I'm glad you talked about wearing a mask while handling the chicken litter. My Mother died after contracting Histoplasmosis (this was in the 60's) doing exactly what you did today. It's important to take precautions when handling chicken litter, and get good fitting masks.
I will add that when wearing an n95 like mask like his, the top strap goes on the crown of your head and bottom strap behind your neck. This ensures a better and more sealed fit. If able to get fit tested, I highly recommend it. If not, test the mask to make sure no air gaps are there bases on how you move your head, bend, and talk. And never punch the wire at your nose. Press the wire down along the side of your nose. Pinching creates a gap allowing air to flow in and out, meaning fine dust particles can get in and make you sick.
thanks for the safety tips about wearing the mask. as a Radiologist i see so many chest xrays with histoplasmosis granulomas. Histoplasmosis is so common around bird droppings and wet moldy leaves in the fall. While usually not, Histoplasmosis can cause serious illness. you are a good man for sharing this
I have seven hens and two nest boxes 2ft x 3ft, I’m building a bigger coop atm and I’m gonna include 9 nesting boxes, I had noticed that they were in a line outside the nesting boxes waiting their turn to go in and lay an egg, it was interesting to see. Sometimes I have even found eggs on the ground because I guess they didn’t have the ability to wait to lay.
Great video Jacques! I'd love to have chickens as I have the land and my local ordinances allow for it. Unfortunately we live on a barrier island in FL where it is not uncommon to be threatened by hurricanes and an occasional evacuation. I would never leave them:)
We spend way too much time chilling with our chickens ha! Even taught a couple of them to ring a bell. Only took about 20 minutes! The deep litter seems like a crazy amount of work and a lot of expensive bedding. We cut some rubber matting so it fits the bottom of the coop and once a week shake and hose off the mess into the compost. Takes about a minute and costs nothing.
I would go to a grocery auction & buy out od date chips. My chickens run to sound of a chip bag being shaken ... cheap snack, all my fowl loved it, pigs & goats love the salty snack. I also got "test pop" from the popcorn company (testing to see if a batch were dry enough) sometimes filled my big passenger van with trash bags of it. Great change of pace for the flock & I'd b out a few min of time & couple gallon of gas
The coop and enclosed run was actually largely made up of upcycled lumber so I don't have a great handle on the total cost but the biggest expense was hardware cloth which was likely ended up in the $200+ range. If I had to guess I would say it cost us around ~$400, chickens at the start are variable in cost but for the first 4 birds it was around $60. The feed is another large variable as there are many options and they eat at different rates depending on other things you give them. I would say for 4 chickens its basically ~20-30 lbs a month so anywhere from $10-40 a month depending on feed choice. For that in peak laying time you will likely get 3 eggs a day average. The other cost is bedding which is again variable, in this case the hemp bedding was pricier than other options at $60 for the whole bag which started this fill. I will likely need another $60 bag but then those together might last me the whole year so about $10 a month. Wood shavings would be closer to like $3 a month. This isn't a totally clear answer but a lot depends on many variables, coops can be hundreds of dollars to $10k+.
I clean my coop out every single morning under where they slept when I give them their fermented feed and sprouts before I head out to work. They have an open air coop with sand so I want to be sure they are not walking on poo. I havent experienced dust since I use sand.
Great video, always love to see the chicks aka the hens😆! Interesting video on the Chicken composting. How important is the type of bedding? I’ve heard that there can be types that are not good for them? Any recommendations other than hemp bedding?
We used wood shavings, aspen based, for the first year and it actually worked just fine! Just required a little more management as it doesn't sort of settle into itself like the hemp does. It also depends on the style coop litter you want to run, deep liter needs something like the wood shavings or hemp but some people clean on a weekly basis using things like straw or sand. Personally I wouldn't bother, those approaches take lots of time and straw is awful for their respiration, based on what I have read.
Great video thank you! I've had chickens for a few months now and can't quite figure out when to change the litter. I turn it every week or so but it's not breaking down really and it's also not smelling so I've left it for now until it smells. I figure that's the time to fully clean it out. Least I hope so!
Have you ever tried using dried leaves for the bedding? I get a ton of leaves that I throw in my compost bin. When I get my hens I’m thinking about giving that a try
I've been wanting to raise chickens but I'm surrounded by Karens. One of our neighbors had a well-behaved hen that was fairly quite but had to get rid of her. There are ordinances here but are never enforced unless Karen's complain.
I'm another supporter of quail in urban settings. 1) They require less space, 2) they're quieter, 3) they're incredibly easy to dispatch and butcher, and 4) they're considered wild birds and not subjuct to poultry ordinances!!! When I say they take less space, you could keep a covey for 5 quail (4 layers and 1 male) in a rabbit hutch on an apartment balcony. They're are 100% the perfect urban animal-protein source (eggs and meat). I'll be switching to only quail once our chickens stop paying rent in a few years. I'm planning on adding quail to our urban homestead next spring to start building our breeding stock.
Do you chickens ever jump and tear off your fruit tree leaves? Ours eat everything within jumping reach, including our coffee tree, even with .25 acres to roam and endless treats... ugh. We just started doing large rock mulch (~3-6" diameter stones) around the base of our trees to stop them from digging out the roots entirely but haven't tried yet with our citrus babies (currently double fenced but tall enough now to handle our girls). We're in Oceanside and free range with no netting. No hawk attacks ever as full grown hens. Our Black Australorp (or Jersey Giant? feed store had them mixed up) deters hawks by looking like a crow and being huge. A trick I learned from a West Virginia farmer who had tens of hens get killed until he added 10% of Australorps to his flock. We save their shells in a hanging pot (hung to avoid rats stealing them) with holes drilled it in full sun to dry out, toss into the coop once full and stomp on them to break up into pieces, and feed back to them as calcium - they love eggshell day. I used an old gumball/snack machine to hold their dried mealworms and bolted it to our perimeter chainlink fence so passerby's could get free entertainment from the girls. This was mostly to stop people from giving them undesirable 'treats' like dried rice, donuts, and other junk I just had to clean up. Also a dog poop scoop is very useful when they free range so you can collect their millions of turds and toss into a pail until full and add to your plants directly as a huge nutrient boost. It saved our dying lime tree!
Regards to the water, I would try something with a water pump. • Less stale water • Moving water stays cooler • Can be filtered. Basically, a bit like a cat fountain.
Great video! One thing you didn’t mention about deep litter but I’ve been thinking about since we are basically in our NZ winter now - I think the deep litter system helps to raise the overall coop temp so they aren’t so cold :) from the composting action. But then this could also be a problem in summer…. Any thoughts?
This is interesting, It probably has some mild warming aspect to it but in general ventilation is key for chicken coops so most of that probably makes its way out. I have a thermometer in the coop and it tends to be pretty close to outdoor temps at night its a little warmer than the outdoor temp.
@@jacquesinthegarden thanks for the reply! I haven’t measured temp. But yes, we have lots of ventilation too :) probably doesn’t make much of a difference because of that. We don’t get super cold here anyway :)
Hot days: I have a freestanding mister that attaches to the hose (it was abt $20-25 on the site named after a big river) Anytime we hit 100°+, I run the Chicken Mister in their outer run. I toss in some extra bedding so it doesn't get too sloppy. My girls do have shade, but triple-digits is no fun for anyone. QUESTION about bedding - What are your thoughts on incorporating paper shreds into the bedding mix (add to the shavings/hemp)? Seems like it'd be an effective way to stretch the critter budget and cut-down on the stuff you have to haul to the curb. I'm talking about just bills and office/printer paper. Or even newspaper - for that matter. I am assuming most inks these days are "environmentally friendly."
I think the issue with things like paper or straw that I've read about is that they are sort of damp and soggy and can lead to mold growth. So I would say try it with caution if you do decide to try it. Things like the straw or paper are probably best for more frequent clean outs, but that is just my hunch.
An easy way to add calcium into a chicken's diet is to crush up the used egg shells and mix them with some bird seed as treat. The calcium in egg shells will be reabsorbed after eating.
Ahh, I forgot to mention this, I ended up cutting out some coffee bags, which is just burlap, and laying them over the top of the soil to stop the chickens from digging!
Glad that it’s BPA free and also, did you know that receipts contain BPA And BPA is poisonous 2:04 And I’m pretty sure it’s also poisonous for chickens 🐓 as well, 2:04 13:41
My litter looks like yours after 2 years. I have a similar set up to you with regards to the deep litter not actually being on a soil base. Obviously it would compost better if on a soil base. As the majority of the poop is collected (and subsequently removed) from the poop deck. The floor material in my coop remains relatively fresh. I think a 'true' deep litter method is referring to the activity in the run. With the chickens pooping and scratching and composting. Please can someone put me straight. I have not had to change the wood shaving base in my coop for two years now as (apart from feathers), there has been no ammonia or other nasty build up, and the wood shavings still look fresh.
Great video. Lots of good information. I have thought about getting chickens, 3-4. Would be nice for eggs and to get my own fertilizer. I live outside the city, but not the country. I would have to do my research and find out if they are even allowed where I live. I also get snow where I live.
@@rrialb9371 thank you. Yes I understand there are chickens where there is snow, but I def. want to know and understand how to best care for them. It still is something I need to put thought into.
I am referring to my partner/girlfriend and we make a lot of the planning decisions together and in this case she was actually cleaning out the coop with me
Hi Jacques. Just subscribed. I'm glad to see you have your own channel now☺️ I live in Socal also, and am wondering if you need a permit to keep chickens?
It depends on the county, for my county you are allowed chickens, but no roosters, and the main coop has to be 10 feet from any property line, ours is 12 just in case!
It can really be just an hour a week if you want to be more hands off and have them for eggs alone. It takes about 5 mins a day to take them in and out without an automatic door, checking for eggs daily is like a minute and food and water can go weeks without interaction. If you give them plenty of space and build them a protected are they can explore your time investment is upfront and then later spending time with them is a bonus.
No mask! Just put on a gas mask/helmet! Get with the program of fear! All other info is good except for deep compost change-up. As epic gardening videos showed…no need for such compost replenishment so often.
