Time to clean the coop!

 Posted by: Todd Hagenbuch, Routt County CSU Extension

'The Girls' are so happy the snow has gone;
and they love the holiday tree in there for 'fun,'
per suggestion of Alison O'Connor's
January Co-Horts post.

In Northwest Colorado, winter is long. Even with a mild winter like we've just had, one can count on snow covering the ground for at least four months. You dig out where you absolutely have to, but for the most part, the landscape just stays covered in piles of that legendary Champagne Powder.

That snow has advantages other than providing a surface to ski and snowshoe on and creating storage for water we’ll use this summer; my grandpa always used to say, “That snow covers a lot of work!” But now that the snow has receded, work is being uncovered, and this weekend the Hagenbuch kids got after it.

The first task we handle once a wheelbarrow can navigate the backyard is to clean the chicken coop. We use the ‘deep litter method’ in our coop, which means over the winter we add fresh shavings every week or so to keep things clean. Over four of five months of doing this, we end up with a foot or more of dense litter on the floor of the coop. Not only does this help us mange the manure we couldn’t otherwise deal with, it also helps provide a nice layer of insulation to the floor of the coop.

Look at that beautiful litter!

Having all of this litter is a real gift for the garden, given its level of organic material. Others who agree call me and ask if they can just incorporate litter into their garden, and I’m quick to answer, “NO, it must be composted first.” This isn’t because it’s too ‘hot’ for your garden, but instead because it could be introducing bacteria and other unwanted problems into your garden…and potentially onto the veggies you’ll be eating this season. No one wants their lettuce to cause anyone to get sick.

Composting or aging chicken litter can be a way to help reduce the chances of spreading bacteria or disease. The litter also helps create good microbial action in the compost pile, which might otherwise not break down as well without the shot of nitrogen it provides. While it’s challenging to get our compost as hot as I’d like due to our short summers, cool nights, and long winters, a three-year process helps ensure that things are broken down well enough to be relatively safe.

The green arrow shows last year's
compost in bin #2; the red arrow
is what the kids put in this weekend.

We have a three-bin compost system, and compost is ‘rotated’ in the fall, right before snow-up. Current year yard waste, veggie waste from the kitchen, and the chicken litter get layered in the first bin; the second bin has the waste from last year that was rotated into it last fall; and the last bin has items from two years ago, breaking down more this summer before it is put into the garden this fall.

Warmer areas of the state can do this process more quickly, but in the mountains of NW Colorado, I find the ‘go slow’ approach gives me a much better (and safer) product. I occasionally incorporate some additional nitrogen into the process in the summer, adding commercially-produced fertilizer made with Dehydrated Poultry Waste. I will also soak the bins with water a few times each summer to help break down the materials, especially if we are experiencing a dry summer.

If you have a coop and are looking for a way to use the litter, take the time necessary to make sure it’s safer for your garden. CSU Extension has good resources on composting, including Fact Sheet #7.212, Composting Yard Waste. Also, if you’re in doubt about the safety of the compost, use it in your flower gardens and forego the potential issues of using it for food-producing gardens. Either way, take advantage of this resource for your yard if you have it.

Oh, and let me know if you enjoyed this blog post, too; that way, I can tell my kids their work this weekend wasn’t just to torture them, but instead an effort that inspired gardeners across Colorado.😉

Looking good! These clean shavings will
be ready to put into the compost bin within
the next month or two.

Chickens in the Backyard

About six years ago, the tiny city I live in Western Colorado approved chickens within the Community Residential Zoning district.  They allowed 6 hens per dwelling unit or up to 12 per lot if more than one dwelling unit.  So my family decided we would get some chickens the following spring.  

Some of the benefits of having chickens in the garden include providing green fertilizer, insect control, compost materials, eggs and food, and psychological benefits of calming and helping with special needs such as anxiety and depression. 1  Maybe that answers why I sit on the back step and visit with the chickens after work J

Here is my daughter with our Cochins-Picture by SLC

My family did our research and wanted chickens that were good layers but docile and didn’t fly.  I remember having various breeds growing up and remembering having to clip a wing so they didn’t fly into trees or off our property.  So I ended up with 6 Blue Cochin hens.  Make sure you get your chicks from a reputable company.  http://articles.extension.org/pages/68696/selecting-birds-for-a-small-or-backyard-poultry-flock

We started them out in the garage with a heat lamp until they were old enough to move outside.  We introduced our Borador dog, that’s a Border Collie Labrador mix, to them every day so she knew they belonged.  So it came time to let them out of the coop to roam the yard.  Well, Izzy the Borador thought that she needed to herd them back into the coop.  So with a little training, she realized we just do that at night.  http://articles.extension.org/pages/68697/housing-for-small-and-backyard-poultry-flocks

Izzy the Chicken Herder

By this time, we were planting our vegetable garden.  Since we have a moderated sized town lot, our garden borders our yard.  So I planted my cold crops or cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower.  My husband and I left for work with the girls wandering around our fenced in yard.  That evening I came home to find nubs where plants had been.  My girls apparently really enjoyed the veggies.  Chickens, like humans, are omnivores, so they need a well-balanced diet.  My scraps from dinner go to the girls.  They are my replacement compost pile.  http://articles.extension.org/pages/68178/basic-poultry-nutrition

So up went some chicken fencing so they can get close to the garden but not into the garden.  The chickens seemed to do a good job eating different insects although they are a little wimpy about new things like when I threw a tomato hornworm at them.  They first ran away, and then finally realized it was food.  The one thing I noticed the first year after the City passed the ordinance was the amount of flies seem to greatly increase.  So we hung a few fly traps near the coop and clean the coop weekly.  Not sure if the food web caught up to the increasing fly population or if other people took steps like us to decrease them.  But they now seem to be under control.  Lime is also another way to control the flies within the coop and helps with others things like disease and ammonia.  http://articles.extension.org/pages/66918/use-of-lime-in-poultry-houses

Having cochins has been great in the sense that they are so docile that there is very little pecking from establishing a pecking order.  However, my sister has several different breeds of chickens and one ended up wanting to be queen of the chickens and picked on everyone else.  My sister also lives in a city that allowed chickens but unfortunately had an uninformed code enforcement officer and city employee.  Apparently someone complained about the egg laying noises and the officer came to take the chickens.  Well, my very large personal fitness trainer brother-in-law said “no you are not taking my wife's chickens”.  The gal at the city said “well you have a rooster”.  “No”, he said “I don’t”.  Her response was: “well, how do you get eggs?”  Lesson here is YES, hens lay without the presence of a rooster.   So, to not deal with the city, the chickens were moved to Dad’s house.  But the mean hen continued to pick on the other two hens and my dad threatened to throw her in a pot.  My sister said no, let me figure something out.  Well, she found chicken goggles that made it hard for her chicken to focus on the other hens.  And it worked so no stew pot for her.  I then had a Master Gardener with the same pecking order issue with her chickens and I told her about the googles.  And they worked for her. 

Here is a picture of Big Bertha with her goggles on.

There are certainly challenges to having chickens.  When we go away, we have someone open and close the coop, give them treats beyond what is in the basic feeder and fresh water 1-2 times a day.  Egg layers need a lot of water available to them.  Of course now and then they get in the garden and do some damage.  And they eggs are not cheaper but wow do they taste good.  We do let them get into the garden in late fall for cleanup.  They enjoy eating the leftover vegetation and any insects left in the garden.

My sister's Chicken, Picture by Linda Gular

Do your homework before you get chickens.  Select the right breed for your purposes and situation or support a local egg farmer.   Practice good research based techniques.  Chickens can pass on some illnesses like Salmonella so wash and read this link. https://source.colostate.edu/dont-kiss-chickens-commonsense-tips-poultry-owners/

By Susan L. Carter, Horticulture Agent and Chicken Momma

CSUE Tri River Area

1 information from Rutgers, M. Brimat, Green Chicken Lady, 2016

http://veterinaryextension.colostate.edu/menu2/avian.shtml

http://articles.extension.org/poultry

Oh, by the way, peach season is wrapping up so go buy some Colorado Peaches today!

Considerations Before the Chickens or the Eggs

Buff Orpington rooster

Posted by: Curtis Utley, Jefferson County Extension

Spring is not quite in the air but this is the time of year that I begin planning my vegetable garden and placing my baby chick order. Chicks are available every week of the year from most mail-order hatcheries but there is something nostalgic and anticipatory about new life in the spring. From a practical standpoint it is much easier to brood chicks in the warming months of spring. Chickens may be a great addition to your yard and garden but keeping chickens is not for everyone. The following is my dissertation on the pitfalls and challenges often overlooked by the impulse buyer.

Housing:

First off, Chickens need suitable housing. Buying or building a chicken coop should be step 1. The coop should be weather and predator proof. Choose a coop layout that is easy to clean; chickens are messy birds. I strongly recommend a slick finished concrete coop floor for the ease of cleaning and to dissuade tunneling vermin.

Baby chicks in fire proof steel horse tank

Brooding:

In nature a mother hen hatches her chicks and broods them herself, keeping them close to her body for the first 6-8 weeks of life. With hatchery chicks, you are the brooder and many buildings have burned to the ground accidentally as a result of a brooder lamp or other heat source causing a fire. Both my cousin and I have had brooder lamp mishaps resulting in property damage so this should not be taken lightly.

Chickens eating prize winning Jack O' Lantern

Free Ranging Considerations:

last blades of grass in chicken yard

Chickens poop everywhere, all the time, everywhere. Unfortunately, chicken poop does not smell like roses, if it did I would not mind stepping in it so much. Chickens can fly, they are birds after all. This feat, temporarily defying gravity, gives chickens access to your outdoor furniture, (did I mention chickens poop everywhere) the roof of your house, your neighbor’s yard, the roof of your car, shade trees, swing sets, etc.    

Blue Andalusian rooster in the now plant-less chicken yard  

Chickens are omnivores eating anything that moves and your prize winning vegetables that don’t.  Chickens scratch the ground looking for worms, insects, seeds, pebbles, grass roots, anything. When you keep chickens in the same location they will eventually denude the ground of every living plant leaving dust holes and mud in their wake.

Predators and Vermin:

Chickens beget mice if you did not have a mouse problem before, you will once you begin keeping chickens. This has more to do with storing chicken feed than the chickens themselves but chickens are messy and if you allow them access to free feed they will spill some on the ground and not bother picking it up since there is more in the feeder. This spilled feed is nutritionally balanced for breeding mice and if you’re really unlucky, rats. Interestingly, chickens love killing and eating mice, unfortunately chickens have terrible night vision when mice are actively out and about.

The deficit in night vision also makes chickens easy prey for predators including but not limited to: skunks, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, owls, mountain lions, bears, dogs, etc. So you have to be sure to close the coop door at night or you may risk losing some birds.

Hens eyeing a tasty garter snake

Chicken Sitin’:

Chickens can easily live for 10-15 years if they don’t get eaten by something first, and chickens, unlike dogs and children are not easily taken with you during your family vacation. Each time you plan to be away you must find someone you trust to come by your coop twice per day to collect the eggs, feed and water the birds, open the coop in the morning and close the coop door after dusk.

Sexing Baby Chicks

Many municipalities have relaxed their code rules to allow residents to keep a few backyard birds and this is fantastic. Within most of these new provisions cockerels and roosters (male birds) are still prohibited. If you are buying baby chicks you will have to buy pullets only, and if you accidentally end up with a cockerel you will have to find a new home for the bird or potentially suffer the consequences of being out of compliance. I have taught myself to sex chicks and I'm correct 50% of the time.

Production Issues:

Most people are interested in keeping chickens because of the prospect of fresh eggs produced in your own backyard; admittedly this is why I began keeping chickens 15 years ago. Baby chicks will not produce their first egg until they are 6-8 months old. Waiting for your first fresh eggs from your first flock of chicks feels like waiting for your 16^th birthday to roll around and you finally gain the freedom of your driver’s license. Interminable.  Chickens need 16 hours of light before they begin egg production so they do not lay well in the winter when it’s dark. Chickens molt all of their feathers once per year and stop producing eggs, often for 2 months, during this time. Most hens are only productive for their first 4 years but live 10-15 years.

As spring nears and you are pondering adding a flock of chickens to your yard I hope you find this information useful. I love raising chickens; they add humility and a degree of complexity to my otherwise hectic life.

Addtional Information: 

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/sam/backyard-chickens.html

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09377.html

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/blueprints/poultry.html