Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: Shazzer on September 24, 2007, 21:32
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Now that it is getting cold is there anything I need to be doing to my hen house in preperation for the cold weather? It' pretty draft proof, apart form the air holes, but will it need something more , especially when its freezing cold.
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its not cold as kills em shazzer its draughts ..... so shut up tight and go inside n see where the gaps are , fix em n ur sorted :wink:
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I cant fit in there
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well send a kid in or the hubby lol :wink: shut the door and see if tey can sort it fer ya lol :lol:
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Thanks Munty, I don't think its drafty, maybe I could get some draft exluders for around the door lol. and maybe a hot water bottle!
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no hot water bottle .. thye will sweat n get colds :lol:
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put a light in to keep them laying. thats what ive heard of, and we're doing it this winter.
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that works by extending the daylight hours but it is not intended to be on all hours . the maximum laying time is during 14 hours of sunlight or there abouts . if you try to force the birds to over produce they suffer ... all things need a break :wink: :lol:
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my bad on not saying that. thank you muntjac :roll:
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no bad chicks ,,, its something i wont do is all ... :wink:
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Hi this is the first time that I have had chickens and also the first time on this forum so bear with me?? Would I be right in saying that we should put in a really thick layer of straw on the floor of the hen house?? We have already put a good deal in the nest boxes. I am just thinking of keeping them all warm. Thanks for your help
Green man
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I don't give the chooks extra light either. my ex batt hens had to lay all the time and had lots of artifical light. so we let them behave like 'normal' chooks. In the winter, they go to bed early when it gets dark. In the summer, they don't go to bed until 10pm!!!
And like Munty says, as long as they are not draughty. After all, their ancestors were wild animals!!!
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welcome to the gang greenman :) pop up to welcomes and tell us a bit about urself .all the women on here are nosey .so give summat to do :wink: :lol: a good idea the thick straw layer greenman if the house is a concrete /mud floor one . if its wood the moisture will soon get the wood sodden n rot the floor . and you dont need loads straw in the nest boxes as they roost on perches not in the nests matey :wink: just make sure the place is draugt proof but make sure its got ventilation and iot will be fine .... when sever weather used to hit we used to put straw bales around the houses to stop the wind sucking the warmth out of the coops and cover with a tarp but also kept the vents open and clear, mind it was minus 30'c lol :lol: and the chickens still went outside when the sun shone :shock:
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Shazzer, if you can't fit into your henhouse, then in evening, set a bright light (eg flashlight) in the coop and from outside note and mark where the light comes through. You can repair those externally next day. I used good caulk on my previous coop and that worked fine against drafts.
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How about this Shazzer?
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1417224.html
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Kind of takes 'the medium is the message' to a whole new level. :lol:
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:lol: :lol: very snazzy. might get one for the chooks
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Whereabouts in LA are you, chicks? I was in New Orleans a few years back. Would have enjoyed it loads more if not for the severe humidity and frequent rain. My truck driving son was trying to get out of NO just as Katrina hit. Took him 7 hours to do 50 miles due to the traffic, wind and lack of gas for cars. Thankfully rigs come loaded with 2 mega diesel tanks.
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baton rouge, where katrina only caused mild flooding. nothing big.
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You were fortunate missing the flooding.
3 years ago my son, who raises racing pigeons, found a stranger in his coop. We checked the leg tag online and discovered that the bird was registered to a guy in Lafayette, LA. He was surprised that his bird had gotten so off track, mostly because he wasn't even sure where Canada was. :lol: In the end he said don't send it back, just kill it. 'Don't want no bird that goes the wrong way'. :lol: And we did because we didn't want any birds with no sense of direction either. I could picture this bird eventually reaching Baffin Island (in the Arctic) :lol:
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can i just add to ur post trill ..... that guy was a jerk .they lose way due to weather conditions and hunger , my sisters ex races birds up in yorkshire and he gets strays in and returns them to the owner regardless and they wont just wander off willy nilly. i have shot the odd one by mistake when flighting woodies . rather than kill em offer it to a youngster who is starting off ,he can breed his own birds using that same ring and get proof tat the bird has been transfered to his flock . i find em in the barns on the estate ( we trap ferals ) and hand em onto a mate here who keeps em and he has had a few birds " rehomed ", when you think that a bird can be worth £100.000 its just a small investment in the time taken to get it given away for a young kid to make to be able to keep em ,
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whats it all about/
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racing pigeons :wink:
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Kudos to you Mont. I wouldn't kill a bird with potential, however I do have a Red Tailed Hawk that I'm aimin' to shoot.
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We're well aware of their value, Munty, and if you don't really have the money, which my son didn't at the time, (nor I) we couldn't afford to feed a lot of extra mouths. As it was my son tried to give away or even sell for 2 quid extra birds he didn't want (not up to racing standards) but we couldn't find a single taker and we tried for ages. No kids or other racing fans were interested and we tried numerous clubs. So, unlike chickens which will at least give you eggs for their feed, we had to do some in. The rest are freeloading for a while longer. No point in releasing them as they're unable to fend for themselves and just return expecting to be fed.
While it's true that lost birds can get sick or hungry, at some point they should be able to get back on track. To wander from Louisiana on the Gulf of mexico to Canada is a bird that will never get it right.
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wow ,tahts some detour lolo mind they do taste ok :wink: