Coop Deux was a nice walk in coop with a big poop table and roost. It had a nice run but no yard to speak of. So when it was down to two hens I started the process of moving them in with the other hens in Coop Uno. Coop Uno is a terrible coop I built from Home Depot plans but after many...
I've done a small experiment after some observations during the first few days and found that a significant improvement in growth is obtained by not disturbing the seeds after the initial 4 hour soak. So instead of pouring water in the containers and pouring it out after an hour or so I just...
The hens just love it when I put fresh chicken dirt in their elevated dust bath. When they see me with the kitty litter bucket coming down the stairs they all pay close attention to me and when I get near the dust bath and start to clean it out they all try to see what I'm doing. When I dump the...
Sweet PDZ is a mineral called zeolite. It is primarily used to eliminate odors and absorb moisture/urine, predominately associated with animal waste.
Sweet PDZ is an earth mineral — it is non-toxic, organic, recyclable and compostable.
When I first started using Sweet PDZ in Coop Uno the hens...
I've been growing wheat grass sprouts for my hens for years and off and on I get a blue mold the forms on the outside of the seed.
I've tried 50/50 hydrogen peroxide / water soak for an hour with no results.
I've tried 50/50 bleach / water soak for an hour with pretty good results in stopping...
I need some ideas for a chicken play pen sorta thing. Pee Wee is being jumped on so much the feathers on her shoulder have been pulled out and was bleeding yesterday on her left shoulder. I would like to keep her in sight of the other hens but separated until she heals up. If you have any photos...
Recently I've had a lot of trays of wheat grass not germinate and have tiny roots and almost no growth and having a bit of a smell. I used to soak 24 Hrs as it was convenient but remember reading on a web store not to soak more than 12 hours. So I started only soaking 12 Hrs a day and have what...
I put the bottom of a kennel and a milk crate on a 6x6 with a piece of board for the pop door over a year ago and it was supposed to be temporary... well I finally got my round-tuit for that project and built some chicken stairs and incorporated the grit, egg shell and oyster shell bowls into...
I started Coop Uno in April 2017 from a plan I found online that Home Depot sponsored so it must have been good right?
Here is a photo of the original build. Looked like a coop I thought but what did I know?
Far from it actually... after multiple modifications to the coop I finally had a place...
I'm usually on my Linux PC early in the morning and sometimes get busy and forget to open the doors before sunrise so I wrote a Python program to popup 30 minutes before sunrise and count down the time left before sunrise just so I don't forget. If I forget then the hens get antsy and start...
This summer I've been having a problem with mold growth on my Wheat Grass sprouts. After some conversation with @gtaus in this long thread about my sprout experiments I came to the conclusion that the mold was actually on the seed shell. After some searching I found that some universities use a...
@gtaus I started a new thread as the other one was getting pretty long.
I'm working on a video to show the technique I developed over the last 6 months of trial and error. The video is not finished yet but you can get the gist of what I'm doing better than me trying to describe it in words I...
This thread is to show how I did my coop automation. I'm going to start as basic as I can. I have tried Arduino's and ESP8266 and other control devices and finally settled in with the Raspberry Pi 3B as my control of choice. The programming is in Python which to me is a bit easier to read than C...
I thought I'd start a separate thread on my tests for a new feeder design that will be inside the dividing wall of my coop. The plan is to fill from outside and only have the feeding end inside the coop. So I made a small test feeder to see how the design will work and if I need to tweak any...
@aart asked me for a few photos of the chick feeder I built for the hens I have now. I got pretty frustrated with store bought chick feeders with them billing the feed out, pooping in it etc. This feeder is used up against a wall so it won't tip over.
The view from above with the chick guard...
Some of you may remember me sprouting wheat a while back with a complicated watering and light system in a spare bathroom. While it worked fine it did take up the whole bathtub so this time I decided to sprout wheat feed in a way that anyone that has chickens can do. I have some 18 count...