I gave the
coop a good spring cleaning Saturday. We
use the “deep litter method” in our chicken coop. It works best at keeping down odor and debris
as well as keeping the hens warm enough through the winter months. It also means we only need to deep clean the
coop about twice a year and do an occasional poop scoop in between.
Stella came to help. |
Bessie inspects my work. |
I raked
out the pen area and cleaned the feeders.
Once refilled I gave the girls some hen scratch mixed with a little
ground oyster shell or “candy” as we call it.
They really love the scratch feed.
I also gave them a lot of praise and loves. They have been such good girls with all their
diligent egg laying.
While I
was out there I made some plans for expanding their pen area to give them more
room to run around and make it nicer for when we eventually add new chickens to
the flock.
I keep
their feed in plastic bins with tight fitting lids in our garage along with the
bale of pine shavings. I usually buy 40
pounds of feed pellets every 10 to 12 weeks and the pine shavings once a year. Oyster shell lasts a long time and the 20
pounds of hen scratch as well. I will
probably only need to buy three bags of scratch a year, if that.
We
supplement their diets with our kitchen fruit and vegetable scraps and any
stale bread, which they love. We also
let them loose in the yard to eat grass and worms plus any bugs they catch
while they scratch around. They definitely
got our ant problem in the backyard under control last summer.
Happy ladies! |
We sure
love our girls.
Sure wish I could raise chickens! Nothing better than fresh eggs. --S--
ReplyDeleteThey are fabulous! :)
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