Winter Concerns

I write the title with tongue firmly in cheek.  Our winter has been disappointing.  At our extended family’s Christmas, one of the cousins’ (I think he’s a cousin) wives (I think they’re married….they have a couple kids) had her family (I think they were related to her…..AARRGGGHHH, Christmas is SO confusing) in from New Zealand.  Nice folks, really interesting, but they had never seen snow except on mountains, and were looking forward to Canada in winter.  I am embarrassed at how poorly Canada has performed for these valued visitors.  Right now, my lawn is pretty green, and there is a tiny snow bank in the corner.  Weak.

All that aside, it is important for backyarders to “winterize” their flocks if they live in a climate that traditionally has winter.  I’ve mentioned this in previous posts about using lightbulbs and bubble wrap or some other form of insulation to keep the hens’ environment above 10 degrees Celsius.  Chickens don’t tolerate cold very well, and it is important to try to keep them in their “thermo-neutral” zone if you can.

There are other considerations for keeping the environment comfortable for your hens.  Especially when the coop is “closed down” for the winter, humidity, ammonia and dust can be serious concerns.  It is necessary to bring fresh air into the coop for the birds’ comfort and health.  Birds staying inside and just breathing will add a lot of moisture to the air, and moisture, along with manure will result in ammonia, which is damaging to the eyes and lungs.  In poorly ventilated spaces, I have seen birds develop severe burns to their windpipes and corneas from the acid that results from ammonia.

The most convenient way to ventilate your coop is to allow air to escape from the top of the structure, and allow air to enter through the bottom portion of the coop.  It is awesome when physics works for you once in a while…..warm air rises, and the air exiting the “chimney” will draw air in through the bottom.  This will pull ammonia and carbon dioxide out of the coop, and make the hens more comfortable.

Now you will start to face the dilemma that professional farmers face each winter…..how do you balance the need to bring in fresh air with the need to keep the birds warm.  If the outside temperature is -20, you can’t bring much fresh air into the coop before you cool them too much.  Plus, wherever the cold air enters the coop (or the inlet in a professional barn), physics says that there will be condensation form from the warm air meeting the cold.  This results in more moisture in the coop, which means you need to bring in more fresh air, which makes more condensation……fun, huh?

The bottom line for the health of the birds is that they can handle being a little cool much better than they can handle high ammonia in the air (read the warning labels on some old type cleaners to see how nasty ammonia is).  So, if you have to make a decision between lesser evils, put your head in the coop at the level your chicken’s heads are at, and take a deep breath in through your nose.  If tears well up in your eyes, allow more fresh air in, even if it allows the temperature to drop below ideal…..then go to the hardware store and get a higher wattage light bulb, or turn up you heater’s thermostat. 

I apologize for not being able to give you a “recipe” for providing a good environment for your hens.  Your coop is unique, as is your climate and hen’s tolerances.  Even in professional barns, which are pre-designed to very direct specifications, the environments are subtly different and need to be “felt out”.  I can’t tell you to keep the temperature at 12 degrees and replace the air every 20 minutes…..that is a reasonable place to start, but then you need to watch your hens, and listen to what they tell you….if they huddle under the heat source they are too hot….if they are crowding the walls, with feathers puffed up, they are too cold.  If they sit with their eyes squinted shut, and the air hurts your eyes, you need to allow more airflow, regardless of the temperature.

Again, if it was easy, I wouldn’t have a job.

All the best, and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Mike the Chicken Vet

Practical Coop Design

I was recently asked where to find a plastic or steel coop in Ontario.  The Eglu is very popular, but is not available for delivery here, and since I had mentioned that wood is almost impossible to clean properly, the wooden coop designs available online were not ideal. 

My solution is one that has been very popular lately on professional egg farms: plastic covered plywood.  Many farmers who are building or retooling their barns use this product to create a waterproof, disinfectable surface for the inside of the barn.  A couple of places to find this stuff in Ontario (I found them on a quick search, and don’t recommend any of these companies….they can just act a starting point for interested people.) are

www.taylorsplastic.com , and  www.duraedgeinc.com

This is what the inside of a barn looks like with the plastic plywood for walls

I would use the plastic coated plywood on any surface that is exposed to the hens….ie the inside of the coop, inside of the nest boxes, etc….any surface that you would like to be able to clean and disinfect well.  The exterior of he coop can be anything that fits your style and decor….backyard coops can be as elaborate and decorative as you want them to be!!

This material is not cheap, and it is heavy, which will mean you need to make sure you build the coop sturdily, but it makes for a great finished product.  The other advantage of something like this, as opposed to a product like the Eglu is that you can design it to the number of hens you want to house, the shape of your space, etc.

Other recycled plastic products are also available for construction, but some of them are less than ideal, since they are designed to mimic real wood, and have some of the problems of real wood.  They are not porous like wood, and as such are MUCH more cleanable, but my feeling is that if you are going to make the investment, you should get the best you can, and that would be the smoothest material you can find.

Recycled plastic boards are not as good, since they are not smooth, and are therefore harder to clean....SHINY = EASY TO CLEAN!!

I hope this helps, and welcome any comments or questions.

Mike the Chicken Vet

Environmental Considerations

This is the last installment in my series of advice blogs on coop design and function.  From my “Scoop on Coops” post, I laid out the following topics that were important considerations when setting up your coop:

1. Provide access to fresh food and water
2. Protect the hens from excess cold, heat, predators and vermin
3. Provide a place for hens to lay their eggs
4. Maintain hygiene for both the hens and the eggs

Now, I want to mention some things about the environment.  Not global warming and carbon footprint so much….something a little closer to home, and much more in your control.  I’m more interested in the environment in your backyard and inside your coop.

There are 2 things about chickens that make them a little tricky to manage. 

1 – they EAT EVERYTHING….and anything they don’t eat, they scratch up and denude

2 – they CRAP EVERYWHERE…..birds have evolved all their facilities for flight…no teeth, hollow bones, don’t carry their young inside them, and don’t hold their excrement for a nanosecond longer than necessary….ie, where a bird walks, there will be poop

These 2 factors result in the major environmental problems caused by hens.  They will destroy the ground cover of any area you keep them in unless you a) have a lot of land (think acres), or are able to periodically move the coop (think every week or 2).  Chicken manure is an excellent fertilizer (professional egg farmers do a good business selling their manure to other farmers), but in too high a quantity, it will burn grass to death.

So….removing the manure is necessary so that the area the chickens live in won’t become fouled (sorry).  The problem is, unless you have a good size garden (or very small flock), there will be more manure than you can use.  Composting it is often unsuccessful, since the high nitrogen and phosphorus content will kill small composters (remember each chicken will produce around 2 lbs of manure per week).  Some plan needs to be developed to deal with the manure that is produced.  Some municipalities allow it to be disposed in municipal compost, but some don’t.  I’ve talked with some backyarders who collect the manure and flush it down the toilet….your call.

These habits need to be dealt with individually….a large lot, small flock, big garden situation is very different than the flock that uses up most of the lot in a static coop.  But think about your situation, and plan for the pollution….because, trust me, you can’t stop it.

Mike the Chicken Vet

 

Don’t Eat THAT…It’s Dirty!!

This post is about one of my concerns about backyard poultry keeping.  How do you keep the chickens, eggs, the owner and her kids safe from the bacteria that often surround hens?  Professional egg farmers invest a lot of time and money in sanitary programs, egg handling procedures, audits and environmental controls in order to keep the food supply safe.  Backyarders don’t necessarily have the ability to do these things.

Now, don’t get me wrong, chickens are not walking bacteria factories…..well, I guess they are, but no more than a dog or cat.  The difference is that a) you don’t eat your dog or cat, or their products, and b) most owners pick up after their dog, and cats have litter boxes.  Chickens, like all birds, and most toddlers, are indiscriminate poopers….wherever, whenever the urge strikes.   Often in the most awkward places, like the nest, or on an egg, or on the kid’s tricycle, if they have access to it.  And the bad news is, poo is FULL of bacteria…even from healthy birds, and, while most of the bacteria actually won’t cause disease, enough of them will that it is a real risk.

When designing your coop, it is crucial to think ahead and set it up in such a way that

Plastic coops are much easier to clean

every aspect of the coop is clean-able.  This speaks to materials….wood is considered un-cleanable by professional egg farmers….you can pressure wash it with hot water and detergent, disinfect it with strong disinfectants, and it will often still give a positive on a bacterial test.  The reason is that it is porous, and the little critters get snug little hidey-holes that protect them from being cleaned out.  Painted wood is much better, smooth plastic is better yet, and the Cadillac of clean is stainless steel. 

The next important consideration for safety and hygiene (now that you built a stainless steel coop ) is nest design.  This is where your eggs are going to be placed, all moist and warm, early in the morning.  Then they sit there, and cool and dry off.  As they cool,

Drawers like this make it more convenient (and more likely) to clean and sanitize...without disturbing the hens

the contents contract a little, actually acting as a tiny bit of suction through the pores of the egg shell….if the nest is dirty, there is a reasonable chance that some bacteria could get sucked into the shell matrix, or even into the egg itself. 

Design your coop so that the nest-boxes can be cleaned out EASILY.  Easy clean out means it will happen often.  If the cleaning process is awkward, or messy, or annoying in any way, it will happen less and less often….it’s human nature.  Drawers are a great idea, which allow for easy egg collection, and simple clean up.

Other considerations for managing your backyard chickens is dealing with eggs that may be dirty; getting eggs cool as soon as you can, and keeping them that way; and developing a system of cleaning up the areas that the hens have access to….this includes the ground in the chicken run, which will accumulate bacteria and nitrogen until it gets “fowl sick” and won’t grow anything at all.  These are topics for another day, but keep em in mind….especially if you have little kids who like to play with the hens.

Mike the Chicken Vet.

The Best Nest, and how to Fill it

Most people who have backyard flocks do so because they enjoy chickens….or want to get closer to nature….or want their kids to understand where their food comes from…..or mistakenly believe that home-grown eggs are healthier…or want a self-sufficient ecosystem in their back yards.  Despite the myriad of reasons cited to keep laying hens, the major benefit to keeping chickens, indeed, the defining one is this: they produce a small, self-contained, portable, single serving of nutritious, delicious, low-cal goodness….almost every day.  If it weren’t for eggs, there would be a LOT less backyard chickens around our cities and towns.

With respect to coop design, the nest area needs to be a small, discrete, shaded area that gives the hen privacy for the period directly leading up to oviposition (egg laying), and provide a comfortable surface upon which to lay the egg.  Several hens can share a nest,

A nest doesn't need to be elaborate

but there should be at least 1 for every 3 hens, since often the hens will all lay their egg within the first hour after sunrise.  Hens prefer a nest box with solid sides and a soft (ish) floor, such as Astroturf, straw or wood shavings. It is also important to have a design that you can easily clean, since anywhere that a chicken spends time will eventually get turned into a toilet.

Hens are attracted to a dim space to lay their eggs.  If there is not sufficient nest space for the hens to all lay eggs in a nest, look for extra eggs in the dimmest corners of the coop, or underneath anything that will cast a dark shadow.

Laying hens typically reach sexual maturity at 15-20 weeks of age.  Until then, they are referred to as pullets.  Professional egg farmers keep pullets and laying hens in separate barns.  Pullets need much warmer temperatures, and very different diets than laying hens do.  In fact, laying hen ration is harmful to pullets, and vice-versa. 

In order to get laying hens to start laying, chickens need a few things.  They need good nutrition, including enough calcium to form the eggs.  They also need to be convinced that spring has arrived (or at least not left).  This means that chickens need to have increasing

There is often a "preferred" nest, and hens will compete for it...even if there are other empty nests available

day length in order to start laying eggs.  If the number of hours of light start to decrease (June 22 here in the Northern Hemisphere….), hens will stop laying eggs.  In order to keep birds producing all year-long, it is necessary to maintain a consistent day length….if the hours of daylight don’t decrease, there is nothing that pushes the hens to stop laying.  Light intensity has a bit of input into this, but not nearly as much as day length.  More intense light helps promote egg production, and more diffuse or dimmer lights cause the birds to go out of lay….but again, this has a much weaker effect than daylength. 

So…if your flock is not laying well (or at all), ask yourself if the hens are getting enough feed, and is it good quality (I have some basic outlines in a couple earlier posts).  Then consider the time of year, and relative amount of daylight the girls are getting.  If you need to, putting a light on a timer in a coop is usually not difficult, and will maintain day length, if the hens are in the coop in the evenings and mornings.  If all these factors seem to be in order, consider the breed of hen you have….some are more ornamental than functional, and will not lay very well, even in the best of conditions.

Mike the Chicken Vet

How to Protect your Chickens

If you have made the committment to keep backyard chickens, you have to provide certain things to your hens.  Your chickens are relying on you to keep them safe.  Safe from heat, cold, predators and disease. 

I’ve already discussed, in general terms, how to feed chickens, and providing a well-balanced, complete ration will protect your hens from most nutritional diseases. 

Other diseases are a different story though.  Bacteria and viruses are always around.  E. coli, Salmonella, Coccidia and Campylobacter infections are real concerns for

Salmonella bacteria magnified 10000 times

anyone caring for live chickens.  Regardless of the size of your flock, you will have exposure.  To protect hens from disease, professional farmers adhere to strict biosecurity guidelines.  What is biosecurity you ask?  It comes from the latin “Bio” which means “keep things” and “securitas“, which means “out of your flock”……at least I think it was latin…..or maybe romanian….whatever. 

Seriously….biosecurity is a huge concern for professional farmers, and it revolves on two tenets….1: keep any bugs that live on a premises ON that premises (this is often referred to as biocontainment), and 2: keep any bugs that are not on a premises OFF that premises.  The problem is that you can’t see bacteria or viruses, so you have to assume you ALWAYS could be carrying them.

Overkill for everyday biosecurity, but I've worn this in times of high risk - truly uncomfortable

  That means that every time you enter the place where your flock lives, you are crossing an imaginary line from “Clean” to “Dirty”, or vice-versa.  This is the point at which you have a chance to control disease transfer. 

To get an idea of a biosecurity protocol for backyard flocks, the following link will give you the basics.  http://campus.extension.org/index.php It is a program designed by a Masters of Science student at the University of Maryland.  You need to sign up, and then click on “Agricultural Disaster Preparedness”, then choose the backyard flock module.  It is based on Avian Influenza, but the ideas will help control any disease you might have in mind.

Protecting your hens also means building a coop that protects the hens from environmental extremes.  This includes temperature extremes and extremely sharp teeth and talons.  Temperature is high on my list of risks today, since the temperature in Ontario is at record highs.  Protecting your birds from the heat is not something we Canadians are as prepared for as our colleagues in places like Georgia and New Mexico.  Your 3 biggest allies are shade, wind and water.  Shade is self-explanatory, wind can be provided by fans of various sizes, and water needs to be cool and abundant.  Don’t have water puddles though…..have tons of cool water for the birds to drink, but don’t provide a bath.

The sad thing is....she's sitting on top of the coop.

Hard as it is to believe on a day like today, protecting your hens from cold is an issue for many backyarders as well.  Knowing you live in a cold climate should impact your choice of breed, and should be considered in your coop design.  Chickens are little furnaces, and a well-insulated coop that has an appropriate volume for the number of hens it houses can be quite well heated by body heat.  Another simple solution is a heat lamp.  A single heat lamp can heat a surprising amount of a coop, and gives the benefit of a temperature gradient, which

Remember threats from above also.....

will allow the hens to self-regulate their temperature….if they are too cool, they can move closer to the hotter part of the lamp.  If they are too hot, they can move away from the “hot spot” until they are comfortable.

Finally, you need to keep your feathery charges from becoming prey.  Modern chickens

have had a lot of the wily, wild bird instincts they started with.  They are now nature’s

Not only did he not control the rat population.....

version of a twinkie.  Not especially hard to hunt down, and DELICIOUS!!  The only way chickens survive an interaction with a predator is if that interaction is through a fence.

Raccoons, foxes, rats, weasels, owls, falcons, hawks, dogs, cats, ferrets and skunks are all risks to your flocks….it is astounding the “wildlife” that exists, even well within the city

I'll admit it, this is probably a worst case scenario....this was NOT in Charlotte's Web....eeewwwww

limits.  A coop needs to have tightly woven wire enclosure (think smaller than a rat’s head), or solid sides, it should be dug at least 6 inches below ground level (imagine your inattentive neighbour’s terrier, out on a tour), have a roof (swooping birds of prey), and complicated gate mechanism (raccoons are more dexterous than most 5 year olds).  It sounds simple, to outwit some animals, but (and maybe it’s just me) when there are a bunch of predator types, it takes some complicated planning to keep your hens safe.  Surfing the net on backyard flock discussions makes it obvious that a LOT of “henners” get their chickens stolen, and that predation is a huge issue.  Plan for it…think about it from a rats point of view…and a hawks…maybe not from a spider’s though….its kinda creepy.

Mike the Chicken Vet

If you Can’t Stand the Heat, Get out of the Coop

Beating the heat this time of year is a challenge.  Pools, baths, ice-cream and freezies get my family through it.  For laying hens, it’s not that simple.  Chickens get heat stressed when the temperature gets above 25^oC (80 ^oF), so summer can be hard on hens.  It is hard for chickens to stay cool, since they don’t sweat. Chickens get rid of extra heat in two ways.  Their wattles and combs (the red parts in the picture to the right), act as heat diffusers when the birds are moderately hot.  When it get scorching hot, chickens pant to cool themselves….just like dogs. See video: Panting is a lot of work (try it for a minute) and has other, unwanted impacts on the birds’ bodies.
Laying hen farmers are well equipped to keep barns cool, with thousands of dollars invested in massive fans, mist dispensers, and ingenious heat sinks that will act as weak air conditioners  

Each of these fans is 4 feet across.

 

 I’ve been in barns that are 2 or 3 degrees cooler than outside, and generate their own breeze that passes over the birds to cool them.   Few things put me in a “Twilight Zone” frame of mind like walking into a barn and seeing thousands of birds, all facing into the breeze, standing stock-still on their tip-toes, stretching their heads up and luxuriating in the relative coolness of the moving air.

Professional egg farmers invest in many, large fans to keep hens cool

If you have a small barn, or a backyard flock, and this isn’t possible, don’t worry, there are things that can be done.
Providing shade is crucial for backyard flocks, and even small fans can make a big difference for the comfort of the birds.  Also, because of panting, providing lots of fresh (preferably cool) water is important, since the hens are at real risk of dehydrating.  I would avoid putting out a “bath” for the hens, since it is impossible to keep this from becoming a cesspool, which will act as a huge risk for disease in both the hens and the people who look after them.  I would DEFINITELY not share the bath with them….ever…..