Chicken Advice Needed

[Slippy]

Chickens really are interesting birds. They can be extremely smart at times and extremely stupid at others but they are always supremely expressive. And always extremely entertaining.

I've got jerseys processing my compost. Fat ass chickens, lazy ass chickens. Don't fly EVER. Good eggs, good meat.
My Girl Carla (named after my brothers first girlfriend) sits on top of the compost all day, doesn't process but supervises. she'll even tell the rooster what to do when he's being a jerk shitwad; she started screaming at him once when he jumped on my little and he didn't listen so she moved herself from her throne and kicked him. I didn't really think chicken ladies could kick, oh but she did and he backed off. I love My Girl Carla, she's my second in command when hubbys gone!

I really enjoyed reading this post. An excellent example of literary expressive writing!

Stamp this one, "Slippy Approved"!

[Inor]

Boy did I learn a valuable lesson!

The chickens have been in the shack for about a month and it was working perfectly. We had put some sawdust on the floor to absorb the shit (below that, I had put down some 5/8" rubber to protect the plywood underneath). There were a few flies, but nothing too severe.

Then IT happened...

Sunday we had our first significant rain in over a year. It was wonderful. We had almost 2 1/2 inches in about 45 minutes. Unfortunately, I was an idiot and forgot to close the windows and door on the chicken shack until the storm was about half over. I went out in the height of the storm and closed it up and did not think anything of it until I went out yesterday to let them back out. Holy shit! The smell was enough to gag a maggot!!! Even worse, I had never seen flies so thick! The entire shack sounded like the inside of a propeller plane just from the sound of the flies! It was absolutely disgusting!

Doing anything about it yesterday was not possible as I had some pretty stiff work requirements. So today, we went out and took out all the sawdust, moved their food and water outside and basically emptied the entire shack out. We did not put down any new sawdust as I wanted to give it a day or two to fully dry out. By this evening is was markedly better than yesterday. The smell was back down to a tolerable level. It was still loaded with flies but not nearly as bad as it was. So I think we will get it back under control. But damn!

I did order some industrial strength fly bags that I can hang on the fence around their yard to maybe at least attract the flies outside. Hopefully that will help some too.

But I learned a valuable lesson... When the monsoon comes, MAKE DAMN SURE THE SHACK IS FULLY CLOSED UP!!!

[Mad Trapper]

Boy did I learn a valuable lesson!

The chickens have been in the shack for about a month and it was working perfectly. We had put some sawdust on the floor to absorb the shit (below that, I had put down some 5/8" rubber to protect the plywood underneath). There were a few flies, but nothing too severe.

Then IT happened...

Sunday we had our first significant rain in over a year. It was wonderful. We had almost 2 1/2 inches in about 45 minutes. Unfortunately, I was an idiot and forgot to close the windows and door on the chicken shack until the storm was about half over. I went out in the height of the storm and closed it up and did not think anything of it until I went out yesterday to let them back out. Holy shit! The smell was enough to gag a maggot!!! Even worse, I had never seen flies so thick! The entire shack sounded like the inside of a propeller plane just from the sound of the flies! It was absolutely disgusting!

Doing anything about it yesterday was not possible as I had some pretty stiff work requirements. So today, we went out and took out all the sawdust, moved their food and water outside and basically emptied the entire shack out. We did not put down any new sawdust as I wanted to give it a day or two to fully dry out. By this evening is was markedly better than yesterday. The smell was back down to a tolerable level. It was still loaded with flies but not nearly as bad as it was. So I think we will get it back under control. But damn!

I did order some industrial strength fly bags that I can hang on the fence around their yard to maybe at least attract the flies outside. Hopefully that will help some too.

But I learned a valuable lesson... When the monsoon comes, MAKE DAMN SURE THE SHACK IS FULLY CLOSED UP!!!

Reminds me of my days on the farm as a youngster....."Hey, it's about time for you to go clean out the chicken coop and pig pen, they are getting pretty ripe!"

[bigwheel]

Kindly look at this and report back for a pop quiz on Tuesday..try to bring Slippy too if hes sobered up any. Thanks.
https://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/garden...ks-or-chickens

[Mad Trapper]

Kindly look at this and report back for a pop quiz on Tuesday..try to bring Slippy too if hes sobered up any. Thanks.
https://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/garden...ks-or-chickens

But I remember stepping on a duck egg, that got laid out in the weeds, and my boot stunk a whole week even after cleaning the barns......

[bigwheel]

We've raise up several batches of Easter Ducks. Highly cool critters. Had one big white one named Fred who started laying an egg per day and morphed into Fredda. She would hang with me all night waiting to dump the june bugs out of the pool skimmer basket. She would fight me over a a smoked spare rib when outdoor cooking. She bunked with four dogs in the mancave where I kept a heater running in the winter. She was madly in love with one dog and tried to rob food from another and knew which one dont try it. She lived on dog food and only learned to like the swimming pool after too many drunk people threw her in late at night. She liked a dishpan of water before that.

[Inor]

Kindly look at this and report back for a pop quiz on Tuesday..try to bring Slippy too if hes sobered up any. Thanks.
https://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/garden...ks-or-chickens

In my particular case, ducks are not really an option. I live in the desert. There is not standing water within 50 miles and creating a pond or similar for them would be an effort in futility. Plus the water would attract all kinds of nasty animals and bugs that I really want to avoid.

[bigwheel]

They can do fine without water except to drink. Get em a little wading pool and dump it out each night. That should work by cracky.