My Chirpy Chicken Coop

3 Secrets To A Clean Chicken Coop December 26, 2021   (Our cleaned-out coop on a rainy day, probably about to get dirty again! :) We all know that chickens, like all animals (and children!), tend to be...well, dirty. Which is why I have three awesome secrets to a clean chicken coop: Vinyl Vinyl on the floor of the coop is the best for poopy messes! And it's very easy to change out every so often.         2. Feed & Water Outside The second important way to keep your coop clean is to never put feed or water inside the coop. Never. For any reason. All it does is attract flies in the summer, rodents in the winter, and make a huge wet mess year round.         3. Outdoor Activities That leads me to my third tip for keeping your coop clean - outdoor activities. The easiest way to keep your coop clean is to keep your chickens out in the run as much as possible year round. In reality, they should only be inside the coop while they're sle...

  A Year In Memory: Washington December 19, 2021 (Washington's gravesite.) It has been officially one year since beloved Washington passed away . I still miss her so much and the pain is still there. I think about how if she was still alive, she would be a grown-up mature hen, not a shy, tiny pullet with a quiet chirp. She still inspires me to push on and be a trooper, just like she was. I was talking with a friend on the anniversary of Washington's death, and she asked me to share some of the memories with her, and doing so helped me with the sadness, so I'll share one memory with you: There was once a time where Washington was really injured and we needed to keep her inside until she healed. (The hens really took it out on her!) We kept her in a spare bathroom in a kennel, but I totally forgot to close the door. She walked out and roamed around the house for a few hours. I come in after school and I see her walking around the hall with a trail of droppings behind her and ...

Chicken Coop Cleaning December 12, 2021 (Angelica exiting a just-cleaned coop!) Keeping a clean chicken coop is, of course, optimal for the health of your flock. Your coop doesn't need to be spotless, but it does need to be dry and free of mold, mildew, parasites, etc. I only do a deep clean twice a year. Yup, that's it. Just two times a year I do a really good, deep coop cleaning. Spring and fall, I clean all the old litter and nesting box bedding out and scrub down the whole coop with a white vinegar/water solution right before the weather turns cold - and then again when it starts to warm up again in the spring. I like to clean my chicken coop in the fall just before winter to be sure there aren't any rodents or bugs that are planning on spending the winter, and to be sure the coop is nice and clean heading into winter when the chickens will be spending more time inside due to the longer periods of darkness. And then again in the spring, just before I welcome new babies ...

French Maran Portrait December 5, 2021 (My French Maran portrait of Lafayette! I thought it would be a fun touch to have the Maran crowing. :) I've been really missing Lafayette lately, so I decided to commemorate a painting to him: A French Maran portrait! I had so much fun with this cool painting of Laffy crowing, and so I decided I would share this how-to with y'all: Get your supplies together! You'll need- A canvas, pencil, container of water, paper towel, various sizes of paintbrushes, gold acrylic paint, yellow-green acrylic paint, red acrylic paint, white acrylic paint, & black acrylic paint. Do a sketch transfer of your chosen French Maran rooster. (For those who don't know what that is, then here is a quick tutorial- Simply print out a photo of a French Maran, then turn over the paper and use a pencil to smudge the back in graphite. Next, place the paper face up on your canvas, and trace out the details of the photo. (Be careful not to move the paper aroun...

Keeping Rodents Out Of The Coop November 28, 2021 (Eliza sitting amongst the chocolate mint near our coop!) During late fall and into winter, when the temperatures are dropping, and the field mice and rats are looking for a nice warm, safe place to spend the winter as well as a readily available food source nearby, your chicken coop is looking pretty good to them right about now! It's filled with soft bedding, chicken feed, and protects the rodents from predators like weasels, mink, and fox who enjoy a little mouse snack! Mice and other rodents not only can carry disease and contaminate the area with their droppings, they can transmit lice, mites or ticks to your chickens, and they will eat your chicken feed and chew all kinds of things you don't want them to. Not only that, often snakes, weasels or other varmints will travel using the tunnels mice dig - and that's the last thing you want. So ridding your coop and run area of mice is really important. Here are some helpful ...

  A Memoir To Lafayette November 21, 2021 (Our last memories made with Laffy!) I'm once again so grieved as I write this. As you know, our area is not zoned for roosters, so we had been soundproofing the coop in the mornings so that the neighbors would not hear Lafayette. However, the neighbors had their satisfaction- Lafayette is with us no longer, we had to rehome him. For awhile now, our new neighbors had been complaining over and over about Laffy- even once saying they wanted to kill him! Finally, after a final complaint, our family decided to rehome him. On the morning of November 20, 2021, I spent my last waking hours with Laffy, feeding him treats, playing with him, letting him roam around one last time with his ladies. We eventually packed him up into the car and drove an hour to a farm (if you could call it that, the place was kind of inhumane, and some guinea fowl were mating with the chickens!) where we gave him away. We said our goodbyes, and Lafayette crowed a final cr...

  To Heat, Or Not To Heat...That Is The Question November 14, 2021 (The flock hanging out in the coop on a chilly fall day!) To heat or not to heat your chicken coop in the winter.....that is the question. Dry shavings, wood, chickens, plus a heat source....not a good combination. An often debated topic among chicken keepers is the subject of heating your coop or not. But in this case, it's best to listen to your chickens. Some chicken experts flat out say no - never, ever heat your coop. Their rationale is that people have been raising chickens forever, even before electricity was invented, so chickens don't need heat. Remember, generations ago, chickens most likely slept right in the barn along with other, larger farm animals - maybe snuggled up next to a fuzzy sheep or roosting on the rafters above a pen full of warm cows. Farm families also generally kept fairly large flocks since they were using their chickens for eggs. The average farmer had a lot more than 4 or 5 chicken...

Annual Hug A Chicken Day 2021!!! November 7, 2021 (A collage of me and my fam hugging our chickens!) So easily overlooked by many, it seems fitting to draw attention to these amazing animals.  Chickens not only deliver fresh delicious eggs to our door, but they also make fantastic pets.  They are capable of emotions and bring much joy to my family on so many levels. During the entire day on November 5th, Hug a Chicken Day,  people across the globe will be hugging their chickens and posting their pictures to this event.  On this day, please take the time to honor your chickens for all that they provide to your family and the world.  I hope to be joined by fellow chicken keepers in saying thank you. Last, but not least, mark your calendars. Maybe this one might just set some sort of world record. Did you remember to hug one of your chickens today? How different would our lives be without them?  I am grateful for their eggs, their companionship, entertainment,...

Tips For Buying A Chicken Coop   October 31, 2021 (Our chicken coop on a rainy day!) When you're buying a coop, there are several things to take into consideration regarding the location and design- things like coop size, location, elevation, etc. Keep reading for more tips on buying a chicken coop! Size: Conventional rule of thumb is 2-4 square feet of interior coop floor space per hen, dependent on the size of your birds (bantams need less, Jersey Giants need more) and how many waking hours they spend in the coop. My rule of thumb: Build your coop a lot bigger than you think you'll need. Location: If your coop is going to be stationary, versus a movable tractor-type coop, then the location is very important. In the warm southern climates, you'll want to situate it in the shade. If you live in a more northern climate, then locating your coop in the sun will be more beneficial.  You should also consider whether your run will be attached to your coop at one end or if your co...

Chicken Treats For Every Season   October 24, 2021 (Lafayette feasting on fall garden remains!) My chickens get some sort of snack or treat nearly every day - even if it's just some free range time so they can find their own snacks in the form of bugs, worms and weeds. And that changes depending on what's readily available and what is optimal nutritionally for them. Before I go into what treats I feed during each season, there are some basic guidelines when it comes to treats. 1) A balanced layer feed (or grower if you have little ones still :) should make up the bulk of your flock's diet. 2) Treats should make up no more than 10% of their total diet, so figure on maybe 1-2 tablespoons per day per chicken of snacks.  3) Generally, if you would eat it, then it's okay for your chickens, so that means stale or wilted is okay, but don't ever feed anything moldy, spoiled or rotten.  Now that we have the guidelines down, let's get into the seasons of chicken trea...