@southernyankeedoll1984 Thank you so much for sharing this with me! Your words paint a perfect picture of blissfully happy chickens. You are giving them an absolutely beautiful life! :)

I've done the same thing since the 80s!

So true - one of the reasons I switched over from sand.

Will it work to plant grasses or grains just outside the run along a side so they can peck without digging the roots up? I imagine it will attract bugs too. I don’t have chickens yet but I could never understand why everybody just gives them gravel.

Great point! Thanks for sharing that!

I got the scratch and feed and it looked great until my girls picked out the yummy grain and left the rest! Now they get pellets in a bowl and when that is mostly gone they get scratch spread around the run for them to find. They love to forage as well of course.

@@janw491 if you have the time to do it, the grain feed can be soaked and/or fermented. Wetting it and serving in a dish helps them get the dusty bits too, and fermenting it increases the nutrients they get from it, plus the benefit of being wet so those fine bits stick and they eat them. I mostly feed scratch and peck pellets now, plus foraging, but I try to feed fermented mash for a couple weeks a few times a year.

I ferment my scrach feed too with some regular feed. Especially the dusty stuff.

Good point, ferminting is the best with this feed.

ps: not everywhere, just pick a area for them to relax in after hunting. I also serve up watermelon, it's like chicken candy. (all these mistakes are my computer writing for me, sorry.) BTW, Rice hay, NOT straw, alfalfa or grass. Rice has little flavor bombs they like to find.

Thank you! I do consider it a milestone for sure. :)

Whoops I meant 1 day old chicks

@lidip8700 This is such a huge topic you're bringing up here and there's not a simple answer. Your rooster could be biting for any number of reasons. It could even be a mating bite, which is totally normal for roosters - they do that to their mama hens too. It could also just be instinctual. Could be aggressive (although I suspect you'd have other signs of this too if it was truly aggressive, like him hackling out and squaring off to you to fight). It could also just be that he's excited you're near him, like a dog jumping on a person. There's no right answer for what to do. You could work on training him not to bite you - I would take him in the run early morning when he's easy to catch in the dark coop. I'd work alone with him in the run for 5-10 minutes before letting out the girls so he's not distracted and work on redirecting his bites to a bowl of wet feed, and getting him used to your hands and clothes so they are no longer triggering for them. You can read more about that technique in my article - www.thefeatherbrain.com/blog/taming-aggressive-roosters Or you can just let it be since the bites aren't painful. If you want more help on this, or if things get worse, I highly recommend scheduling an online consult with Roovolution. This is a nonprofit run by a couple who follow the same methods and philosophy I do. They give free consults to anyone who needs help with their roosters and they are truly wonderful. I will be collaborating with them on a few things soon, and I'm also an annual donator because I truly believe they are doing something wonderful in the chicken-keeping world. You can book a consult with them here if it comes to that - www.roovolution.org/ Glad to hear the wet food is working so well with your chickens too. It has always been a hit in my flocks!

May I add my experience with my 7 roosters who are 30 mths old? My 23 were raised with me being their Momma. My boys clung to me from the day they hatched. As time has gone by they have become very protective of me, especially my 2 Rhode Island Red brothers. The one follows me to the house and sits and waits for me like a dog. He went after my neighbors Rottweiler when it came on my prooerty and attacked me. With all this said, I have learned that my boys use their beaks as hands. They are constantly tugging on my clothers to get my attention. They luv to give me a "Hi-Five" when I praise them. They also bring me bugs and peck my hand so I take the gift from them. If he is not agressive, maybe he is either wanting your attention or just showing you luv as he has no hands to hug you!

Thank you for taking the time to respond. He seems to bite (or tug) at my clothes when I'm showing them new food, new water containers and when I changed the set up in their indoor coop. I became concerned because he was constantly doing it after I introduced the outdoor fenced in coop area for the first few days. Today (day 6 of being outside), he didn't bite at me at all. He was too busy picking on the hens, establishing himself as the leader. I think I'm going to wait it out, for now. I'm thrilled you didn't think it was something leading up to a problem. He definitely loves eating out of my hands, typically pushes the gals away, (New Hampshires are food aggressive). So I make sure there's 3 feed areas for treats and 3 feeders for dry food. I'm still going to check the folks you mentioned as well. Thanks again!!

Hmm, I never thought of him seeking my attention. That makes me look at this very differently. He's not displaying any other aggressive signals.... 🤔 I did stop picking him up about 2 weeks ago. Before that, I was taking him out of the brooder, and walking outside to let him have a look around (keeping him warm since he was so young). I did that with each of the chicks but not as intentional, I made sure I did with him daily, until as mentioned, at about 4 weeks he started protesting being held. So I respected that. The roosters u have are pretty cool!! I want a good relationship with mine, and "Featherbrain" was the first person I've seen that even tried! But you've also done really well!! That's encouraging. Thanks for your input, much appreciated!!!

Thank you! What specifically do you want to know about eggs?

@@thefeatherbrain how to keep them alive in the eggs,how to hatch them, their comfront I would like to know about it thank you for reading my comment 😊😊

I was wondering the same thing.

@ericschirmer3579 @gaylelucas5909 Yes! Part of the reason is because I wanted them to be able to contrafreeload all winter long - we have long winters up here where we've moved, and I didn't want them to be kicking up sand dust while they're foraging all day. There are a few other reasons too. I'm actually editing a video on that very topic right now. I still think sand is a wonderful bedding for the run, but organic bedding better fits my current goals. More on that in the next video. As a side note, I am still using sand in my chicken coop, and I doubt I will ever change that.

Thanks for sharing that - I'll have to start looking for busted bags, never crossed my mind!

Can you describe this more? I have rock hard dirt at this point in a large run. I would love to change this for them. How much peat did you need to add and what was the source?

The chickens love resting and preening under low cover (in nature, this would typically be in the form of bushes), and these canopies have been wonderful for that. They spend most of their inactive time under them. I bought them here off of Amazon - www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09VTNG8RQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The chickens love resting and preening under low cover, and these have been wonderful for that. They spend most of their inactive time under them. I bought them here off of Amazon - www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09VTNG8RQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The chickens love resting and preening under low cover, and these have been wonderful for that. They spend most of their inactive time under them. I bought them here off of Amazon - www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09VTNG8RQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

@@thefeatherbrain thank you! Love your work ❤️🐔👌

Thank you! I was wondering the same thing. I’m in the PNW and want something out in the run for shade/light rain protection. These look perfect.

@@angelazehm9565 The chickens love to hang out under them. In the wild, they'd be spending their rest time under bushes. These are a nice substitute for the run. :)

I'm planning to do the same - set up a yard with fruit plants, shrubs to hide in, etc.

@thefeatherbrain the reality is chickens make a mess everywhere lol, a chicken yard with some fruit shrubs will get them free ranging a bit, but without coming to my balcony and pooping 💩 lol

I used to be very concerned about that too. However, studies show that chickens will forage in their bedding, regardless of whether you throw feed it in or not, so they will be exposed to their own poop either way. However, if you do throw feed in their bedding, they have major benefits over chickens who are foraging and finding nothing, such as increased excitement/joy, lower stress hormone levels, and less aggression. I do, however, always recommend keeping the poop to bedding ratio as low as possible. I constantly add new bedding to the run so it's never very poopy. Studies also show that chickens absolutely do not want to live in poopy bedding, and of course, chickens in nature don't live in their own feces.

@@thefeatherbrain Thank you I appreciate it!

The chickens love resting and preening under low cover, and these have been wonderful for that. They spend most of their inactive time under them. I bought them here off of Amazon - www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09VTNG8RQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

@@thefeatherbrain Thank you!

We named our little corner of the woods "Redtail Woods" because we have hawks everywhere. I feel your pain!

Welcome to my brain

By nature, chickens love resting and preening under low cover. In nature, this cover would be bushes. In my run, it's the blue tents. They spend most of their inactive time under them - resting, preening, etc. Of course, you don't need to buy cover for your chickens - you can make your own structure out of branches, or, as I have done in the past, out of pallets. :)

Studies show that chickens will forage in their bedding, regardless of whether you throw feed it in or not, so they will be exposed to their own poop no matter what. However, if you do throw feed in their bedding, they have major benefits over chickens who are foraging and finding nothing, such as increased excitement/joy, lower stress hormone levels, and less aggression. I do, however, always recommend keeping the poop to bedding ratio as low as possible. I constantly add new bedding to the run so it's never very poopy. Studies also show that chickens absolutely do not want to live in poopy bedding, and of course, chickens in nature don't live in their own feces.

The hope is that they'll eat all or nearly all the food in the bedding, but I don't have any numbers on how much is wasted vs eaten. In my run, every week I rake older bedding towards the far wall of the run (away from the coop) and put the new bedding down near the coop (the bedding in between those two walls is intermediate in age - it's like a factory line, the new bedding by the coop slowly moves closer to the far wall as it gets older and poopier). The older bedding along the far wall behaves more as a slow compost pile as it's poopier (and I also pour their remaining water in that pile every night to speed up composting there, while keeping the rest of their run as dry and poop-free as possible) - any food that is still there would eventually compost with the old bedding if the chickens don't find it first. That's my system - works for my goals, but may not work for yours. :) Best, Bri

It’s compost.

Not sure I buy that. While OSB may be a concern in interior spaces with poor ventilation, like a house, it doesn't seem to cause issue in highly ventilated exterior spaces - anything that off-gases will dissipate quickly in an outdoor space. www.thegardencoop.com/blog/formaldehyde-offgassing-chicken-coop/

@mrs.rogers7582 Lol! Ground feeding is actually the natural way that chickens eat - no neck strain here! Chickens, by nature, are ground dwellers and eat the majority of their feed straight off the ground. The reason you see some chicken keepers raising their feeders is because they're using open feeders - raising them reduces feed waste. When a feeder is on the ground (what chickens prefer), they will scratch the feed out of open feeders as well as pull it out with their closed beaks (termed "beaking out" in the scientific literature). These are natural behaviors but result in a lot of mess. Raising the feeder eliminates these natural behaviors. The only other reason to raise the feeder is for sanitation purposes, but this is only necessary with open feeders, not treadle feeders. I do this with my open waterers - I put them on stands so that chickens are unable to kick bedding in them or poop in them (it has NOTHING to do with chicken comfort, as chickens are comfortable either way). But if you have a treadle feeder. the ground is the best and most natural place to put it. As far as chickens are concerned, the ground is the "acceptable" height!

Depends on your setup and your climate. I have kept food and water in the coop for years and never seen a single rodent.

You do not need to worry about "overfeeding" your chickens unless you have broilers or heavy breeds. If you want the healthiest and happiest chickens, give them open access to feeders. ALL the research supports this. Share your sources if you've found anything else.

A two-second google search - first academic result is Alabama A&M and Auburn Universities - www.aces.edu/blog/topics/farming/backyard-small-poultry-flock-management-series-feeding-the-laying-hen/ - "How much to feed? How much to feed is typically not an issue for small flock laying hens. By nature, chickens will mostly eat to meet their nutritional requirements. The typical breeds used in small laying flocks do not have the genetics for excessive growth or fat deposition. If feeding a complete layer feed, provide feed for your hens at all times." Oregon State University - extension.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/documents/pnw477.pdf - "Make sure feed is always available for the birds; meal feeding (giving a limited amount of feed several times each day) can reduce productivity..." University of Florida - edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/PS029 - "If hens are out of feed for several hours, a decline in egg production will probably occur. The amount of decline will be related to the time without feed. Be sure that all the birds have access to an adequate supply of a complete feed which meets all their nutritional requirements." This info is not at all difficult to verify. This was literally a 2-second google search bringing up the top three academic sources. FEED YOUR BIRDS, PEOPLE!

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