I was out feeding my flock last Saturday when the 8 year old from next door wandered over and asked if the rooster just wakes up grumpy... I laughed but then he said 'does he know it's morning or does he just decide to yell?'... It hit me different because I've been keeping chickens for 5 years and never really thought about their internal clock. Now I'm down a rabbit hole reading about circadian rhythms in birds. Has anyone else had a question from a kid that made you see your flock totally different?
I was at the Clark County Fair last August and this guy was demoing how to build a chicken coop. He kept saying pressure treated wood was fine for the inside. Then this old timer in the crowd pipes up and says pressure treated will mess up your birds over time because of the chemicals leeching out when it gets wet. I had just built my own coop 3 months before using pressure treated lumber for the roosts. I went home that night and tore out all the roosts and nesting boxes and replaced them with regular pine. My hens seem way more active now and they stopped having weird respiratory sounds. Has anyone else had issues with pressure treated wood in their coop?
I was driving through Lancaster, Ohio last weekend and stopped at this tiny farm store I'd never been to before. They had a chicken tractor built out of old pallets and PVC pipe, and the guy running the place showed me how he moves it every 3 days to fresh grass. It was so simple but sturdy, and his hens looked super happy scratching around in there. Has anyone else tried building one of those mobile coops with recycled materials?
I was outside yesterday and noticed my neighbor's rooster was going at it every 10 minutes. Then it hit me that my rooster, Rocky, hadn't made a peep since Monday. Turns out he had a respiratory infection from the damp bedding in the coop. I swapped it out with fresh pine shavings and gave him some electrolytes and he's starting to sound like himself again this morning. Anyone else had a quiet rooster turn out to be sick?
I was positive it was mites or a predator stress thing, but it turned out they just needed more daylight hours. Added a $20 shop light on a timer, and they were back to normal within three days. Has anyone else wasted months over something this basic?
I walked out at dawn last Tuesday to find a pile of feathers near the coop in Seattle. Turns out a raccoon had tried digging under the run, so I reinforced the whole base with hardware cloth the next afternoon. Has anyone else had raccoons test their coop foundation?
Last spring I switched from pine shavings to hemp bedding in my 8 hen coop after a friend kept going on about it. Honestly, I thought it was just hype until I cleaned out the coop after 3 months and saw maybe half the waste I got with pine. The hemp broke down way less, stayed fluffy, and I did not get that ammonia smell until week 10 instead of week 6. It costs like $2 more per bale but I use less of it and clean less often. Has anyone else tried switching and noticed a big difference in dust or smell?
On one hand, they ate every tick in sight (which is great for my kids playing out there), but on the other hand, two of them got picked off by a hawk within 3 days. Has anyone else dealt with this trade-off and found a middle ground?
I used to let my hens roam the yard all day until my neighbor Jim told me he lost three birds to a hawk last spring. He showed me where the hawk came back three times in one week and that made me realize my setup was basically a buffet. Has anyone else had a predator change how you manage free-range time?
She said her hens lay way more since she let them roam her half-acre yard, and I was scared of predators but she just uses a livestock guardian dog. Has anyone else tried mixing a dog with their chicken setup or is that too risky for smaller backyards?
Started tracking in April and the tally just hit 50, which means each bird laid about 17 eggs so far, wild. Anyone else's breakfast menu totally taken over by their flock?
I was dead set against spending $150 on an automatic coop door. Thought it was just a lazy person gadget. Then last February we got that freak cold snap and I forgot to close the coop hatch before bed. Woke up to a frozen rooster and two hens huddled in the corner. $150 later and I haven't had a single issue since. The timer and light sensor combo means I don't have to worry if I get home late. Anyone else have a close call that made them cave and buy something fancy?
Lid got jammed with morning dew on day 3 and locked my hens out overnight, lost two to a raccoon. Anyone else stick with manual hinges after a bad experience with auto doors?
I live in Minnesota where it gets real cold. Every winter I fight with frozen chicken waterers. Heated ones are expensive and break after one season. Last December I tried something dumb. I took an old cooler and cut a hole in the lid big enough for the waterer base. Fill the cooler with hot water before bed. Wrapped the waterer with an old towel inside the cooler. It stayed liquid for nearly 14 hours straight. Even when it hit 8 degrees outside. My girls had fresh water all night. Has anyone else tried a DIY method like this that actually held up in deep cold?
When I first started with chickens 8 years ago in my little backyard coop in Ohio, I refused to use medicated feed. Thought it was a scam, you know, just a way to charge more. Then I lost 3 out of 12 chicks to coccidiosis in one week (awful, watching them go downhill fast). Switched to medicated starter the next batch and haven't lost a single one since. Anyone else have a stubborn moment that cost them some birds?
I bought a cheap automatic chicken door closer on Amazon for $40 back in November after losing two birds to a raccoon. That little gadget popped the door shut at dusk every single night through January when I was stuck at work late. Has anyone else had luck with those magnetic timer models or did you get burned by a dud?
I got tired of replacing those cheap plastic waterers every time we had a hard freeze. Spent $45 on a 5-gallon galvanized one from the farm supply in Grand Rapids. No cracks, no leaks, and the hens figured out the nipples in about a day. Anyone else made the switch and notice less algae buildup too?
Last spring a lady down the street said my coop had too many birds for the space. I had 8 hens in a 4x6 coop and thought that was fine. She showed me the math about needing 4 square feet per bird inside the coop. Now I have 5 hens in there and they stopped picking on each other and egg production actually went up. Has anyone else downsized their flock and seen better behavior?
Back in 2021 I built a coop out of scrap wood and it fell apart in a storm after six months, lost two hens to a raccoon. Last month I finally rebuilt it with proper hardware cloth and treated lumber, cost me about $200. Anyone else have a first coop that just didn't work out?
I was grabbing some oyster shell at Tractor Supply last weekend and noticed their display coop had a big heat lamp over the nesting boxes. I asked the clerk about it and she said a lot of new owners put heat lamps there during winter, but honestly, aren't they just asking for a fire hazard with all that dry straw? Has anyone else seen bad advice like that being pushed in stores?
I was picking up oyster shell last Saturday and this guy in his 70s told me he feeds his hens scrambled eggs every other week. I always thought that would make them cannibals or something. He said as long as you cook them good, it's just protein and calcium that beats any store supplement. Has anyone else tried this with their flock?
I always used straw because it's what my dad used, but after 3 months of dealing with moldy spots and mites last summer I finally tried pine shavings. The smell is way better and the girls seem to kick it around less, so the nesting boxes stay cleaner. Anyone else have a preference between the two for deep litter?
She said it made their shells stronger and their feathers shinier, has anyone else tried feeding cooked eggs back to their flock or is that just asking for trouble?
I spent all summer trying to stop the rats from getting into my chickens' feed, bought a treadle feeder off Amazon, a cheap plastic one from Tractor Supply, and even tried hanging a bucket with a lid. The rats chewed through the plastic one in a week, the treadle kept jamming when wet, and the bucket ended up spilling everywhere. Has anyone else had luck with a specific kind of feeder that actually keeps rodents out but is still easy for the hens to use?