Chicken Pen Hygiene

I thought it was time I got back to some serious chicken stuff seeing as chickens make up the subject of this blog so in view of recent snake discussions, we have come up with a very simple method to ensure there is no food for rats and mice in the chicken pen. 

Rats and mice come out at night and feast on the grain that is there for the chickens and this of course, attracts snakes.  We had carpet snakes and green tree snakes here long before we had the chickens but this is the first year (been here for 20 years) that we have seen Eastern Brown snakes.  I am sorry to say that we have not seen our green tree snake so far this spring and our baby water dragons have not been seen for a few weeks.  We think the Eastern Brown snakes have either eaten the good guys or chased (scared) them out of the territory the Eastern Browns have now claimed as their own.

Now, back to chicken pen hygiene.  This first photo shows the automatic feeder we had previously and the chickens (and bush turkeys) scattered the grain around so it was permanently on the ground.  Definitely not the way to go as mice would think all their Christmases had come at once, once the chickens were roosting on their perches at night. 

                                                                             

This next photo shows our new arrangement.  Using "Liquid Nail" we glued the plastic container to the cement paver so the chickens would not knock it over and spill all the grain and each night we simply put it away in the plastic crate you can see in the following photo.  If the chickens have scratched out any grain we sweep it back into the container using a small brush - perfectly clean.

                
                                        Put away securely each night - no feeding mice!

                                                 
                     The chickens jump up their ladder and roost on the high perches at night.

                                                                                 

                      Their "indoor" water is up on blocks so they do not scratch saw dust into it the minute I clean it out in the mornings.          

                                                                                

                                       The outdoor water is up on a block for the same reason.                                                                   

                                                                                  

The chickens have a large, fox proof pen with deep litter (saw dust) on the floor.  The litter is raked over regularly and replaced when needed, makes great compost and is always clean and fresh.  They love scratching in it.  This is where they are locked in at night.  The meter high heavier wire around the outside is to stop foxes breaking in through the small bird wire - the wire is also buried into the ground.  The roofed area in the foreground with the perches underneath is where the chickens go to sit when it is raining.  Mulberry tree hanging down in front of photo. 

                                                                                     
Looking through the door to the vegetable garden behind the pen - ex vegetable garden, they scratched all the plants out.  The raised garden bed is in their pen and used to have sweet potato in it until they ate all the leaves and scratched out the vine!

 

A major part of chicken hygiene is to make sure you have somewhere for the chickens to enjoy a dust bath.  They love it, it's a very important part of their natural behaviour and it keeps them clean and free of nasty mites.  They also like to lie in the sun with one wing stretched right out to expose their feathers to the maximum amount of sunlight, looks pretty funny but they know what they are doing.  One day I will get a photo of that.

 

                                                            Abbey loves a dust bath!

 

                                                                                                                                                  

Good chicken hygiene keeps the birds healthy, happy and laying plenty of lovely, fresh eggs  and collecting those lovely fresh eggs from the straw nests the birds have shaped so carefully is indeed one of life's simple pleasures.  : )