Chickens for bug control and food recycling.

[Beekissed]

Well...winter is supposed to be here, though it's not quite cold enough to call it that. Getting some good rain right now, which is badly needed.

Winter is when I get to trap a lot of poop in the coop, even more so than just getting to keep the poop under the roosts. While other people are fussing and worrying about cleaning the stuff OUT of their coops, I'm always hoping to have more deposited IN mine.

Winter is when I get to add more bedding, which in turn gets recycled into good compost, along with all those great poops. Spring, summer and fall are great for getting to add a lot of green stuff in there when I can get it and that's nice, but in the winter is when I get more moisture from the rains and snows, more poop when the chickens spend more time in the coop and more leaves added to keep the footing warm and dry.

All of that translates into garden gold by spring....

This stuff was thrown in there in mid-Oct. and you can't find any of that stuff at all...it's all broken down and underneath a couple layers of leaves right now.

Because I have a lot of good moisture coming into the coop~intentionally on my part and also due to the soil floors and the coop sitting at the bottom of a small hill~I get good composting all year round but especially in winter.

As a happy byproduct of all that composting, my chickens get to stay warmer even in their open air style coop....with temps 10* warmer at the roosts level than outside temps. The cool air entering at the floor level moves that warm air from the composting materials upwards...right past my flock and up to the roof vents. Fresh air, slightly warmed air, movement of humidity out of the coop and all that equals some very contented birds. No frostbite, even in temps -17* .

The best part is that the front of the coop stays pretty dry and dusty, so they have a place to dust, I have dry bedding to toss towards the back to cover the nightly deposits, and that goes on all winter long. They move it forward, I move it back until that all gets broken down so much that I have to add new leaves.

It's an easy breezy way to keep a winter coop that provides activity for the birds while confined by deep snow, continues to make compost for me all the while and everyone is comfortably warm, able to maintain their skin and repel parasites. No bad smells all year long, no flies, composted manure that I can place directly on the garden.

There's really no downside to any of this.

I think the turning point for this coop, the winter comfort and composting, was when I got a clear tarp for winter sunlight and when I stopped using pine shavings for bedding. From then on I started producing compost double time and the coop became a sunny and warmer place to enjoy the winter months.

Finally found the solution for that big ol' pup of mine and his egg stealin' ways. I hotwired the pop door and haven't lost an egg since. Right in time for my pullets to be coming into POL soon...they just had their 6 mo. birthday at Thanksgiving, so things should be happening this month.

 

[Beekissed]

Did a winter check on my garden helpers last night, along with two of my sons, who provided colorful commentary and documented my inspections and measurements.

I was pleased with the overall inspection, got to apply and assign numbered leg bands~not that they will stay on the birds....free range flock, so leg bands are quite frequently dislodged in the wild blue yonder and even right there in the coop.

These birds are big, but are docile, calm and easily handled. Sweet chickens, really.

Identified two breeders from this hatch and will be returning Beulah Mae to the breeding pen this year as well. She is the mama of some of this hatch. Named the two new breeder pullets Truvy and Clairee. As you can see, I go for southern names for my flock. They just have more musical tones when they roll off the tongue.

Ben's training is going along smoothly and he's now getting pretty big, will turn 7 mo. old here in a few days. He learned to load up in the truck this week and to stay in the truck until released from it. Will work on that further.

He's learned so very much in the 5 mo. he's been here and is turning out to be a great dog. Sweet. responsive to training, eager to please and willing to work. Doesn't bark unless he needs to, which is very seldom. Good with the chickens thus far.

There is much good compost making going on in the coop this winter....

And everyone is patiently waiting for spring....

It's 39 here this morning, so the birds think it's spring already and are foraging far and wide. Don't know if they are finding much, but they sure are working at it.

 

[Smart Red]

Your chickens look so cozy inside. Outside, like they are waiting for the door to open for them.

 

[Beekissed]

Always, Red. I just took a pic of them waiting on the back porch gate, a place they appear each morning while they wait hopefully for me to come out and feed.

Every move I make in this house is tracked by the animals outside and they must have fantastic hearing and vision.

 

[ducks4you]

I can't do the deep litter method. I live in a VERY wet climate and my coop's floor is off of the ground. It's a prefab coop, and I put down vinyl on the floor and gave it a couple of coats of paint before the girls moved in. But, I need to keep everything inside as dry as possible. I need this coop to last. I put down Equine Fresh, and then medium flake pine shavings. When it's really cold their poo sticks to the shavings. I compost it, along with the dirty stall cleaning from the horses.
I never throw out anything the birds will like, although rotten food gets composted, not fed. I still can't figure out why chickens like bread so much. They don't get much out of it. Everything dry and day old goes to my birds, but they eat outside. Their food bowl is in a 5 inch deep, ~2 ft. diameter rubber feeding bowl that is past it for the horses, and I fill it and push it under the coop. When it rains, their food is still dry.
I bag my grass clippings, empty it into my huge, 2 wheeled wheelbarrow, then dump it full into their run in the summer. They love playing in it and eating the grass, then, they use it like bedding. I have to strip it every few weeks, but it's starting to decompose by then, certainly no loss. Also, the worms and bugs work their way into it and the birds enjoy those, too.

 

[Smart Red]

Whew! I just came in from feeding the chickens. Didn't think I'd make it.

This is the first trip since all the rain froze. Solid ice pack between the coop and the house. Next trip, I will be sure to attach a mattock on each foot.

 

[ducks4you]

You should get a pair of these:
http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/4335...rc:cse.google.0BNX962006,cvo_crid:97296183320

 

[Nyboy]

Ducks I almost bought a pair at hardware store ( fell on ice 2x last year) nephew was with me made comment their for old people, I didn't buy. Boy can I be vain sometimes

 

[ninnymary]

Ducks I almost bought a pair at hardware store ( fell on ice 2x last year) nephew was with me made comment their for old people, I didn't buy. Boy can I be vain sometimes

After falling on ice, I immediately bought a pair of good snow boots that had super good traction. Are they pretty and fashionable? No, but they sure are warm and comfy. At my age I wasn't about to risk a broken hip!

Mary

 

[buckabucka]

@Beekissed , I like the photo of the chickens out in the snow! White snow, white dog, white chickens, and then a few melted dark patches, with the dark dog, and a couple dark chickens.

I also had a treacherous trip to the coop this morning @Smart Red . This afternoon though, it was mud. Very strange winter.