In all of my years raising chickens I have had to make many modifications. Today I want to share my top 5 list of things that I believe every chicken coop needs.
First is a mass waterer. Not just a waterer, but a mass waterer. Something that can store alot of fresh and clean water. We use a 5 gallon bucket with drip nipples on the bottom.
Second is a mass feeder. I believe that chickens should be able to free feed. Especially if they are egg layers.
Third is ventilation. The more the merrier. Coops can get very dusty and full of ammonia. So you want to take care of your birds lungs.
Fourth is a good pop door. I prefer the guillotine style. Predators can lift it but not lift it and go under at the same time.
Last is an exterior laying box. This allows you to collect eggs from the outside and keeps you out of the coop.
With all of these things I also think that we should keep a closed system, or keep our access on the outaide of the coop. Feed, water, collect etc. all from the outside. The walk in model may have worked in the past, but we now know a better way.
I hope that every family will one day own chickens as a way to take care of their family and their property.
This is just another one of my #innerblocks!
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~The Yeti
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Well said sir yeti @freedompoint....
I am not expert in the chicken field but I think you have to inject some vaccine to your chicken for their healthcare and safe life.
Thanks
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Well, honestly I don't believe on that sort of approach. I lile to keep it natural. If you raise animals in an appropriate environment then they will take care of themselves.
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Yes you are right... They are happy and growing in natural environment.
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If you buy your chicks from a reliable breeder, and feed them right including plenty of probiotics, vaccines are pretty much unnecessary.
And, if you grow organically as I do, vaccines are unwanted, as the vaccines contain a lot of chemical and/or heavy metal adjuvants that I sure don't want in any eggs I eat.
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Yes I agree with you, I already mentioned that I am not expert in this field but I heard that the vaccines are good for chicks when they are grown up in the cages and some sort of bounded areas, these vaccines are not necessary for those chicks which are grown up in natural environment. So if you have provided the natural environment for your chickens than you have to feed them naturally and no need of any chemicals to inject in the bodies of your chickens.
Sorry for inconvenience as my comments was not up to your understanding Sir.
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I had to read this to see if my dad Years ago was doing things right, for the mass waterer and mass feeder, he used himself and us Kids LOl, but the rest he had and his chickens always did and produced well
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Hahaha that is a great idea! Just use the kids haha
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lol, It worked for all of us
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I'm actually in the process of designing a better coop for our chickens, with the intention of including all of the above.
I do have one question, how do you keep your mass waterer and the individual nipples from freezing in the dead of winter?
We have a large shed, half of which was used for poultry by the previous owners, and I've thought of housing our chickens and rabbits together (with the rabbit hutches elevated), so that their combined warmth would keep their water from freezing, but that would mean that I'm still entering the coop to feed and gather eggs.
The dimensions are roughly 12' x 16', and I use deep litter method in the winter, so unless we add a LOT more birds (since we currently have only six chickens), there won't be any real issues with ammonia. I also add lime between layers of straw.
We did come up with a great mass feeder a few years back, not being happy with the designs and prices of those readily available, so we wound up using a roof vent cap and vent pipe turned upside down and hung inside the coop, which gives them ample room for everyone to feed at once if they so desire.
I do give them additional soaked feed every other day as well, so one day I fill their dry feeder, and the next I give them soaked feed, while giving them ample scratch grains daily.
It works great for our girls, and for the eight chickens and ducks we have currently, a single filling lasts them for two days. I'm hoping to separate them, though, as the ducks do great in their current enclosure, but it's really too wet in the rainy season for our chickens.
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Hey there! We had a coop with about 15 birds in it and the waterer was inside but we could open the door and stick a water hose in....we didnt have any issue with it freezing.
We have never done anything like soaked feed. We just did the regular feed that we bought, compost, and free range.
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I started to do fermented feeds, but that somehow never quite worked out, so I gave up and just went with soaked feeds, which I typically soak the night before I feed them.
Part of it is my way of using up the chick starter crumbles, since soaking the high protein feed makes it okay for everyone, and it'd been a good way of helping to keep my birds hydrated during our ridiculously hot weather this summer.
I add a large scoop of chia seeds, and two or three heaping spoonsful of diatomaceous earth for added minerals, along with a generous swig of organic apple cider vinegar, before mixing it all well with clean filtered water. Our girls have been laying better, and everyone has been happier overall, since I started doing so.
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I should note that we're in Zone 7a, though the previous three years our low temp each year was minus 3 degrees, which is pretty damned cold.
This last winter was far warmer, and our low temperature was 14 degrees, so pperhaps they really did revise our growing zone correctly..
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Wow. That sounds like a well thought out process! I love it
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Yeah, I'm pretty much a research junkie, and I started learning about natural foods when my dad bought a small health food store in the early seventies.
I have a fair amount of knowledge already, and keep adding to it, in the hopes that we can stave off any potential health issues.
The nicest thing is that everyone loves the soaked feed, including our rooster and our ducks, so there's little if any waste.
I make it in a 4-cup pyrex measuring cup, half fill it with chick crumbles, add the other ingredients, and fill it with filtered water.
The feed and chia seeds soak up the water overnight, so in the morning I scoop it out into two or three flat plastic food storage containers, which work well to feed our birds, as they are easy to clean.
I typically add more water before feeding them. The feed is usually gone within twenty minutes or so, so it seems to be the perfect amount for our eight birds.
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You've really spent some decent amount of your lifespan with the chickens! However, we the team at @build-it will heartily appreciate if you include #diy, #how-to, #build-it, and #doityourself to the list of your tags.
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