Chickens!!

[Climber85]

Nice looking chicken house but its not advised to have felt on the roof. Its down to "red mite" which will live under the felt and come out at night and feast off the blood of the chickens! If you notice the chickens are stopping to lay or find red spots on the eggs, this may be the problem. Poultry Shield is a liquid used to get rid of them but if you do get them, your roof will need changing for tongue and groove / corrugated plastic etc.

 

I've been very lucky and have avoided it so far... thats me jinxed now!!

 

Thanks for the heads up!

 

The colour was chosen by the owner (Mum) Farrow and Ball of all things!

 

No names as of yet but I swear there an episode of chicken run going on in there. One will come out and do a perimeter check then go back inside, another will come out and BANG straight up onto the fence!!!! Wing of each has been clipped! Is it worth clipping both? Or will this just give them flight as they arnt unbalanced?

[windfall]

Only do one wing so as to off balance them, we have 4 foot chicken wire and they dont seem to be able to get onto that. But they do jump onto the style which is 2 foot.

 

We have one that we have called Ginger as she is always testing the fence and escaping, last week i had to add 5m of more mesh to stop her getting out. To be fair she was just slipping through stock fence as i ran out of chicken wire when building the run lol.

 

I didnt put her in the coal bunker as punishment.

[blazer]

Only do one wing so as to off balance them, we have 4 foot chicken wire and they dont seem to be able to get onto that. But they do jump onto the style which is 2 foot.

 

We have one that we have called Ginger as she is always testing the fence and escaping, last week i had to add 5m of more mesh to stop her getting out. To be fair she was just slipping through stock fence as i ran out of chicken wire when building the run lol.

 

I didnt put her in the coal bunker as punishment.

 

Chicken pie Mr Preedy:sneaky2:

[Climber85]

1 Wing it is then!

 

Ive added a bit more on the fence which deter them a bit I hope!!

[NI Tree]

one thing for fencing for poltory is to have the botom of the wire tight and the top lose aas birds do not like flying over it as it might move in the wind.

[brassmonkey001]

One of mine kept escaping despite clipping her wings and thoroughly checking for holes in the fence. The only other way I could see was through a series of jumps and small flights involving some bricks, a water butt, an apple tree and then onto the hen house roof and flying off from there. It seemed very unlikely and must have involved the Mission Impossible theme tune but I blocked the route with a piece of ply and it did the trick.

Hens, like sheep, are very stupid creatures but they can show impressive mental acuity when it comes to escaping their confines. Shame they're not so clever when it comes to getting back in at night though.

[stoker-steam]

Spider mite will be a problem, no matter how clean you keep your coop.

 

The best spray I have used is Columbine

 

Colombine Pigeon Products

 

I use this on the birds, just put a sock end over there heads and get the spray under the feathers from the vent right up to the neck.

 

Lovely coop there,

[likeitorlumpit]

Spider mite can be a problem even with a totally plastic house

In the end if you don't realise whats going on they just stop laying altogether

Ours were great and I really miss the eggs cos supermarket 'free range' just arn't the same or even close.

Watch out for foxy- they like chicken