any tips for my new chicken house & garden?

[smudgley]

we are in the process of making a chicken house and garden!
Any tips for us? We are new to this. We have a shed for them and are fencing them off a little garden.
What bedding do you use?

I know they'll need heating when they are babies - but do adult chickens need a heatlamp at night in the winter?

[Diane]

Hiya - again.

No - adult hens don't need a heatlamp at night. They usually have enough body warmth between them to keep warm.
For bedding I use dust extracted wood shavings from any agricultural store (Easibed). Don't use any hay as it may contain mould spores. For the nest boxes I use the easibed as well as a little straw but I find they always scrape the straw out anyway and just sit in the shavings! They'll need a perch. According to what breed will depend on how high the perch will be, but about 6-8" for bantam breeds is fine. Silkies don't like to perch.
Stalosan F is a good product to sprinkle about in the litter - keeps it sweet smelling. I also liberally sprinkle hens and nest boxes with red-mite powder weekly to prevent any infestations. Also you will need to worm them twice a year - autumn and spring - Flubenvet is a reliable and safe product.

Hope this helps.

[Sandy]

How many chickens do you intend to have

Do you have predators .. if yes then you really need to construct your coop and outside area to suit.. chicken wire will not keep them out.. you need something much stronger and you need to put down a barrier outside the coop area where you put the mesh

For example.. digging down and putting rocks all along the boundary.. so any digging animal can't dig its way under the wire.. or spread the wire out about 1 or 2 feet then cover with rocks.. for same reason

Perches... or roosts.. put them all at the same height.. the most dominant her will want to get up first and go to bed last.. if you have the tier roost the dominant hen will upset every one when she comes to bed.. standing on them and you will have a heck of a racket

If they are all at the same level.. the roosting is much quieter and no fighting

Nest boxes.. I use lettuce boxes and I cut out one of the larger sides.. but I leave a 15cm high kick board .. this is so the girls don't kick out the nesting material

I also use a bit of old carpet in the bottom to make is soft and then put news paper on top of that to make it easy cleaning.. I use shredded newspaper for the nesting material.. when it is soiled I just pick up two or three sheets of news paper and the nesting material and pop it all into the compost heap

When the box looks a bit tatty I put them into the compost heap also and get another one.. free and easy

I clean out the nests once a week .. making sure no lice or mites are in the coop or nests

I have a solid floor.. tried dirt.. tried wood.. tried shavings.. all were too expensive to upkeep.. so I put down concrete and floor tiles.. easy to scrap the droppings up each day and easy to clean and disinfect

I use roosts that are wood .. 3 inches by 2 inches.. and I round the edges.. this stops just about all foot problems.. make sure any nails or fasteners are well hidden.. just one can do major damage to a hens foot, even jumping down off a roost onto a small rock can do major damage to a hens foot

Hope this helps you

Sandy

[smudgley]

thanks again Diane & Sandy - more useful info for me. I really appreciate it & need all the advice I can get.

not sure how many chicks we are getting maybe 4/5/6?

and we have Jemimma Puddleduck already. (young Muscovy duck)

[mollyd0g]

I use cardboard boxes foe nest boxes as well. They are so easy to make and very hygienic coz you just get rid of them when they are a bit worse for wear! The hen do scratch holes in the bottom eventually, but they are free to replace and there is no more on your hands and knees scrubbing a small wooden nesting box that has been pooed in or trying to treat for spider mite etc. You just throw it away.