[chocchicken]

  hi there.
we are new owners to 3 x 13 week old pullets, and still learning! i have  a couple of questions i hope someone kind can help me with?

we have an arc which is 8.5 x 3.5 ft, but the chooks spend most of the day in the garden, pooing everywhere!

the arc is very strong with welded mesh flooring but after reading on the net a bit we decided to put it on pavers and not on the grass, due to ease of cleaning etc

after yesterdays rain, its a soggy mess! the floor is covered with straw and we have logs and a  dust bath in there. so is now rather damp and their feeded got wet so the food wasnt coming down it was all damp, poor things.

anyway weve decided to get some plastic coragated stuff to completely cover one side (the back) and the top half of the front cutting a whole for the door! (remember its an arc) leaving the bottom half open so they can still see out. hopefully this will stop problem of wet run?

a question about cleaning- i poo pick twice daily and last weekend we emptied out and moved arc and swept pavers, ive heard of jeyes fluid? what is it and where do i buy? or is there another brand? and how often do i need to clean with this and what parts of the house- pavers? wooden areas? nest box? (current sleeping area!)

were going to start blocking off nest box to encourage them onto the perch at night as they are pooping lots in there.

is it normal for them to shed what looks like skin flkakes? each day i empty nest box there is loads in there!

and last but not least- do i need to dust them with redmite powder as a precaution or only use as a treatment if needed? and what about the house?

sorry for the essay, if anyone can add anything to that which will be of help- thanks loads!

[archiesgems]

Hi there

you will be fine covering the arc as long as they are free ranging otherwise leave it open so that they can get the vits they need from what little sun we get.

i would remove the logs as these are a good place for mites to live, and jayes can be bought from your local garden centre or tesco's sell it.

use a weak solution once a week to cean the floors and feeders 2% solution and i clean mine once a month adding 400ml to 5 litres of water, this i put in a pressure spray and spray the whole inside of the sheds, make sure its a nice day so that you can lock your chooks out for at least an hour as the fumes are quite strong.

as a precation i would dust with diatom. dust the birds the perche's and the nest boxes

[Foxy]

Hello choc chicken and welcome to the forum
Using a layer of woodchips is preferable to straw, which as you have found turns into a soggy mess!
The arc, I am presuming the top is the living quarters? Using your measurements = 3.09 m sq, now the absolute minimum run space usually recommended is 1msq per bird, so although within the limit, will cause the run to get messy and smelly very quickly.
However, as you free range them it shouldn't be too much off a problem for now. What some people have done very successfully is enclosed the house+run combo into a much larger run area.
Regarding Jeyes you buy in most places, even in supermarkets
Finally, the "skin flakes" you are seeing is the residue from the adult moulting process ans is simply the coating which surrounds the new feather.

[Foxy]

whoopsie sorry AG!!! missed your post there

[barbarella]

I hope I can help with some of the points.  First, leaving the ark on grass in one place - it won't stay grass for long and will be a muddy or dusty mess as the chooks will eat every blade of grass and dig holes for dust baths.  If you have a large area of grass you can try moving the ark around, but a better bet would be to use wood chips or bark chips on top of the soil or grass.  Every so often you can rake it out, replace it  and put it the used stuff on the compost heap or the flower borders but make sure you spread it around the plants and not touching them as fresh poultry manure is alkalline and will damage them.  Two or three times a year, you can rake in some garden lime to sweeten the soil, and water in well. 

Obviously, you let your girls free range while you are doing all this   We have quite a large garden but we soon realised they can wreck the lawn and flower beds if you let them roam all day.  They have the run of an extension area with compost bins, and during they spring when there lots of young plants,  they have to make do with that.  At this time of the year, we let them range for an hour or two a day and with only three birds the damage is containable.  We have just got two more so maybe we will change our view on that!

Jeyes fluid is useful to add to the suds when cleaning out the coop.  You can get it from  pet and corn stores and garden centres.  Gardeners use it when cleaning their greenhouses and seed trays etc. 

We did have a bit of pooping in the nest box to begin with but after a while they mainly did it when on the roosting bars. 

I have never noticed skin flakes on our chooks - perhaps someone else can help with this.  Haven't used redmite powder either and we haven't had a problem.  Could be because we have an Eglu which is a moulded plastic coop so easy to clean in the nooks and crannies.  It can be more a problem with wooden houses.  We do worm our girls though.  You have to put a tube down their throats which sounds like hard work but was easier than we thought.

Hope this is of some help - good luck!

[barbarella]

Whoops sorry AG and Foxy - I think we were all falling over ourselves  replying at the same time!