aviary netting from amazon, very inexpensive. we use 2x2x8 lumber tied to t-post (easies to do without having to dig!) with a flat piece of wood board on top to hold up the nettings. this is for top cover only, not fences...

Like @nuthatched mentioned, if you can get free mulch from tree companies, that will be your best solution for now. or you can get the pave stones from Home Depot to make a walk path for humans to walk through (for now! a quick solution). Pavers are relatively inexpensive, $2 each, and you just...

Is it possible to patch up the 1/3 of the roof with hardware cloth with cable ties? It might be better to "rat proof" your feeding area so the rats can't come in at all.

We cut up rain gutter (they come in 10ft section for less than $12 (it used to be like ~$6 three years ago!) and screw them onto 2x2x8 lumber near the bottom of the run wall to make a plastic trough. The set up keeps the chickens from scratching, kicking the feed out! And they can't poop in it...

We have a real hack "roofing" for the covered run, since we didn't know what we were doing, putting up layers out of sequence. But it works so far for 3.5 years: (our run is 8x8x8) The run was wrapped with 1/2 inch chickenwire, heavy gauge, all sides and top. slanted tarp as roof under the...

In the first year, we use clear table cloth sheets - they did not last through the winter wind in NJ, easily ripped.) Second year I bought the clear marine vinyl sheeting, a little more expensive but much much better, easy to hang (we use paint sticks and roofing screws to staple the sheet in)...