One Chicken Floor Upgrade Option

Maybe you’re looking for new ways to upgrade your chicken coop floor?  If so, here’s an idea you might take a look at:

concrete floors are easy to clean, rodent proof, fireproof, and give many years of good use.  So this may be just what you’re poultry house needs this spring.

You just want to make sure that where you put a concrete patch is at a home you’re going to be at for many years, or were other people can appreciate having it.  You definitely don’t want to drive down the value of your home, because there is a massive, permanent scene in patch in the backyard that no one can get rid of.

I just mention this as a way to upgrade, if you’ve been looking for something nicer and easier to maintain.

Kelson

One Family’s Chicken Experiment — Gone Awry

Lest you think keeping chickens is always fun and games, there is a high likelihood that you will grow tired of your little flock at some point.

In fact, this reader has reached the point, and it has come with some heavy personal losses for her. And while you can clearly see that it’s due to some choices she made (along with her family), you can also see a pretty easy way to resolve the issue.

I’m not going to tell you about the article, I’d rather you read the whole thing yourself. It’s very entertaining, and well written. Wendyl Nissen, writing for the New Zealand Herald, gives a very clear picture of the problem:

Chicken Raising Problem

Now, what I do want to say is this …

The answer to the problem, as she alluded to at the end, was to put up a properly contained chicken coop. A well-built chicken house that has proper poultry wire in place - and that contains the chickens properly. So that they don’t invade your plants, your yard, your airspace, your garden … or even worse … your neighbors.

One option around this is the 6 - 10 chicken coop step-by-step plan here.

Talk soon,
Kelson

Shade Tip for Free-Range Chickens

Most poultry raisers agree on the value of shade for your birds, while their free ranging during the hot summer months. Trees, sunflower plants, and various shelters are all used effectively to give shade during this time.

However, due to some large losses that occurred last year, you want to make sure that you provide plenty of clearing between the shaded areas that you provide, as well as providing a lot of shade.

Here’s what happened… where some plants and crops were grown, in localized spaces, to provide shade for their flock, the birds tended to pile up in those places which caused huge losses. So again, you want to make sure you have plenty of places where your flock can get shade. And, also you want enough shade spots, where they won’t have to pile up together to get the shade.

It can definitely get hot out there, and you want to keep your flock safe from over-heating.

All the best,
Kelson

Presidential Pet Posting

While most of the news you’re going to hear right now is about the President’s arduous search for the perfect puppy, I wanted to point out some of the other animals kept by past Presidents.

Calvin Coolidge, kept ‘a raccoon, a bobcat, a donkey, a wallaby, a pygmy hippo, a small antelope and a black bear.’
‘Andrew Johnson just kept the mice he found scampering around in his bedroom.’
‘John Quincy Adams and Herbert Hoover had alligators, while Harry S. Truman owned a boa constrictor.’
And last, but certainly not least …

William McKinley kept roosters

What is strange to me is how eccentric some of them seem to be with their pets, rather than practical. I’m not sure if that’s because they felt they had to be on the forefront of society? Or if they just really enjoyed those types of pets.
Anyhow, you can read more about this strange collection of animals in this Forbes.com article by Kiri Blakely.

Catch you soon,
Kelson