Mistakes
Dont make my mistakes when it
comes to starting with poultry
Getting poultry is a big lesson in many things, not just the animal in self. The most I have learned about from getting these animals are carpentry.
I couldnt use a drill, screwdriver, diffrent saws and more before we started building the runs and coops.
Im gonna share my misstakes in hope to learn others not do the same.
First of all chicken math is real
I tought people who joked about chicken math just didnt have self control. I found out really fast that its very real. When we built our chicken coop I didnt know rule number 1 about chicken keeping: build twice as big as you plan it.
The ducks where the first birds to come to our homestead and also our first farm animals. The biggest first mistake we did, was that we didnt plan everything thrue. We just tought it should be cheap and keep the birds in.
We tried saving in on lumber, this was our biggest misstake. This resulted in a run that was very unsteady, ugly and not thinking that you want actully something that looks pretty standing on your lawn.The coop went the same. It got small and it a bad height for our runners. Saving in on the price of the lumber we built the coop out of pallet frames and pallets. Expect for bad size it did work, but it wasnt something I wanted for my runners to live in long term.
Bad construction in the end resulted in a water leak that made that we torn the coop down.Solution: We reinforced the run with more lumber. So it was more steady and that we could put a roof on the pen.
I replaced the coop with an XL insulated dog house. Added a ventialtion hole and a door/hatch to close it. This is fine for 4 runners to sleep in.
This is one of the thing I hate most to this day. Our duck run is located in the middle of our lawn.
It looks horrible missplaced. If you want a pretty garden this is a nightmare.
If I would done it diffrent today I would have placed it on the other side of the house or closer to a corner of the lawn.
To the chicken run, we had one flat place left to have the run and this was right outside our bedroom window. Lets say my husband aint that happy when the roosters go at it 6 a clock. Me on the other hand, thinks kinda soothing.water
Having waterfowl its a point to take in how to place your run, close to your waterhose. You will have to handle alot of water. The closer, the easier. Which brings me to my next point:
Getting waterfowl having a good water system is everything! I learned this as I went.
With the right system you can make it so much easier for your self, right from the start!
Like I mentiod in the section above since I placed my pen so bad I now have a long hose that goes almost thrue the whole yard.
Waterfowl is extremly dependent of water at all time. They will both need to bathe and have clean water.
Every winter it feels like Im not prepared for this challange and I end up dragging two 25 liter barrels.
I promise my self that "next year I will have an easy soultuion"
One easy soultion that my husband made later on: added submersible pump to and old well. With this with could drain natural water to the ducks bigger tub.
Soultuions in planning stage: To dig down a insulated pipe which I can place the waterhose in. Still working out how to make the ends of the hose not to freeze.
An other problem winter time is that their tubs will freeze, ALL THE TIME. This is also a pain you have to be prepared for. Which I was not.
There is solutions but they are expensive and abit tricky.First there is heated bucket and tubs that are made for horses that suits ducks perfectly fine during the winter.
Other is heating cables. These tho can be abit tricky. Some are made to submerge but then you need to figure out how to protect the cable from the waterfowl.
The other is a cable you put around or under the tub. I got one of these and found it really hard to isolate the heat to the same place. The heat escapes very easy.
But there is an easy soultuion: go outside and break the ice every hour...
Like many I fell for the name of "chicken" wire and coverd my run in this. Later on also like many learned that the wire only keep the birds in and not the predators out.
Actully if you are strong, you your self can pull aparat chicken wire. You can only imagine what a predator can do with it to get to your birds.Soultuion: since I already had chicken wire up I put welded net on top of this. So actully have 2 sets of net. Looks horrible, but gives the extra protection.
If you aint a carpenter, its impossible to know this, but we built both roofs for the coop, laying straight. You know what happends then? You get water leaks! This aint just due to rain. Condensation will form on the insde the roof, gather at the middle point and start to pool.
I often get compliments for my decor in the coop, with the pretty flowers. My protection was a oil table cloth. What I didnt think about how much chickens like to scratch. This resulted it being several holes everywhere. I did put another layer pf cloth on, still tho I have to keep patching it up.
This is actully a misstake I have recently come to face. Lucky enough we havent had a predator attack.
After seeing two diffrent posts on instagram within just a couple a days of each other, I had a wake up call.
The locks on my door and runs are an easy match for a fox to figure out.
I orderd fast 2 diffrent type of locks (depending on what door that needed them)
Do read the posts that goes more into depth about the importance of a proper lock on your runs and coops: Quaties_Quackers. GardMorangen
