Chickens in the rain

Being new to chickens, I have read alot about how to care for them.  Everyone has their own experiences and what works best for them.  Bottom line is that animals are versatile for the most part and will function just fine usually with what type shelter they are provided.  However, there are some ways to improve what you provide and make it a little more livable for them, especially in wet, cold,  or even hot weather. 

My chickens like to hang out in the alpacas barn (30×50 feet) if the weather is not nice for pasture foraging.  In the heat, they also like to hang out under the elevated coops (base size is 4×8 set up on  a cement block at each corner) where the cool earth and breezes  cool them.  In the winter the barn, bright sun, and hay on the floor helps warm them.  Their coops keep them warm enough at night when I shut them in and they can burrow into the deep litter and they mound together.  The decomposing litter also generates some heat, so I read, from the decomposition, which would create some heat for them.  So, keeping a deep litter in the coop is an easy way to improve their warmth.  I use a kitty litter scoop to remove any clumpy wet litter and to swish around the top layer into the bottom layer and get it started drying out.  I put a hook on one of the coop studs out of the way so I can reach the scoop and it’s so easy to keep the nest boxes, roosts and litter floor cleaned up.

Dealing with frozen water in winter is difficult.  Fortunately, they don’t need as much water as they do in summer, so they drink out of the alpacas buckets which take longer to freeze,   and I make sure  they start off the morning with fresh unfrozen water in their little waterers.  There are some heated waterers and heated bases to sit them on, but I have not tried those.  Last winter was the first winter and they all did just fine.  Since there isn’t really much of anything to forage from the pastures, I make sure their feed containers are kept full as the digesting of food will generate some body heat.  They also like to burrow into the alpacas hay troughs.  The alpacas eat “around” them. 

We don’t have too many “freeze” days in this part of the US, but still need to be ready for them because they almost always take us by surprise.

I have recommended them before, but I will again, and that is two books I have referred to constantly: Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, by Gail Damerow, and the other is The Encyclopedia of Country Living, by Carla Emery.  Find them at Amazon.com and you can create a book list and they will e-mail you whenever the prices change, higher or lower.  A great place to shop online.

The wetter the better–not!

One summer we took our daughter and son to Colorado on vacation when they were in middle school and high school.  We went river rafting and bought shirts to mark the event that said “the wetter the better”, which for river rafting is true.  However, in October in Texas  it is not. The rain has just been never ending it seems and we are all tired of the muck, especially we who must slog through it in the barnyard.  But, things are looking up and we hear that tomorrow will be the last of the rain. Hooray!

The dampness has settled into the barn and the  packed earth floor has become rather damp.  I have turned on the two large ceiling fans to move the still air around and try to dry it out some.  And of course the alpacas do not want to use their outdoor poop piles, so where are they going? Of course, they are.  Inside the barn, causing a little odor.  However, as far as clean up goes, I would rather clean up in there than have a mucky mess outside to clean up, so I cannot complain too much. 

I use Stall Dry on the inside poo areas after cleaning up and have I mentioned how much I loooooove Stall Dry. It deodorizes and sops up moisture (10x it’s weight, I read)  I will be sprinkling around the inside of the chicken coops this weekend,after cleaning out about 1/3 of the litter and replacing with new.  It is important to keep some old litter in the coop because, as I understand,  it has the established microbes already in place that are cleaning up and breaking down  the litter and will migrate into the new litter to keep it all breaking down correctly.  The old litter I clean out will go into the compost pile.  I have not had any moisture or odor problems in the coop with the deep litter.

The chickens do not seem to mind the wet and they do live in the barn during the day and hang out, dust and fluff, and clean up errant crickets.

I will keep my eyes open, but have not seen my hummingbirds.  I hung out freshly filled feeders just in case.  I did see one lone Monarch butterfly today on its journey south.

I plan to enjoy the new dry weather and get things decorated  for Halloween.

Livestock barns and bad weather

Well, finally, in our neck of the woods (we don’t really have “woods” here) it is raining.  It has rained all day.  We have small trees and a few big trees, big shrubs and right now tall sunflowers that need to be mowed down, but no woods, really.  I don’t really wish for woods; they bring their own predator issues.

Dash and her cria, Summer Surprise

I really enjoy going into the big barn, 30×50, in bad weather.  The alpacas are cushing and munching their hay, and are contented to be protected from the weather.  I don’t know how many places we visited, or articles we read, that suggested that a 3 sided shelter is all that alpacas need in the field.  I would like to wholeheartedly DISagree with that statement.  Especially when you have little ones that need some warmth and dryness.  I cannot imagine animals, especially several, trying to tuck in under a 3 sided shelter.  I would not want to be them.  Our chicken’s have warm and dry coops too, or they hang out in the warm and dry barn until nightfall. then go in the coops to roost for the night. 

 I really encourage thinking about and planning for a 4 sided structure to allow the animals in.  We also have roll up doors on the four 10×12 barn entry doors.  Depending on the direction of the blowing weather I can roll down any to offer additional protection and keep the barn somewhat  drier than letting in the blowing rain or sleet.

Stand in the barn, then go out and stand in the bad weather.  Where would you rather be, and where would you want your animals to be?

Keeping a clean barn: 5 things to do

The alpacas and chickens love the barn, especially when the ceiling fans are on during a hot day.  They lounge on the dirt floor and enjoy the cool  Hopefully you are keeping the barn clean for them. 

Here are 5 things to do  to help keep it that way.

1.  Remove any manure (in my case, alpacas) daily.  They usually don’t go in the barn, but a stretch of rainy weather made them decide to use the barn for their bathroom.  While I try to retrain them to go outside ALL the time, I am scooping the poop up daily, sometimes twice a day, so they will see the error of their ways.  I scoop into empty 5 gallon buckets that are not used for anything else.  Then when I get several full buckets, I put them in my garden wagon and haul them over to the house yard, fill any holes or low spots in the yard, and empty any remains around trees or shrubs. Alpaca poo will not burn the plants and does not need to be composted first.

2.  Use Stall Dry on cleaned manure piles to keep down flies and insects.  This item is almost priceless to me in the barn.  It sops up the wet areas and has a deodorizer in it too, it eliminates the manure smell like magic.  I also use it in the chicken coops, lightly sprinkling it on top of the litter to absorb moisture and odors and eliminate the insects.

3.  Scrub water buckets and feed bins, weekly if not daily.  It helps keep the old feed cleaned up and the water will be cleaner for the animals.  Use a mixture of water with a     little  bleach mixed in the scrub and then rinse thoroughly before refilling.  This goes for the alpaca’s water and the chicken’s water.

4.  Keep feed and hay neatly stored and covered to keep dry.  I keep bags of alpaca and chicken feed in old pinholed bottom stock tanks that can’t hold water, but don’t have any holes that a mouse can get through, and they can’t climb up the slick exterior. One is a long, oval like this http://www.tractorsupply.com/livestock-equipment/stock-tanks/round-end-tank-2-x-1-x-6-ft-2168715

Tthe other is a small round one about 3′x 3′ tall.    Also be aware that mice will jump from one place to another, i.e., from haybales into the feed pellet storage.  Eliminate any possible “stair steps” allowing mice into the feed.  Keep high profile items a good distance from the feed. A plywood cover anchored on top of the trough will also help and also keep any stray animals from getting into the feed pellets and getting sick from overeating.

5.  Eliminate any rodent nesting areas.  I rotate some of the things sitting on the floor so they will move on.  The chickens and guineas may also be helping to keep them from nesting.  We don’t have a barn cat, but these would be good to have.  Don’t feed the cat; a hungry cat will be a happy hunter. 

I had on my “to do” list a project of kind of reorganizing the storage area of the barn and just finished it in a couple hours.  It is much more refreshing to walk in and know that I made an improvement in the look and feel of the area and how much nicer it is to linger there with the animals.

So, clean up the barn this week, and enjoy your animals and your Fall.

Alpacas and teeth

Alpacas don’t have many teeth, a row of bottom teeth; none on the top.  However, the males will develop “fighting teeth” at the back, upper and lower.  These are razor sharp and must be dealt with.

Preferred options are having the vet do it, cutting off the sharp points or sawing them off with an OB wire.  Or, at shearing time if you have a skilled shearer who will do it while the alpaca is pro-tied down for shearing, usually for an extra fee, either cutting or sawing off the tooth tips.  Ask ahead of time so the additional work time can be scheduled in.

The males will neck wrestle with each other out in the fields; females don’t seem to.  So to prevent any accidental injuries to the males, be sure you watch for these teeth erupting usually around two years of age and deal with them asap.