Coop Modifications....

Oh thank goodness for the person who invented "hooks". I guess it wouldn't be that tough, nature shows us hooks in numerous spots...namely - thorns.

Anyway, today we freshened up the coop with some new straw and kept the ABM bedding material. I put a posting up a number of weeks ago and am so impressed with this stuff I am floored. Really, six chickens eating us out of house and home produce truck-loads of manure. This ABM material literally soaks it up, sucks the heat out of it and allows you to rake the doody out semi-attached to the waste, kind of a clumping of sorts. Clumping makes it easy to rake out, scoup up and drop into the compost pile. Here is the M.O. on the ABM and the link... in fact.. I am posting the link on the blog. I am going to put links up here for winner products and processes. ABM has me sold. So, the company is Eagle Valley Animal Bedding.

http://www.eaglevalleyabm.com/

"Welcome to a better way to keep your animals cleaner, drier and safer. Introducing Eagle Valley Advanced Bedding Management (ABM), an improved bedding material designed to meet the needs of today’s equine, family livestock and small animal breeders and enthusiasts. Eagle Valley ABM is manufactured of 100% whitewood with approximately 4% moisture content. This makes our product more absorbent than traditional wood shavings, crumbled newspaper or corn cob materials. Compared to regular wood shavings, our product will absorb more moisture, greatly suppresses ammonia, and provides a cleaner, safer and more pleasant living environment for your animals. Pine, a natural deodorizer, controls ammonia the natural way. There are NO ADDITIVES or CHEMICALS in our production process. Eagle Valley ABM will keep your stalls, cages or pens drier, brighter and healthier."

"Research studies conducted by many universities have hailed the benefits of wood pelletized bedding for animals of all types. Moreover, the performance qualities far outweigh traditional wood shavings 9 to 1. Waste from the stall is greatly reduced and the material that is removed with the waste is completely bio-degradable.
Safety FirstEagle Valley ABM is a crumbled, densified bedding designed for traction during initial application. It doesn't slip and slide like many wood pellet materials.
Faster Absorption RateThe increased surface area of Eagle Valley ABM versus full pellet bedding means ABM absorbs urine quicker, pulling it into the wood cells and keeping your stalls, stables, cages and pens dryer. (click here- Eagle Valley ABM vs. Shavings- you’ll see for yourself."

Again, a 4 x 8 coop with 6 chickens...(one we think is a rooster...but no crowing yet). In fact, I am thinking of taking a picture of Kapalua and posting it for you all. I will guarantee you will think this is a rooster.

Anyway, seriously look in to using ABM it has become a lifesaver for me. I am not a paid consultant or shill for them either.

I have to go to bed, beauty takes time...and it usually involves a lot of sleep.

Coop Maintenance - June 20, 2009

OK, so I did not post earlier because I was at Alamo Feed today buying some straw and some new bedding material.

So, with family in tow we traveled down to Alamo Hay and Grain. As I have mentioned before this is really an awesome feed store... You actually drive "through" the store. Ducks, chickens, rabbits, geese, pidgeons and every kind of hay, straw, bedding and feed is available. I need to take a picture and post it, which I will. Not only is this a feed store, it is in a very tawny neighborhood, which is weird since this place is a throw-back to 1920... with the fake horse on the roof and all.

Anyway, we grabbed a bale of straw and two bags of some stuff I was recommended to buy called ABM bedding. We let the chickens out to roam and they were like ducks out of water... (hmmm let me think about the analogy) anywho.. they roamed about freaking over the raking sound in the coop. I guess it is like us hearing a table saw in the house... loud, sawdust, destruction, mess. I raked it all up, dumped in the wheelbarrow and then replaced it with this ABM material.

http://eaglevalleyabm.com/advantage.html Please check this stuff out. I strongly recommend this. As you can see from the picture above the consistency is awesome, the smell incredible and its components allow for healthier environment for your chickens. I put some in our kids bedrooms and the family room, figured it couldn't hurt. I paid $8.95 for one cubic foot. This ended up being a very easy clean and by using this material I can use a stall rake and pick up the "swollen" pellets , which bond with poop and urine and then throw another bag on as needed. Wooo-Hooooo.

COOP Maintenance

OK... sorry for the late post.... I spent some time at Concord Feed and picked up the following;

CornCob by Green Pet Incorporated. This really neat stuff, super absorbent, natural, edible, biodegradible, compostable and the chickens love it. It is like they are on crack right now - ok bad reference... coffee!!! Yeah... too much caffeine. I spread it out with the pine shavings and some hay for a nice all-in-one bedding.

Very cool stuff. I will keep you posted on the success and the ability... for it to keep the ammonia smell down and the COOP fresh as my socks. Also in the shopping basket was;

Garden and Poultry Dust which is designed to take care of the poultry mites among other pesky pests. I sprinkled this in the bedding.

The chickens are now resting since I spent 10 minutes in the coop cleaning and prepping, they were freaking!!!

Week One: June 5, 2009

These birds are the perfect kids... the sun goes down and they go to sleep and the saying "Up With The Chickens" has meaning as well... the sun comes up they wake up and are ready to go. The picture was taken last night with Loa (Arcauna) in being closest to camera. The heat lamp goes on around 9:00pm and off around 5:30am.

Came out this morning and they were up... coop is in need of a freshening up, although adding a little deodorizer will be the course of action with some hay added on top. I am going to try the "hot method" of coop management, allowing for a little waste to build with Diatomaceous Earth and Stall Dry added to the coop. Stall Dry and others are used in horse stables and other poop generating situations, to keep the smell in control and combined with DE (Diatomaceous Earth) can keep pest like fleas, ticks and other pesky creatures out. Update later...