[DenisCooper]

Happy new year to all, hope 2017 brings joy and happiness!

Since having to keep the birds in, or the wild birds out, the chickens, ducks and geese have been pretty miserable all cooped up together. Although the enclosure I built is a decent size (30m square) the ducks have turned the grass into a mud bath, the rain hasn't helped either.

I've been putting wood clippings, hay and straw down on the floor but it's a bit of a never ending battle so the hens are going in of a night along with the ducks and geese and making the coops pretty dirty.

Short of topping up and changing the ground covering daily and cleaning the coops out has anyone got any clever tips and ideas that might help?

Thnaks

[Marches Farmer]

Alas, no.  I'm on the Poultry Register and haven't yet heard that the 6th January "release" date is to be extended so hopefully they won't have to be kept in for much longer.  I'm looking forward (not) to a few days' of heavy-duty coop cleaning after the 7th.

[Eve]

If you have any or can get them from a business premise / industrial estate, can you put some wooden pallets in for the chickens to stand on? Keeps them off the ground for a little while. Maybe a little stack of pallets, stick some straw in them? Make a square with some timber and fill it with woodchips as a play pen?


I've gone through more bedding than usual as well, will be glad when it's all over as the dustmen refuse to take more than 1 wheelie bin and cleaning ours fills quite a few bins.

[twizzel]

Can you get hold of some woodchip- my hens and ducks are on a thick 6-8inch layer of woodchip and coping well. The hens love it and are much much cleaner. I just take it over every couple of weeks to level out the pits and troughs they have made through scratching.

I think this lockdown will last longer than 6th Jan unfortunately 

[DenisCooper]

Pallets are a good idea and I've actually freed a few up over the last few days from where the hay was stored.

I've also just chipped down a whole tweet that was rotten and it's chipped quite nicely so will that in the enclosure too.

Fingers crossed for the 7th!

[Backinwellies]

Pallets are a good idea and I've actually freed a few up over the last few days from where the hay was stored.

I've also just chipped down a whole tweet that was rotten and it's chipped quite nicely so will that in the enclosure too.

Fingers crossed for the 7th!

Love the typo!

[lord flynn]

for my ducks I've put down pallets and covered them with grass mats and some other old rubber matting I have laying about. I have chucked some hay and straw down on top for them to root about it-its worked, kept them clean. I have pallets dotted about in the winter anyway-to give them something to stand on in cold/wet weather-the chooks, ducks and geese always make use of them.
The chickens are on deep littered chopped straw.
I really don't see this being lifted yet-I'd prepare for another 30 days lockdown.