Backyard...The Small-Scale Poultry Flock Excerpt from the book The Small-Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery. 45 Spanish Breeds The Penedesenca and Empordanesa are perfect for hot

1Backyard Poultry Caring for Chickens in Summer e-edition

Caring for Chickens in Summer

e-editionBackyardPoultry

America’s Favorite Poultry Magazine

www.CountrysideNetwork.com

Caring for Chickens in Summer

How toBeat the Heat

Gardening with Chickens

Keeping aFlock Hydrated

PLUS: DIY

Watering Ideas

2 Backyard Poultry Caring for Chickens in Summer e-edition

Contents // Caring for Chickens in Summer

4 From the Editor

6 Flock Photos Featuring photos from our readers.

8 Something to Crow AboutReader-submitted letters.

10 Poultry TalkRon Kean and Pam Freeman answer reader questions about their flocks.

12 Help Chickens Keep Their Cool7 tips for helping a flock beat the heat.

14 It’s Hot Out There! Caring for your poultry in hot weather.

16 Ah! There’s Nothing Like a Good Dust Bath in the Afternoon

Dustbathing is important for a flock’s health and wellbeing.

18 KeepBiofilmOutofYourPoultry Flock’s Drinking Water

How to eliminate the smelly scum that develops in waterers.

22 How to Build a Poultry Water StandDirty, soiled water can cause illness in your birds.

24 Homemade Poultry WatererMake a waterer using a cat litter jug.

14


26 Permaculture: Gardening With ChickensUsing a chicken tractor to garden with chickens.

28 3 Tips for Gardening with PoultryRaising chickens and gardening in a shared environment.

30 Poultry & Produce Tips and tricks for keeping poultry in your garden.

33 4 Ways Backyard Chickens Help Gardens Backyard chickens fertilize, reduce weeds and provide natural pest control.

34 TestYourSoiltoKeepYourPoultrySafeIt’s better to know what metals and minerals your flock is digesting. 16

39 Toxins in the Environment The environment contains plenty of potential poisons.

42 Book Excerpt: The Small-Scale Poultry Flock Excerpt from the book The Small-Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery.

45 Spanish Breeds The Penedesenca and Empordanesa are perfect for hot climates.

48 Coop Inspiration: Rural Colorado Coop

A life-changing move becomes an inspiration for their new chicken coop.

30

24


EDITORIALSteph Merkle, Content Director

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Pam Freeman, [email protected]

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Mixed flock. Photo by Brenda Carlson - New Auburn, Wisconsin.

Summer Fun!

from the editor

Pam Freeman Editor

I love summer and my chickens love summer. And why

wouldn’t we? It’s a time of plenty and happiness for all. My flock free ranges . They spend hours hunting down tasty morsels and eat-ing everything they can find. I’m happy because my chicken food bill goes down since stom-achs are being fil led elsewhere. My flock spends long hours in the sun soaking in the rays and stretching their wings. They also spend luxurious hours in the dust bath holes they’ve created. I love watching them as they become trance-like because they’re so relaxed.

As happy as summer can be, there are some things to watch. First and foremost is the heat and humidity. Heat

is harder on a chicken than the cold, and com-bined with high humid-ity, it can be brutal. In summer I break out all my waterers and keep them filled. I also tr y not to disturb my chickens too much dur-ing the hot parts of the day. They find shady, cool spots to relax, and I let them.

It ’s also good to monitor your chickens for illness and for pests during the summer since this is high time for flies and parasites. Make sure to check often so you can catch any issues before they become a problem.

Last, make sure your coop is well ventilated and stays cool for your chick-ens. That way they’ve got a comfy spot to roost at night and to lay their eggs.

ON THE COVER

Happy Summer!


Backyard

Poultry

Gardening with Chickens is an indispensable guide for a harmonious homestead with tips for:• Plants to grow and avoid when raising chickens

• How to harvest and use your plants• Chickens and composting

• Using chickens to aerate and till• A dozen plans for themed gardens

CountrysideNetwork.com/shop/gardening-with-chickens

Welcome to a world where chickens and gardens coexist!


WAYS TO SHARE: EMAIL PHOTOS IN JPG FORMAT TO [email protected] MESSAGE US ON FACEBOOK: FACEBOOK.COM/BACKYARDPOULTRY TAG US ON INSTAGRAM OR USE #BACKYARDPOULTRYMAG: INSTAGRAM.COM/BACKYARDPOULTRYMAG MAIL YOUR ENTRY TO: BACKYARD POULTRY, P.O. BOX 566, MEDFORD, WI 54451

Backyard Poultry retains the right to publish and/or reproduce any and all photos submitted. To have your photos returned, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope.

Here is my chicken named Betty. She is a house pet and loves to relax in my garden during the day. – Paulina Gos Villarreal, Michigan

Our little Welsummer we named Summer. – Sydni Phillips, Montana

Our Ameraucana hen, Chub, was caught digging in the

garden without permission. – Brady Johnson, New Hampshire


WAYS TO SHARE: EMAIL PHOTOS IN JPG FORMAT TO [email protected] MESSAGE US ON FACEBOOK: FACEBOOK.COM/BACKYARDPOULTRY TAG US ON INSTAGRAM OR USE #BACKYARDPOULTRYMAG: INSTAGRAM.COM/BACKYARDPOULTRYMAG MAIL YOUR ENTRY TO: BACKYARD POULTRY, P.O. BOX 566, MEDFORD, WI 54451

Backyard Poultry retains the right to publish and/or reproduce any and all photos submitted. To have your photos returned, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope.

My wife and I have really enjoyed Backyard Poultry since

we started our backyard flock four years ago. We like

to reuse/recycle everything we can and never use any

chemicals in our orchard or garden. Here is Netti, my lovely

wife, hand feeding the girls. – C. Keith Edmonds

This is Betty Jo, enjoying the shade by the rose garden. – Debbie Parrish, Oklahoma

Ariana feeding her three goslings fresh chard from our garden. – Krystin Friling, New Hampshire

These are my two Dominique roos, Shrek and Donkey, leading their ladies down the garden path. They are the sweetest and gentlest boys. Who can ask for better friends? – Kjysten Drew, Washington


Save Henrietta and Her FlockThree years ago, I realized a dream

and bought my own home. Part of that dream included having a small flock of backyard chickens, so I researched the laws in the community before I bought my house. I also checked with my neigh-bors to ensure they were amenable to my having chickens. Every contiguous neighbor said it was okay.

Last month, the Village of Nassau, located in rural Rensselaer County, New York, changed the zoning law in the course of 10 days to prohibit chickens. I only learned of this after the fact when the code enforcement officer called to tell me I would be receiving a letter direct-ing me to remove my chickens and their enclosure. I was given 10 days to get rid of my birds.

Do You Have Something To Crow About?

We want to hear from you. Send questions, comments, opinions, advice, coming events, etc. to:

Backyard Poultry Editor, P.O. Box 1848, Medford, WI 54451 or email: [email protected]

After two days of crying, I decided to get a lawyer.

Henrietta, a golden Comet, is three years old. I bought her as a chick from my local farm supply store. Muriel, I saved from a farm in another county. She was skittish and had bumblefoot when I bought her. Today, she is healthy, friendly, and very happy. Peep, I hatched from an egg last year. She knows her name and loves to cuddle. I’m a special education teacher and a single parent, and one of the ways I de-stress is to go sit in my backyard and watch Henrietta, Muriel, Peep, and my other chickens scratch around and hunt for bugs.

You may think of chickens only as meat you buy in the grocery store, or as the source of eggs for your morning omelet. For me, they are my pets, and the eggs they produce are a wonderful extra. I admit, when I started keeping chickens, it was for the eggs. I wanted my children to know where their food came from, and I had read about the horrific condi-tions in which commercial chickens live and lay their eggs. But as I got to know the individual birds, I saw them as indi-viduals. Henrietta loves to jump up on my shoulders and ride around. She is much smarter than I expected. She knows her name and comes when I call her. They all know the sound of my car and they rush to the edge of their enclosure when they hear me pull in. I made a commitment to my birds that they would be happy and healthy for as long as they lived. Now, my promise to them is threatened.

My lawyers were able to help me keep the chickens for the time being, but the new law, filed with New York State on April 20, still threatens us. I was able to come up with the $1,000 retainer

to start the fight, but now I need help. My lawyers need a $10,000 retainer to bring an Article 78 proceeding against the Village of Nassau. They said the vil-lage did not follow the rules for creating the new law, and I have a good chance in a lawsuit, the Article 78 proceeding, against the village. But I don’t have a lot of time. The deadline for filing the suit is the beginning of July, so I have about a month to raise the money.

Henrietta

The rest of the flock.

While this is personal in that my chickens are in danger, there is a larger principle at stake. We are a democracy, and our government needs to follow the rules when it makes laws. There are pro-cedures that must be followed when new laws are created, and governments must represent all of the members in the com-munity, not just a few. If the government can make a law to prohibit chickens and pass it in a 10-day span without letting af-fected people have a say, they could just


More Conversation & Stories on our Facebook Page

Facebook.com/backyardpoultry

Read the full story at: countrysidenetwork.com/daily/poultry/chickens-101/injured-chick-became-my-pet-chicken

Austen McKenna: That was a wonderful story. It was sad that the leg couldn’t be

corrected sooner... she could have had a longer life. However the time given to

her to live on this planet and the love she experienced from her adopted family was

incredible even if only for a short time. It was fortunate that the man at the feed

store knew to give the chick to the family.

Eva Sue Wheeler: God Bless you.

as easily make a law prohibiting a specific breed of dog, or prohibit other types of birds or animals. If I don’t fight back, they could become emboldened and violate other community members’ civil rights.

The old zoning law did not prohibit the keeping of chickens. Now, chickens and other poultry, swine—including teacup and potbellied pigs—horses and goats have been outlawed, and very few people in the village were aware that this was even in the works. While my lawyers won’t make promises, they said I have a good chance to overturn this law—if I can raise money for the retainer. Otherwise, it stays on the books and I have to get rid of Henrietta and her peeps. Please help me save my chickens and fight my local government’s overreach. Thank you.

Jennifer Pruden, Henrietta, and Her Flock

www.gofundme.com/save- henrietta-and-her-flock

Ends 6/25/17


Poultry TalkRon Kean Extension Poultry SpecialistUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison

Pam FReeman

EditorBackyard Poultry magazine

Ask our Poultry Experts About Your Flock’s Health, Feed, Production, Housing, and More

If you have health-related poultry questions, send them to us at Backyard Poultry, Attn: Ask the Expert, P.O. Box 566,

Medford, WI 54451 or email to [email protected]. All submissions will be considered for print publication. Please include your name and hometown with your questions, which should be as detailed as possible. Pictures help us answer questions,

so please include those too!

Muscovy Duck Babies Abandoned

Hi, I’m really hoping you can help me. I live in Miami, Florida and have a situation with Muscovy baby ducklings that are in danger. Of course no wildlife rescue group will help me since they are not protected here. So Mama duck and her 12 ducklings have been visiting my front yard for the past five to six weeks. I’ve fed them regularly and they’ve al-ways hung out at or very near my home. But suddenly, about three days ago, only the ducklings showed up. Mama was nowhere to be seen all day. The next day, the same thing. I became worried for their safety and decided to catch and trap all 12 of them (what a mission that was!). Even after all the noise they made, no Mama appeared. So I had to assume something really bad happened to her and she was gone for good. I’ve been keeping them in a crate, safe and with plenty of food and water but they refuse to eat. Then today (3rd day of her gone missing), Mama suddenly appeared! I was so happy! She was wagging her tail and they all ran up to her and they all walked away together. But several hours later, I saw the babies all by themselves, again, all huddled up in my front yard. No mom to be seen.

I am so saddened by this! I now have to assume that she is abandoning them on purpose! Or maybe they are refusing to follow her? Either way, I’m so worried for their well-being … they are unprotected and not eating. I know it’s especially dangerous overnight.

Do you have an idea of what could be going on and if there’s anything I can do to help? I don’t know how long Mom will be gone for this time and if she’s even coming back! Is it best that I trap them again? Or leave them out for Mom to come back for them again? I know they won’t make it without protection! Thank you so much in advance for any info that you can provide.

Cecilia

Hi Cecilia,It may seem heartless, but in cases of

wildlife babies in the spring, it’s often best to let nature take its course. Sometimes the mothers are nearby and although we think the babies are not being watched, they really are.

It’s surprising they won’t eat, espe-cially since the mother had been feeding them before. You may want to provide feed, as you’ve been doing before (when the mother was with them), and maybe some sort of shelter if that’s a possibil-

ity. A guess is that the mother may have started a new nest, for another hatch. At five to six weeks of age, the ducklings should be able to be on their own, other than being able to avoid predators. So, if they are in an area that will keep out predators, they are probably okay. They were most likely stressed from being caught and kept in a crate, and that’s why they didn’t eat.

Beyond that, there’s not a lot that you can do.

Hope this helps!

Molting ConcernsI have four chickens: two Jersey Giants and two Golden Sex Links. The black ones molted six months ago but the Golden Sex Links haven’t. What should I do and should I be worried?

Harrison

Hi Harrison,There’s probably not a lot of cause

for worry at this point. There are a few different possibilities about what’s hap-pening. From your question, it’s hard to tell the age of your chickens so a lack of molt could be age-related. Adult molting usually happens around 18 months of age. If your Golden Sex Links are young,


they won’t molt until they are older. It’s also hard to tell when the Jersey Giants molted. If it was last fall, then they’ll be due for another molt this fall. If they molted in the spring, that’s ok, but it’s not as common as a fall molt. It’s good to make sure they don’t have any other issues like stress, lack of water and food or signs of illness.

It’s also possible that your Golden Comets did molt and you didn’t know it. Some birds will go through a hard molt and you’ll see dramatic feather loss and regrowth. Others will go through a soft molt and you’ll hardly notice a feather out of place.

Unless you see other problems, then it’s probably not something to be concerned about, just something to watch in the future.

Sick ChickenI am really concerned about one of

my hens. She is three or four years old and is a Golden Comet. She has not been acting like herself. She is not stable on her feet. She is drooling a lot. She got her feed all wet. She will eat, but not a lot. She also acts sleepy. She does not seem to be able to keep her eyes open. She is not laying any eggs. Can you please help me?

Kayla Kimberly

Hi Kayla,Unfortunately, it does not sound

like your chicken is doing well. At this point, it’s probably best to remove her from the rest of the flock so she does not get pecked and can rest comfortably. Give her a safe chicken hospital spot to convalesce with food and water. Chicken hospitals don’t have to be fancy. Some folks use dog carriers or plastic storage bins without the top. Just make sure she’s in a well-protected spot like a garage or mud room in your house.

The symptoms you’ve described are good to know but don’t point to a specific problem. It can be hard to correctly diag-nose issues via computer conversations.

The best thing for your chicken would be to find a veterinarian that can handle poultry. He or she will be able to physically examine your bird and has ac-cess to diagnostic tools to find the results of blood and fecal samples. At that point, your veterinarian can help you choose the best course of action.

Good luck with your hen!

Using Apple Cider VinegarHow often do you use vinegar? How

much vinegar per gallon of water?Joe

Hi Joe,Apple Cider Vinegar can be used in

water for chickens to discourage slime build up and help your chickens stay healthy. It should be used at one table-spoon per gallon of water. If you have hard water you can double the Apple Cider Vinegar. You can use it once or twice a week each week, or for one week straight per month.

You can use either the pasteurized Apple Cider Vinegar or the organic raw vinegar with the “mother” in the bottle. If you use the raw vinegar, then make sure to store it in a cool, dry location with the lid tightly closed.

Hope this helps!

Stopping Fox AttacksDo you have any tips or hints for foxes? I have one that’s thinning out my flock of guineas and all I ever get is a glance of him when they sound the alarm. My rifle is sighted in and at the ready but the fox always manages to be where I don’t expect him. Sly fox!

Terry B

Hi Terry,Foxes are perhaps the hardest preda-

tors to stop. They are smart and they are patient. They’ll watch to get used to your routine so they know the best time to strike. With guineas, this may be hard, but try letting them out to free range at different times of the day. If you have a dog, make sure that it’s able to get to the places your guineas roam. The dog droppings will discourage the fox. Even if you have a dog, male human urine can discourage predators.

You can also try using the red flash-ing predator lights and leaving a radio on near the coop during the night.

Because predators do get used to a routine, vary up your techniques. It’s harder for them if they can’t quite figure out what you’re going to be doing.

The sad reality is that even with using all these techniques, it’s almost impos-sible to stop all predators. It’s best to move forward and try to learn from each encounter how to do better next time.

Hope this helps!

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Help Chickens Keep Their Cool

By Tiffany Towne, nuTrena PoulTry exPerT

Some people love a summer heat wave, or for that matter, sweating it out in a sauna. Not chickens. For

our feathered friends, steamy summer days — which are increasing, due to climate change — can mean trouble. But the right care can help your girls keep their cool and stay productive throughout the season.

WHY THE FUSS?Chickens cannot sweat, making

them much more susceptible to over-heating. Chickens normally lose heat as warm blood flows through the comb, wattles, and limbs, cools, and is re-turned to the body’s interior. Problems occur in extreme heat, when the chick-en’s temperature (on average 102°F to 103°F) cannot be reduced by this method. Without relief, heat stroke, low egg productivity or death can happen.

HEAT STROKE SYMPTOMSJust like humans, chickens can tell

us a lot through body language. Some symptoms of an uncomfortable or over-heated chicken include:

• Panting;• Wings spread to its sides to release extra heat;• Loss of appetite;• Lethargic/less active; and• Diarrhea from increased water in-take.

The biggest concern about eating less feed is ingesting fewer nutrients than are required for healthy, productive birds. At a minimum, this causes weight loss, a drop in egg production, or eggs with poor shell quality. Worst case, it leads to an unhealthy bird that’s more susceptible to disease.

HOT WEATHER CARE TIPSThere are ample ways to protect

your birds and keep your flock happy. Here are some basic tips:

WaterA hydrated bird is able to regulate

its temperature more efficiently — and keep its egg production up. An egg is almost 75 percent water — so keeping this nutrient available is essential for egg production. A fresh supply of cool, clean water is a necessity year-round, but especially in the heat of summer. Have more than one source of water, so chickens don’t have to move far or fight to get it.

ShadeCoops and runs should be partially

shaded if possible, even if it’s just a simple tarp or piece of cardboard. But keep it big enough so that birds aren’t huddling in a small space. Chickens without shade tend to stay inside, away from cooling breezes. If you have darker birds, they’ll need more shade to stay cool and reduce fading, since they don’t reflect sunlight like light birds. Conversely, white birds may take on a “brassy” appearance from having their feathers exposed to too much sun. Also, keep in mind that in hot, dry climates, strong sun, combined with high heat and low humidity, dries out feathers. They become brittle and susceptible to breakage.

VentilationProper ventilation is a must. It

provides comfort by removing mois-ture, ammonia and other gasses, and provides an exchange of air. Mesh-covered windows let air in and keep predators out. A wire mesh screen doors, helps keep the coop cooler at night. Increase circulation with a fan. Also, installing a reliable thermometer to monitor heat conditions is a great idea.

Coop DesignWho doesn’t like a breeze on a hot

day? If possible, the windows on your coop should be south facing. This will help with warmth in the winter and dryness (and less rot) during the rest of the year. Also, paint your coop a lighter color, so it reflects, rather than retains, heat.


Dust BathsChickens love taking dust baths

and working the cool dirt particles into their feathers. Most chickens will simply roll around in a dusty spot in a garden bed or raw dirt patch. Soil, mulch, and sand will also work. If your chickens are confined, you can make a great dust bath for them by filling a shallow container (like a kitty litter box) with your chosen material. Your chickens will be happier and cleaner if you provide a good dust bathing area for them.

TreatsProvide chilled or frozen summer treats. Create your own giant Popsicle by float-ing fruit in a bowl of water and freez-ing. Chickens also love fresh fruits and veggies from the garden (who doesn’t?). As with all treats, don’t overdo it. Feed no more than 10 percent of the total diet in treats, and make sure a complete commercial ration is the main source of food. This way, your birds will still get the much-needed vitamins, minerals, energy, and protein that the layer ration provides, but with the added bonus of a cool summertime treat! Avoid high starch grains, such as corn, which heat up a chicken’s body temperature during digestion.

Low StressKeep stress levels down and avoid

getting your birds all worked up. Give them plenty of room to stay calm, cool and quiet. No one wants to “play chase” or be held on a scorching day.

With the right cool-down care, your flock — and you — can have an enjoy-able summer. Have fun!

Find a Nutrena dealer near you at www.NutrenaPoultryFeed.com, subscribe to the Nutrena poultry blog at Scoop-FromTheCoop.com, and sign up for Flock Minder at FlockMinder.com to receive timely tips delivered directly to your inbox.

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By Dave anDersonPresiDenT of american PoulTry associaTion

As summer heats up, it is a good time to think about protecting our birds from the extreme heat

we can expect over the next few months. Heat can have a very detrimental effect on birds. Poultry do not sweat to pro-vide cooling. Instead, they are cooled by blood that flows through the comb and wattles. As the warm blood circu-lates through the comb and other head appendages, it is cooled and returns to the interior portion of the body. In extreme heat, the head appendages cannot provide enough relief and the bird can die or, at the very least, become unproductive. I have actually witnessed birds suffering from heat stroke and it is not a pretty sight.

Shade and plenty of fresh water are a must in summer. Birds can withstand some very extreme temperatures if they are shielded from the sun and can cool off via the intake of water. In addition, they love to take dust baths and work the cool dirt particles into their feath-

ers. It is amusing to watch birds with access to dirt lie on the ground and develop a hole by ruffling their feathers and digging with their claws. This not only helps keep them cool but also aids in controlling lice and mites and other parasites.

I provide fans for my birds that are housed inside and do not have access to dirt. The fans move the air which

results in a cooling process. I also make sure they have fresh, clean water at least twice a day and are not exposed to direct sunlight.

Waterfowl are easy to care for in the summer. If they have shade and a nice pool to jump in they are happy camp-ers. I use the small wading pools that are sold at K-mart and other similar stores. They are easy to empty and clean

Caring for Your Poultry in Hot WeatherIt’s HOT Out There!

A mix of Fawn Runners, Mallards, and Crested Cayugas. Photo courtesy of Anna Mic-ciulla, North Carolina.


and provide enough water for birds to submerge themselves. It is always fun to watch them play in the water right after the pools have been filled.

Offering waterfowl a place to sub-merge themselves is not only a nice way to cool down in the summer heat, but is essential to allow them to clean their bills and eyes. Options can be as basic as the kiddie pool above or as fancy as the pond below.

Direct sunlight also has a negative effect on feather condition and can ren-der birds unshowable until they have gone through a molt. This is particularly true if you live in an area that has high heat and low humidity. Low humidity dries out the feathers and they become brittle and more susceptible to breakage. The males of many white breeds and varieties will sunburn readily; espe-cially if they do not possess the “silver white” gene that is often discussed in discussions of poultry genetics. The color on non-white birds such as buff or partridge, will fade rapidly and not return until a molt is complete.

In summary, birds need extra care and attention in summer just as they do in winter. If you want to keep them in production and in show condition, it is imperative that they have continu-ous access to fresh water and shade and minimum exposure to direct sunlight.

Preparing a Dust BathA dust bath can be as simple as

an area of the yard where the birds have worn the grass away and only dirt survives, but providing additional ingredients can offer your birds even more pleasure. The most desired mate-

rials for a dust bath are sand, dirt and sifted wood ash. Many people feel the wood ash also helps prevent fleas and other bugs from moving in on the birds’ feathers.

Create a frame for the bath contents with wood or use an existing container such as a kiddie pool, kitty litter box, dish pan, or unused sandbox. The depth of the area only has to be deep enough to retain the dirt mixture.

Mix well equal parts dirt, sand and sifted wood ash. The wood ash needs to be sifted to remove small lumps of charcoal that can damage feathers. Place dust box in a shaded area, near feeders/waterers.

Providing your birds with a dust bathing area has the (hopefully) added benefit of keeping them out of your garden beds.—Ed.

The Cool CoopHousing can be cooled down by in-

creasing air circulation. Open doors and windows to generate a breeze, or install a fan. Among the least expensive fans is a variable-speed paddle or Casablanca fan. Be sure the coop is properly vented so hot air doesn’t get trapped against the ceiling.

Hosing down the outside walls and roof improves cooling through evapo-ration, as does occasionally misting or fogging the chickens themselves. Take care not to mist so much that the water puddles. Mist only adult chickens and only when the temperature is above 95°F and the relative humidity is below 75 percent. Cooling won’t occur if the air is already so humid no more water can evaporate. Mist only when the fan

Offering waterfowl a

place to submerge

themselves is not only a nice

way to cool down in the

summer heat, but is essential

to allow them to clean their bills

and eyes.

is running or air circulation is otherwise sufficient to dry your birds.

“Chickens that have no shade tend to stay indoors, where the air circulation is not as great as it might be in a shady outdoor area. Shade is particularly important for dark-colored birds, which don’t reflect sunlight as well as white and light-colored birds and therefore are more susceptible to heat stroke.” — Gail Damerow, Help Your Chick-ens Beat the Heat, Backyard Poultry, June/July 2007

Pekin ducks. Photo courtesy of Heidi Mason, Florida.

Providing your birds with a dust bathing area has the added benefit of (hopefully) keeping them out of your garden beds.


Ah! There’s Nothing Like a GoodDust Bath in the Afternoon

By carrie cook

verona, wisconsin

P erhaps you’ve noticed your flock scratching and rolling around in the dust, tossing up clouds of dirt and

digging out holes, and wondered if they’ve all gone nuts. Or perhaps you’ve long been aware of this behavior, and never given it a second thought. What’s going on? Surely they aren’t only trying to annoy you by digging up that newly planted flowerbed. Is this something all poultry do? Do I need to provide for this behavior in any way? Is it just random flopping around, or is there a method to the madness?

What I’m describing is known as dust bathing. Chickens, turkeys, and quail all dust bathe, as well as many wild birds. On average, birds do this every second day, and most often at mid-day. Even if they are deprived of any decent substrate in which to dust bathe (for example, hens housed in bare wire-bottomed cages), they will still go through the motions. We know it’s stim-ulated by light and heat, and possibly by the sight of other birds dust bathing or discovery of a great, dusty spot. This article specifically refers to chickens —

since that is where my experience and most of the research lies — but the gen-eral ideas apply to tiny Japanese quail as well as 30-pound turkeys.

Anatomy of a Dust BathDust bathing is an innate, natural behav-ior that follows a predictable pattern. A full dust bath comes in two distinct phas-es, sometimes referred to as the “tossing” period and the “rubbing” period. Toss-ing comes before rubbing. Sometimes only the tossing phase is performed. It’s finished off with a general shaking to remove excess dust from the plumage.

The tossing phase consists of re-peated cycles of bill raking through the ground or litter, scratching with one leg, head rubbing, and vertical wing shak-ing, all with fluffed out feathers. The most dramatic part is the wing shaking, in which a hen will lie on her breast and scratch both legs back and up, tossing up clouds of dust while she shuffles her out-stretched winds. Feathers are fluffed out to help the dust work its way underneath to the skin. This will go on for about 10-15

minutes, and often results in a bird-sized hole being dug out in the litter.

During the rubbing phase, the feathers are held close to the body, unlike the toss-ing phase. Birds will lie on their sides with flattened feathers and rub all over, pushing off with one leg against the ground, the rim of their hole, or each other. Depending on what litter the hen is “dusting” in, rubbing can either be nearly continuous for around 15-20 minutes or frequently interrupted by shorter bouts of tossing.

What Does This Accomplish, Anyway?Surely such a universal and specific behavior evolved for a reason. Actu-ally, there are multiple explanations. The primary reason in the research literature (yes, scientists study this stuff) is that dust bathing provides a means by which old lipids (oils) are removed from the feathers, to be replaced with fresh oils as the birds preen their feathers. In this sense, dust baths are indeed baths. Oils produced by the oil gland at the base of the tail and on the skin itself are spread by the bird’s beak onto the feathers, which protect the


feathers and help their insulating prop-erties. However, after a few days, these oils become oxidized in the air and lose their effectiveness. Dust bathing removes these old lipids. On birds deprived of dust baths, oils build up and feathers loose their fluffiness. Again allowed to dust bathe, birds will do it more than normal until their oil levels return to normal. Also, it’s been demonstrated that birds with adequate dust baths are able to maintain a cooler temperature at their skin than those with sub-optimal dust baths.

There are most likely important benefits from dust bathing in addition to maintaining feather quality. One popular theory is that this discourages and/or removes parasites, by reducing the lipids they feed on and physically dislodging or suffocating them. There is also a so-cial component. Chickens prefer to dust

bath in groups. Even if the dust bath area is very large they will usually end up clumped together in one big jumble of wings, heads, and legs all askew. The pecking order is still enforced, the higher ranked birds getting the best, loosest soil, yet even the lower ranked birds will risk a peck or two to stay with the group. They will usually proceed through the tossing and rubbing phases more or less in synch. Finally, anyone who has watched birds engage in a good dust bath will agree this appears to be quite a pleasurable activity for the birds, accompanied by relaxed pos-ture and contented soft clucking and trills.

How to Provide a Good Dust BathYou don’t have to teach birds to dust bath; they’ll do it on their own with whatever means are available to them. However, birds do have a clear prefer-

ence for different types of litter in which to dust bathe, and some substrates are more effective at others in maintaining feather quality. Their natural preference agrees with what one might expect. Given the choice, chickens prefer sand over peat, and those are preferred above fresh wood shavings or straw. Also, though, birds can get used to one thing or another, and be hesitant to switch to anything new, even if it is supposedly “better.” The best substrates are things that have small particles that can make good contact with the feathers down to the skin; most commonly, this will be loose dirt or sand. If the particles are too big, the rubbing phase will be inter-rupted by frequent returns to tossing be-havior, as the birds attempt to get more material worked down to their skin.

If birds have access to a yard or free-range, they will choose one or several areas to dust bathe, even if it means digging through the lawn. If this is not the case, or if you find their choice of location is destructive (perhaps they’re digging up your garden, or alongside a fence), you should provide them with a dust bath area. A low-sided box filled with at least 2 inches of sand will do. A more sturdy option would be to build an open-bottomed square using, say, 1x 6” wooden planks, and filling this with 3” to 5” of loose soil. Make it large enough to accommodate several birds at once.

ConclusionDust bathing is a normal and important behavior. While we can enjoy watching this display of “chicken-ness,” we can also know that it is important for our flocks’ health and well-being.

Bibliography• Hogan, JA and F Van Boxel, “Causal Fac-tors Controlling Dust bathing in Burmese Red Junglefowl: Some Results and a Model.” Animal Behavior 1993, 46: 627-635.• Lundberg, AS and LJ Keeling, “Social Effects on Dust bathing Behaviour in Laying Hens: Using Video Images to Investigate Effect of Rank.” Applied Animal Behaviour Science 2003.• Petherick, JC, Seawright, E., Waddington, D, Duncan, IJH, and LB Murphy, “The Role of perception in the Causation of Dust bathing Behaviour in Domestic Fowl.” Animal Behavior 1995, 49: 1521-1530.• Van Liere, DW, “The Significance of Fowl’s Bath-ing in Dust.” Animal Welfare 1992, 1:187-202.• Van Liere, DW, Kooijman, J., and PR Wiepkema, “Dust bathing Behaviour of Laying Hens as Relat-ed to Quality of Dust bathing Material.” Applied Animal Behaviour Science 1990, 26: 127-141.A Welsummer and black Leghorn in the tossing phase of dustbathing.

The rubbing phase enjoyed by a Leghorn, Buff Chantecler, and Black Orpingtons.


Keep Biofilm Out Of Your Poultry Flock’s

Drinking Water

Maintaining clean waterfor your flock will play alarge part in keeping themhealthy and happy.

By Gail Damerow


Poultry drinkers that aren’t regu-larly scrubbed often develop bad-tasting biofilm that discourages

drinking. Reduced drinking, especially during hot weather, can lead to dehy-dration, poor health, and fewer eggs.

Biofilm is a fancy word for the thin layer of smelly scum that can develop in drinkers and water lines. The two most common kinds of biofilm in poultry drink-ers are caused by algae and iron. If the scum is green, it’s caused by algae. If it’s rust-colored, it’s caused by iron. Algae bio-film is more common, but iron biofilm can be more hazardous to your flocks’ health.

Algae BiofilmGreen algae biofilm itself isn’t harmful, and in fact, some chicken keepers believe it’s beneficial because it filters the water by removing organic waste matter. But the presence of algae indicates that the water is polluted with the type of nutrients algae thrive on. And if the biofilm is left long enough for the algae to start dying, they’ll release pollutants back into the water. Liv-ing or dead, algae can impart an odor and flavor to the water that your birds may not like, and anything that discourages drinking is unhealthful to the flock.

Green algae need four things to grow: water, nutrients (fertilizer), light (for photosynthesis), and heat. Because algae are heat-loving, algae biofilm in drinkers is a greater problem in summer than in the cooler months of winter.

Algae are likeliest to grow in glass or plastic drinkers because glass and plastic let in light. Galvanized drinkers, on the other hand, block light and algae can’t grow in the dark.

Minimizing the amount of light that falls on a glass or plastic drinkers

helps control algae. Outdoor drinkers should be kept in the shade. Even indoor drinkers will develop algae if the coop lights are on more than eight hours a day. Wrapping a drinker in a jacket that blocks out light is cumbersome, but does discourage algal growth. Using galva-nized drinkers resolves the light issue.

Nutrients may be furnished by your birds or may already be in your water supply. If you are battling algae biofilm in your drinkers, the first thing to do is ex-amine your water. Although the chlorine in municipal tap water should discourage algae, you can find out what else is in your water by obtaining a water quality report from the office of your local water district. If you have a well, have the water tested, particularly for phosphorus and nitrogen — the two nutrients algae like best.

Poultry may furnish nutrients by scratching litter into the drinker, poop-ing in the water, or dropping feed from their bills or beaks into the water. Using nipple drinkers prevents these issues. Hanging bell waterers, or placing them on platforms with the trough part about the height of the chickens’ backs, reduc-es the chances of nutrients getting into the water from scratching or pooping. Putting some distance between feeders and drinkers reduces the amount of feed that gets dropped into the water. Ducks and geese are especially likely to get feed into their water unless the feeder and drinker are at least six feet apart.

Copper is toxic to algae, so putting a piece of scrap copper plumbing or a few copper-plated zinc pennies into the drinker is another way to discourage algae. Since algae prefer a low oxygen environment, the ideal way to control it is to avoid letting the water get stagnant by

frequently emptying and scrubbing drink-ers, and refilling them with fresh water.

Of the many species of algae, some are indifferent to the water’s pH, some prefer a low pH (acidic water), and some prefer a high pH (alkaline water). Most species, however, don’t do well in acidified water with a pH less than 5.5.

Iron BiofilmIron biofilm needs three things to grow: a low-flow water supply, a rough sur-face, and dissolved iron. This biofilm grows best at a temperature range be-tween 40°F and 75°F, but can tolerate temperatures as low as freezing and as high as 107°F. It is not affected by light one way or the other, and can grow in complete darkness. In the poultry yard it is most likely to be found in dark places where drinking water is relatively undisturbed — coating the insides of reduced-pressure water pipes leading to automatic drinkers and the inside sur-faces of galvanized metal bell drinkers.

Since the chlorine in tap water helps control it to some extent, iron biofilm is associated with well water that has a high mineral content. It starts as a flaky deposit, called scale, caused by the min-erals in hard water. Hard scale is crusty and results from iron and manganese. Soft scale is light and spongy, therefore easier to remove, and is caused by calcium and magnesium. You can tell your water is high in mineral content if it leaves yellow or rust-colored stains around drains or discolors laundered white clothing. Such water also tends to have an unpleasant metallic taste.

Scale accumulates more rapidly on the rough surfaces of copper plumbing and galvanized drinkers than on the


smooth surfaces of PVC plumbing and plastic drinkers. Its presence increases the roughness of the surface, creating pits that give silt and other fine particles in the water a place to stick and that provide microbes in the water a place to hide.

Among the first microbes to take advantage of this environment are iron bacteria, which take advantage of scale to grow into an active colony through cell di-vision and by recruiting other iron bacteria. The bacteria produce a gelatinous slime that both protects the growing colony and traps more silt and other sediment, which provides additional protection.

Iron bacteria don’t cause disease. Their chief claim to fame is their ability to absorb and accumulate dissolved iron, and some-times manganese, from water. They live and reproduce by deriving energy from iron and manganese, and they deposit iron and manganese salts around their cells. The resulting rust-red slime has an unpleasant swampy-rot odor and makes the water taste bad. Barnyard poultry don’t like bad-tasting water, and hens that don’t get enough to drink don’t lay well. Chunks of biofilm that break away inside a water line can clog automatic drinkers, causing them to leak or fail altogether.

A greater problem can occur if the iron bacteria colony attracts other mi-crobes that otherwise wouldn’t stick to plumbing and drinker walls, but that take advantage of the protective environment created by the iron bacte-ria. These moochers may include such pathogenic bacteria as campylobacter, clostridia, E. coli, listeria, salmonella, and staphylococci that can spread serious diseases through your flock. Outbreaks of botulism in broiler flocks have been associated with iron-rich drinking water.

Organic matter — especially sugar, vitamins, and some medications added to drinking water — clings to the slime

and provides its inhabitants with nutri-ents. Left undisturbed, a colony can grow pretty fast. In a matter of weeks, it can reduce the inside diameter of a six-inch water pipe down to two inches. Even inside a frequently refilled bell drinker, a colony can develop rapidly if the inside drinker wall is not regularly scrubbed.

Chlorine and other disinfectants have no effect on bacteria embedded in biofilm. The slime must be removed before a dis-infectant has any effect. Flushing water pipes with pressure, where feasible, and scrubbing the inside walls of drinkers at least once a week will control iron biofilm. In warmer weather, which encourages a rapid increase of pathogenic microbes, daily scrubbing may be necessary.

Aside from treating your well, which is best left to a professional, you can re-duce the development of iron biofilm by installing a water filter. The most common filter for home use is 10-inch by 2 1/2-inch diameter filtration unit that takes a rela-

tively inexpensive pleated, cord-wound, or polyspun filter. Pleated filters come in paper or polyester. Paper is slightly cheaper, but polyester lasts a little longer. Cord-wound filters and polyspun filters last longer yet. Any of these filters will remove dirt and sediment, including iron, but not bacteria or other microorganisms that might be in the water.

Water filters are rated in microns, a metric measurement equivalent to one-millionth of a meter. The micron rating indicates the ability of the filter to remove contaminants by the size of its particles. Most water filters are in the 5 to 25 micron range. To offer a point of comparison, the diameter of human hair ranges from 40 to 90 microns. The lower the micron rating, the finer the filtration. The finer the filtration, the more rapidly the filter will clog up. At best, any new filter is only about 60 percent efficient and becomes more efficient as it traps more sediment, but the accumulating sediment gradually reduces water pres-sure to the point that the filter must be replaced to restore adequate pressure.

Scale forms faster in water with a pH higher than 7.0. Below 7.0, minerals tend to settle out as sludge. Iron bacteria prefer a pH range of around 6.5, but can get along in the 5.5 to 8.2 range. An acidi-fier that reduces the water’s pH below 5.5 can, therefore, help discourage the development of scale and iron biofilm. An acidifier cannot, however, penetrate and remove an existing biofilm.

Controlling BiofilmBecause algae biofilm and iron biofilm are both discouraged by a low water pH, adding one tablespoon of vinegar to each gallon of drinking water (double the amount of vinegar if you have hard wa-ter) helps control both types of biofilm. On the other hand, putting vinegar in a galvanized drinker can cause the water the develop a metallic flavor your birds might not like, and the vinegar will has-ten rusting in seams, scratches, and other spots that are not adequately protected by the drinkers’ galvanized coating.

Gail Damerow is the author of The Chicken Health Handbook, The Chicken Ency-clopedia, Your Chickens, The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Ani-mals, Hatching & Brooding Your Own Chicks, and the classic Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens.

This water shows the beginnings of algae biofilm that can develop in glass or plastic drinkers exposed to light. Photo by Gail Damerow.

Iron biofilm develops in a metal drinker where the water has a high mineral content. Photo by Gail Damerow.


Backyard Homesteading addresses the needs of many people who want to take control of the food they eat and the products they use—even if they live in an urban or suburban house on a typical-size lot. It shows homeowners how to turn their yard into a productive

and wholesome “homestead” that allows them to grow their own fruits and vegetables, and raise farm animals, including chickens and goats. Backyard Homesteading covers the laws and regulations of raising livestock in populated areas and demonstrates to readers how to

use and preserve the bounty they produce.

To order visit:CountrysideNetwork.com/shop/backyard-homesteading

Or call: 970-392-4419

A Back-To-Basics Guide To Self-Sufficiency

BACKYARD HOMESTEADING


Keeping the waterer elevated allowsthe birds to freely scratch aroundwithout contaminating the water supply. Photo by William Morrow.

How to Build a Poultry Water Stand

Everyone that has chickens knows what a challenge it can be to keep their water source clean. The birds love to scratch and kick up litter into the water and can create quite a mess. Before you know it, your water trough is a slurry of wood shavings, manure, and feathers. Clean, fresh water is

vital to the health of your chickens. Dirty, soiled water can cause illness in your birds and is less palat-able to your chickens. Reduced water intake will lower egg production in your layers and slow down growth in your broilers. This is especially important for young chicks and poults with developing im-mune systems. Coccidia is your number one concern when growing out young chicks, and prevention through good hygiene is your best strategy for happy, healthy birds.

By william morrow, whiTmore farms


There are several water stands you can purchase to raise your water source above the ground making it harder for litter to make its way up into the water pan. I’ve found that those stands work well for the first week of life and after that, they become buried in the litter and are useless. They tend to be made out of plastic and don’t support the weight of larger, heavier waterers well. So we here at Whitmore Farm decided to take things into our own hands and build a better water stand.

We chose 2-inch by 6-inch lumber for durability and higher clearance off the ground. The external dimensions of the stand are 24-inches square. You can use pressure treated wood, but we don’t like the idea of chemicals being around our livestock. Our water stands are always being used indoors or under cover. So exposure to the outdoor ele-ments really isn’t a concern. Sometimes we will paint the wood prior to assem-bly to extend its lifespan. I also like to use screws instead of nails, but either will work.

Two additional boards are installed 1/3 of the way from the exterior wall to serve as bracing. These internal boards will support the weight of the waterer. We wrap the top half of the platform with 1/2-inch hardware cloth and secure it with staples. The hardware cloth lasts a few seasons and is easily replaced. These stands have served us well and will last a long time.

William Morrow raises rare breeds of poultry at Whitmore Farm in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Visit www.whitmorefarm.com.

Top view

Bottom view

Dirty, soiled water can cause illness in your birds and is less

palatable to your chickens.


Homemade Poultry WatererMade From an Empty Cat Litter Jug

I’d like to share an idea that I discovered this year that may help others. Store-bought chicken waterers are expensive, and the ones

with the plastic bases don’t always hold up to cold temperatures so well. I came up with an idea to make my own waterer, using empty cat litter jugs.

Take an empty, well-rinsed cat litter jug that has a snug fitting, screw-on cap, and drill a pencil-size hole 1” above the base. Set it inside a water pan, fill with water, screw on the top, and you’ve got an instant self-waterer. Instead of filling the water pan every day, I get up to three days before needing to refill, using my recycled litter jug.

The jug will last 6-12 months, as after a while the threads tend to lose their air-tight quality from being repeatedly screwed on and off. In the cold of winter, I simply moved the water pans and jugs inside the chicken buildings, where they resisted freezing more than if they’d been left outside.

By holly cicchirillo, arizona

Using the recycled litter jug, Holly’s birds have water for up to three days before it needs to be refilled. Drill a hole one inch

above the base of the jug, set it inside a water pan and you have an instant self-waterer.

A self-filling waterer can be made with just two items: an empty cat litter jug and a water pan.


Order at CountrysideNetwork.com/shop or by calling 970-392-4419

50 DO-IT-YOURSELF PROJECTS FOR KEEPING CHICKENS

Chicken Coops, Brooders, Runs, Swings, Dust Baths,

and More!

Get ready to jump into the world of chickens, one DIY project at a time.

Owning and raising chickens doesn’t have to be an expensive hobby. With imagination, simple tools, and salvaged or bargain materials, you can make everything your flock needs for their health and safety.


PermacultureGardening With Chickens

We moved to the country three years ago. We are living on a 140-acre parcel that was

formerly a cow pasture. One of our first projects was to start a facility for a small flock of chickens. We built the chicken house first followed by the chicken run and then the raised bed gardens. We plan to add a small pond to provide irrigation water for the gardens plus some additional garden features, fruit trees, pathways, etc. With the barn, the garden will encompass an area of ap-proximately three acres.

I did a great deal of research to determine the best layout for the gar-den and chicken operation. My big-gest concern was providing maximum security for the chickens against the many predators in this area including coyotes, hawks, skunks, raccoons, foxes, panthers, etc. My next priority was to be able to control the chickens’ activities so that they could not destroy, but benefit the gardens.

By BoB EgErt

thE gardEn of EgErt CrookEd CrEEk ranCh, tExas

I was able to accomplish these goals by building a comfortable chicken house that is well insulated, well ventilated and large enough for a small flock. I have 18 Rhode Island Red hens and one mixed breed exotic rooster named Burt. The chicken house measures 16’ long x 6’ wide and 8’ high, large enough for me to service the facility. I then erected a run 5’ wide x 112’ long perpendicular to the chicken house and securely attached to it. The run is framed with hog panels and completely covered with chicken wire. In addition, for added security, a 2’ wide apron of hardware cloth runs parallel to the run on the ground to keep critters from digging underneath the fence. Hardware cloth is installed at the bottom of the chicken house as well to keep critters from taking up residence underneath. I have laid 6’ x 8’ tarps on top of the run to keep the hot Texas sun off the chickens.

Next I built 10 raised garden beds, five on each side of the chicken run,

spaced evenly along the run and six feet away from the run. Each bed is made of cedar logs and measures 6’ x 12’. I then built a chicken tractor large enough to fit over the raised beds. The chicken tractor is connected to the run with a smaller, portable pen. The chickens access the raised beds through pop holes in the run, the pen, and the chicken tractor. These pop holes are lined with sections of garden hose to protect the birds from any sharp metal that may protrude.

The chickens are allowed to take over the beds in turn for a period of approximately one week after I have harvested the respective crops and sprouted wheat as a cover crop. The chickens love the wheat and do a great job of excavating the bed, adding their excrement, eating any weed seeds and insects. Then I move the chicken tractor to another bed for their pleasure and plant the previous bed with a vegetable or wheat cover crop, depending on the season. During the intense growing


season when no beds are available for the chickens I allow them to graze open ground protected by the chicken tractor.

Nothing from the garden or our kitchen goes to waste with the chickens enjoying all fresh vegetable and fruit waste. All I put directly into the compost pile is peat moss with vermiculite, cow or horse manure from a neighbor, coffee and tea grounds from a local restaurant and manure-soaked pine shavings for bed-ding from the chicken house. This cold compost material is eventually worked into the gardens at appropriate times.

No chemicals whatsoever are used in the gardens, only natural, organic methods are utilized. In the one year of garden op-eration, I have experienced great success with most crops. In the past, enormous amounts of rain made it difficult to grow potatoes, corn, squash, and pumpkins did not do well. Green beans, radishes, lettuce, onions, carrots, beets, purple hull and cream peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, okra, and various herbs all did very well.

All of our water for our personal use is provided through a rainwater col-lection system consisting of two above-

Bob wanted to control the chickens’ activities so they would ben-efit the gardens, not damage them. He accomplished this goal by building a chicken tractor the size of his raised beds. The birds do a great job of excavating the bed, adding their excrement, and eating any weed seeds and insects. The coop and run are visible behind the garden beds.

Bob built 10 raised garden beds. Each bed measures 6’ x 12’.

Bob’s chicken tractor is moved and placed over the raised garden beds by a real tractor. During the peak gardening times, when no beds are available for the chickens, they graze on open ground protected by the chicken tractor. A smaller pen connects it to the permanent run.

ground collection tanks. For every inch of rain, we harvest 2,600 gallons of water. With this we flush, bathe, wash clothes and irrigate the garden utilizing a drip irrigation system. With our new garden irrigation pond we hope to save a lot of water and hopefully, during dry periods, we will no longer have to haul in water.

Did I mention another benefit of gardening with chickens? Fresh eggs every day that we, and our neighbors, enjoy immensely.

The poultry coop interior.


3 Tips for Gardening with Poultry

By elaine BelanGer

Summer is here, and our thoughts turn to free-ranging poultry and gardening, but together they can be a messy combina-tion. Here’s how we can raise both in a peaceful, sharing environment.


2. Plant a “Poultry Feed ” Garden

For many, this is an easy and healthy solution. Plant a garden specifically for the birds in an area meant just for them. While tilling the poultry garden, let the birds in to eat up the bugs, worms and more. Plant corn, sunflowers; grains such as oats, wheat or millet; fresh greens such as lettuce, Swiss chard, kale, and spinach; and don’t forget some of their favorite treats; melons and tomatoes. Plant some crops that store well in winter months, such as cab-bage, mangels, carrots, and turnips. In the fall, let the birds forage in the garden. They will help clean up some of the debris as well as add fertilizer to the soil.

1. Be Willing to Share Your Garden with the Birds

Option 1 works fine for me, but most gardeners will heartily disagree. Between the scratching, dust bathing in the nicely tilled soil, and a great knack for finding and pecking every seed, weed, and plant even thinking of sprouting, the chickens can be disastrous to the garden.

For me, the answer has been in the timing. Chickens will eat seeds; a good thing, unless they are eating all the seeds I just planted, and they will. Don’t allow the birds near your garden until all plants are strong and hardy. Shar-ing the garden with my chickens also works for me because I have a fairly large garden and only allow about 10 birds at a time to roam there. I can assure you that if you have two or 52 birds, they will find the garden, and will tromp through it — scratching and eating everything in sight. Fifty-two chickens will destroy your garden, two won’t.

I plant a lot more vegetables than I need, and don’t mind sharing with the birds. I plant extra cherry tomato plants on the edge of the garden, and once the chickens discover them, they often don’t go any further into the garden, as they love those tomatoes. I also don’t let my chickens free-range unless I am outside, mostly because of predators. This does allow me to keep an eye on the birds and the garden so that if they get into trouble, I can shoo them off.

3. Fence The Birds Out Or The Garden In

If you are growing many gardens, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to fence everything in, and that means fencing the birds in. A “chicken tractor” or portable coop will allow the birds access to fresh grass while allowing your flower and vegetable gardens to thrive. There are many options, sizes, and styles of moveable pens available. Check past issues of Backyard Poultry, and the Internet for a pen that will work for you.

In areas where I do not want the chickens to roam, I use chicken wire two or three feet high to fence them out. Some birds will, of course, fly over it, but it keeps most out, as well as rabbits and some (but not all) other pesky little critters anxious to try my spinach. If you do choose this option, be sure to share the extra fresh vegetables, and scraps (both fresh and cooked) with your chickens.

Some areas of the garden can be left open to the birds, as they will not do much damage to the crops (once estab-lished of course) such as sunflowers and corn. The birds will eat the weeds and bugs, while getting some pleasant shade from the summer heat.


Keeping Your Poultry in Your Garden

Poultry and Produce


“When we were given five or six adult chickens, we learned that we had

to keep the chickens out of the garden area, so we put up a chicken wire fence around the vegetable beds,” Demi Stea-rns recalls.

Stearns, who had previously been gardening without chickens for five years, learned the hard way that chick-ens are voracious eaters. Now, in about her 40th year of gardening, while keep-ing chickens, Stearns has mastered garden coexistence.

Chickens, Stearns says, “eat all the grubs, cutworms and slugs that I toss their way.” They also provide daily chicken manure in which she composts and later uses when making the veg-etable gardens. “They keep up with the mulberries and Japanese Plums when they start falling,” she adds as one of their beneficial garden chores. When chickens have access to gardens and lawns they will consume less of the costly laying mash that their cooped cousins rely on. By scratching in the soil they also help keep it aerated and invite decomposers such as earthworms to the garden.

Since you want a balanced ecosys-tem, researching space requirements for your nomadic flock is imperative. If the flock of chickens is too large or if there is not enough space, your gardens will have craters and bare patches from over foraging, and vis-ible feces, which potentially cause bad odor. Many sources cite that for standard breeds 250 square feet per bird is an adequate size for free-range chickens that have access to your gardens. For bantams about half that size is required to keep garden appear-ances up. The more space you have the fewer problems.

M.J. Clark, of Tampa, Florida, has been gardening with chickens since

By kenny cooGan

floriDa

1995. “I did learn that bantams tend to fly over fences to get the goodies,” she warns. “My first few flocks were bantam and I had a very hard time keeping crops.” Since then she has switched to keeping full-sized hens.

Choose plants that cover many different functions. Plants serve as protection, partitions, aromatherapy, medicinal and food for your chickens and family, and they will add purpose to your garden design.

Top 3 Tips For Coexistence Demi Stearns, a gardener for 40

years, promises that after a little bit of persistence and fencing, “you get to collect wonderful eggs and your own vegetables,” It is not despite their chickens, but be-cause of them, that both their gardens and mine are lush and productive.

Here are Stearns’s top three tips:

• Separate the chicken from desirable vegetables;

• Allow plants to grow tall before al-lowing chickens in, so they can only be eaten around ground level; and

• Concentrate on the plants that the chickens don’t find very tasty.

But Not All The Time…Protecting young tender plants from

your feathered garden helpers, no mat-ter how much space they are given, is essential. This can be accomplished with the use of fenced off areas and glass or plastic covers. Older gardens and adult plants, usually only need a quick raking to get things looking pre-chicken visit, since free-range chickens don’t usually cause harm to established gardens.

“Chickens will walk right over plants in very tiny small pots,” Stearns has observed. “So I try to keep them up on a 3- to 4-foot high table.”

She places the plants closely to-gether so there is no extra room for the chicken to fly and comfortably land, sit and snack. Her cutting beds also get special treatment including shade cloth on top of fenced off beds.

Consideration must be given for transplants. “Even if it is a plant they are not interested in eating, they will scratch around the plants and dig them up,” Clark warns.

“When I bring home a new plant or tree I will wait to plant it until evening when the chickens are in their coops or even the next morning before they come outside,” Stearns says. “Usually a new plant will get protected by a tomato cage for several weeks.”

Hens will trample plants, so be careful when deciding what parts of the garden to give them access to. Photo by Kenny Coogan.


Best Gardens For ChickensChickens do best with heavily

planted landscapes. The vertical layers of the gardens allow them secure loca-tions where they can hide from preda-tors, get protection from the elements and forage for food. Smaller areas that have trees, shorter shrubs, and trailing flowers are superior to an area that big-ger but vegetation-free.

Herbs sprinkled throughout your property can add to the chickens’ gen-eral health, stimulate egg production, act as a natural de-wormer and taste great in your next dish.

Catnip, fennel, feverfew, lavender, and rosemary can act as a natural insect repel-lent, especially if the chickens have access to not only eating them but also rubbing up against them. Nasturtiums have antibiotic and antiseptic properties and serve as a natural de-wormer for chickens.

Scattering the herbs and edibles throughout a garden will slow the chickens from consuming them all at once. Heavy mulching is also impor-tant. Clark, although admittedly for the benefit of the gardens, uses mulch ubiq-uitously. “The mulch allows for more worms in the garden. And of course, the chickens love that as well as the other bugs that the mulch harbors,” she says.

Stearns, with her nine standard chick-ens that free range the landscaped prop-

erty (except for the vegetable and cutting beds) also uses large amounts of mulch.

“The chickens can scratch and dig anywhere, and that’s fine,” she says. Both women benefit from local tree trimming companies who unload the mulch for free at their houses, instead of paying a deposit fee for a landfill. The mulch keeps the chickens occupied for many hours of the day.

Chickens can help clean up a garden after its reached it’s peak. Photo by Kenny Coogan.

Not all plants will be foraged by chickens. Groundcovers such as juniper, mint, roses and sweet woodruff can grow dense enough to keep chickens from scratching through the soil. Many types of fruit, from those that grow on trees to squashes that have tough skins, are not accessible to chickens.

On the other hand, many types of greens are right at chicken beak level, making it almost impossible to grow enough for both the human and feath-ered members of the family. Many types of greens and vegetables will need to be fenced in, keeping the free-range chick-ens and other animals out.

Between each new growing season, you can open up the vegetable gate and let the chickens do their chores. “After I harvest my sweet potatoes, I let the ladies loose,” Clark says. “They always uncover a few potatoes that I have missed. It’s a win-win. I get my beds turned and fertil-ized all at once,” she cheerfully explains.

Stearns says that her chickens love to eat Plumbago, Blue Porterweed, Cigar Flower, Mexican Petunias and assorted herbs that all have space in the vegetable garden for protection. Other greens that resemble weeds include chickweed, dandelions, plantains, purs-lane and thistle and are often readily snacked on by your flock.

“I certainly have no weeds in the part of the yard where they live,” Clark says.

Providing them cover from prey helps them feel safe. Photo by Kenny Coogan.


4 Ways Backyard Chickens Help Gardens

Backyard Chickens Fertilize, Reduce Weeds and Provide Natural Pest Control

By Purina PoulTry

Each garden comes with a sense of pride and the joy of sustainabil-ity. Imagine if you had a natural

way to fertilize, control weeds, manage insects and improve soil aeration. Many of today’s gardeners have found this solution by raising backyard chickens.

“Many backyard chicken owners are nervous about introducing poultry to gardens,” says Patrick Biggs, Ph.D., a flock nutritionist for Purina Animal Nutrition. “However, along with fresh eggs and fam-ily fun, chickens are a natural and simple way to add to a backyard’s health and beauty. With some precautions, you can safely add poultry to your garden spaces.”

Organic Fertilizer“Chicken waste is an excellent

source of fertilizer for both the lawn and garden,” Biggs says. “Manure from backyard chickens can break down naturally in the yard, providing valu-able nutrients for the lawn. The correct balance for free-ranging is about 250 square feet of space per chicken.”

To use chicken manure as fertilizer, consider creating a compost area. This process can reduce the nitrogen levels found in raw manure.

“Composting is an earth-friendly way to turn organic residues like manure, leaves or bedding into a material that can be used to fertilize the garden,” he says. “After placing materials into a compost bin, microorganisms break them into fer-tilizer with the help of heat and oxygen.”

When maintaining compost, re-member to keep it enclosed. Chickens love foraging for scraps in compost areas, and eating too many scraps can dilute the nutrients in the diet.

Soil AerationAnother benefit of adding chickens

to your garden is soil aeration.“Chickens naturally scratch and dig

the soil to forage for seeds and bugs,” Biggs says. “During this process, mulch and compost are spread, soil layers mixed and the ground loosens. Most importantly, oxygen is added to the soil and particle size is reduced.”

Because chickens naturally enjoy digging, Biggs encourages protecting delicate and new or young plants as well as those with ripening produce.

“If there are certain areas you’d like to keep free of manure or if certain plants should be off-limits, add a fence

or chicken wire,” he recommends, out-lining a chicken tunnel as an option. “This can also help ward off predators.”

Additional tips to protect young plants include: rotating chickens through different areas of the yard, plac-ing stones around plant bases or creating tepee-like structures over young plants.

Natural Weed and Insect ControlIn addition to fertilizer and soil aera-

tion, chickens can help control weeds and insects in your garden and lawn.

“Chickens love a lot of the things that gardeners do not – like weeds and insects,” Biggs says. “They forage for seeds and bugs, eat small plants and clean up fallen fruit and green leaves.”

Since chickens love many different types of plants, Biggs recommends cre-ating a diverse plant ecosystem that in-cludes layers of plants. Layering should include these types of plants: cover, lush and shade. Plant layers may include trees, shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses, annuals, vines, edible plants and ground cover.

“Well-planned plantings can pro-vide soil stability and help filter rain-water runoff,” he says.

Considerations for cover plants are butterfly bushes, which grow fast, provide shade and are not eaten by chickens; and hawthorne, which has edible berries and leaves that chickens tend to avoid.

When it comes to toxicity, chickens will typically avoid poisonous plants. How-ever, consider removing plants like poison ivy, boxwood, honeysuckle, nightshade, monkshood, oleander, tobacco, and yew.

Raising Backyard ChickensConsistency is important for raising

backyard chickens with access to garden spaces. Training chickens to know spe-cific cues will help them return to the chicken coop at night or during storms and maintain a balanced diet.

“Train chickens to come back to the coop when called,” Biggs says. “Start with small periods of supervised time in the garden and work up to longer pe-riods. Maintain a routine with how and when you let the chickens free-range.”

Biggs emphasizes the importance of a complete feed in addition to garden treats.

“Plants and insects serve as treats for the flock, but they aren’t a complete diet,” he says.


Test Your Soil to Keep Your Poultry Safe

Know What Metals and Minerals Your Flock is Digesting

Ducks love to dig in the ground for worms and bugs, which can put them at higher risk for lead contamination.

By lori fonTanes

At first, we thought maybe our duck had hurt her leg when we weren’t looking. Eight months old and full of energy, Puff, an adorable Buff Orpington, never

seemed to mind when my middle-schooler carried her around or plopped her into the coop. That must have been when it happened, I told the vet, but the doctor thought we should run tests anyway. Just in case. It’s true our hen hadn’t been her usual perky self for a few weeks. Her feathers looked bedraggled and her eyes not quite as bright. A newbie duck owner at the time, I didn’t have much basis for comparison but, new or not, I had raised this bird from 2 days old and she really did seem off. No reason to call a vet, though, until she started limping.

The lab ran a panel of blood work for the usual signs of infection. We figured it might be a bug or even a vitamin deficiency. We were wrong. It was lead poisoning.

Welcome to Post-Industrial AmericaSadly, we’re all familiar with the impacts of heavy metal pollu-tion on cities like Flint, Michigan, and Boyle Heights, California, but, in reality, any inhabited area of the United States probably contains at least trace levels of these and other contaminants.

For centuries, the world has produced many millions of pounds of synthetic chemicals, causing significant noxious impacts on our air, water, and topsoil. Of the tens of thousands of compounds marketed since World War II, those with heavy metals have been particularly pervasive and have caused some of the most troubling effects.

The Natural Resources Defense Council’s On Earth magazine reports that an estimated seven million tons of lead were burned in gasoline in the 20th century before its ban in 1996. Added to that toxic burden, leaded paints were used for more than a century before sales stopped in 1978. Since it took many years for existing stockpiles to be depleted, buildings constructed before the mid-80s or even later are likely to have legacy pollution, inside and out. If you have an older home


or one sited where an older structure used to stand, you may have residual lead in the nearby soil. This goes for ground near heavily traveled roadways as well.

Is this true even in the countryside? The short answer is, it depends. While agricultural land is usually far from the largest sources of point pollution, if a barn or coop once had lead-paint (or if something lead-painted stood on that site), there may still be particles and chips in the surrounding soil. A story in the New York Times cited a study on lead in chicken eggs from a small flock in Iowa. In this particular case, the poultry had ingested paint chips from a farm structure and the animals were then tak-en to Iowa State University at Ames for analysis. After examining blood, egg and tissue samples, the researchers concluded that chickens and their eggs with “significant” amounts of lead are “a potential human health hazard, especially to young children.”

And the problem goes beyond paint and gasoline. The Iowa study also mentions other potential sources of heavy metals including such everyday products as fishing sinkers, car batteries, and even drapery weights. Pesticides like some cadmium-based fungicides formerly used on golf courses and lawns, as well as sprays made of lead arsenate once used in orchards or sodium arsenate on potatoes, could also

The University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension’s inter-pretation guidelines explain that “No federal standard for soil lead has been determined for soils where vegetables will be grown.”

Without this standard, guidelines differ among states and institutions on what ac-tions you should take. The chart below incorporates recommen-dations from the University of Connecticut Cooperative Exten-sion* and the Environmental Sciences Analytical Center at Brooklyn College.

UNDERSTANDING LEAD LEVELS IN SOIL

pose potential long-term risks. Many of these products were delisted decades ago, so why are we still concerned today?

The Once and Future RiskMany of us may assume that by exposing these ubiquitous products to water, air or sunlight that, over time, they”ll even-tually be rendered harmless. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Some synthetic compounds break down into even more persistent or dangerous metabolites, and heavy metals, such as lead, arsenic, and cadmium, can’t break down further since they’re already in their elemental form. Although they do occur naturally, most of these metals came to our backyard in various chemical combinations. Those compounds can break down, sometimes releasing toxic residues into the environment.

Lead, in particular, poses daunting health challenges to both people and livestock. As I can attest from my own ex-perience with waterfowl, the metal is dangerous to poultry, and a the Iowa State researchers describe, can be found not just in a bird’s eggs but also in her blood, meat, and bones.

Birds are often attracted to shiny objects, which they sometimes ingest as they forage. If those objects contain lead and if they lodge in the internal organs, the element can leach


and wreak systemic havoc. Of course, soils often contain far less visible pieces that are no less problematic despite their size. These tiny particles can be taken up into the roots of plants, including some that we grow for food.

The Secret Soil Life of PlantsAs in many things toxicity-related, there’s a lot of variation in how individual living organisms are affected, plants included. With agents such as herbicides, which are designed to harm, it’s easy to see the toxic effect. But heavy metals do not always reveal their presence in obvious ways. Lead, like cadmium, can be phytotoxic (poisonous to plants) but the degree of uptake depends on factors such as the overall amount of the element, soil pH, and levels of phosphorus and organic matter, all of which can impact the bioavailability of the contaminant. The Healthy Soils, Healthy Communities guidelines from the New York State Department of Health and Cornell University point out that some “metals may not harm the health or growth of the plant, even thought they may be a concern for human health.” This means the presence of a heavy metal in a grow-ing medium is not always visually detectable in the plant. A hearty plant, therefore, can give false assurance to a grower who might expect to see symptoms from their tainted crops.

Last year, for example, I grew ornamental squash in a test plot made from a section of former lawn. The previous season I’d begun preparing the site by tossing vegetable compost on the prepared ground. Some of the compost included excess grape tomatoes and garlic from our kitchen garden, which then became vigorous volunteers the following summer. There were no signs of phytotoxicity in the tomatoes, garlic or squash but mindful of the possible presence of lead, we didn’t eat any of the produce. Later, I took a soil sample under the bed and found a hot spot where lead readings were high, lower than what’s found in urban areas but still over recom-mended values. To make it even more complicated, a sample taken five feet away measured under New York State median levels. A previously tested spot 15 feet in the other direction and under a raised bed showed no lead at all.

It is, perhaps, this heterogeneity that makes soil testing so challenging. I describe the process as thinking about your garden or farm as a whodunit where the farmer must play the detective. She or he must attempt to figure out what happened and where, usually with no reliable witnesses to interrogate.

If the property’s former owner had washed lead-covered paintbrushes in the lawn or if they had a few apple trees sprayed with heavy metal pesticide, there may be no outward indication of these hazards. If you test your soil and get good results, great. If you don’t test, though, you may never know what’s really go-ing on inside your plants, your animals and possibly yourself. As Cornell University’s Jonathan Russell-Anelli recently said at an OFA workshop on managing urban soils, “The assumption is that it’s contaminated, not that it’s clean.”

Good Plants, Bad PlacesIn addition to variable concentrations in soil, there are also differences in lead uptake depending on the type of plant. Leafy greens and root vegetables such as carrots, beets and po-tatoes are most often cited as crops to avoid in compromised soils. Furthermore, a 2014 study in Environmental Pollution showed that herbs had the highest concentration of lead, more than the other greens or root crops that were tested. In contrast, fruiting plants have been shown to be less likely to transfer lead into edible parts of the plant. This group includes tree fruit but also plants such as tomatoes and peppers.

To add to the complexity, the uptake profile of plants with other metals can be different than those with lead. For example, according to a study published last year in Water, Air & Soil Pol-lution, lettuce “had the strongest ability to accumulate As [arse-nic],” even more than lead. Factors such as the source of the metal (pesticides vs. mining), pH and clay levels appear to play a role.

As I said, it’s very complicated.Be aware, too, that even if you’ve isolated your crop by

using containers or raised beds, soil particles can splash on plants in heavy rains or transfer in dust from foot traffic or wind. You should still remove outer leaves, wash thoroughly and peel root vegetables. Also, mulch or otherwise cover all bare soil, including pathways. These strategies are called “Best Management Practices” or simply, “best practices” (see side-bar) and have been developed by scientists and public health institutions as guidelines for dealing with challenged soils.

Experts, in fact, often emphasize that it’s the soil itself that’s the concern, even more than the plant uptake. Presuming you choose the right crops and grow them in the right places,

Growing vegetables in planters is one way to avoid taking up contaminants in their roots.


you still need to avoid ingesting or inhaling tainted particles when working in the soil. A factsheet from Brooklyn College’s Environmental Sciences Analytical Center emphasizes that it’s “what you do with the soil” that “determines the risk.” Avoid bringing it into the house on your clothing and shoes and wash your hands thoroughly, especially under your nails.

Despite these precautions, there are limits. Some soil is regarded as just too contaminated for growing even fruiting vegetables. Guidance values vary but I follow recommen-dations from Brooklyn College and the University of Con-necticut Soil Nutrient Analysis Laboratory, which indicate, for example, that soil with high levels of lead (more than 400 ppm) should not be used for growing food plants at all.

Back at the HomesteadMaking good choices with plant selection and following best practices can minimize your family’s exposure to heavy met-als but it’s not that easy when you’re also raising livestock. In one of those ironies of 21st-century ag life, free-range poultry can be more susceptible to toxic exposures than caged birds.

This is not an endorsement of battery systems but a wake-up call to those of us who let our ducks and chickens roam. If the soil is tainted, birds can take up contamination when they dig or dust bathe or consume smaller organisms that live in it. For the sake of our waterfowl, we try our best to manage the soil, but it’s impossible to stop the girls from doing what nature programmed them to do. You can control plants (mostly), ducks (somewhat) but when it comes to worms and arthropods, not at all. The living creatures that ingest lead and travel through the subsoil simply can’t be contained.

Here are some best management practices when dealing with challenged soils:

• Use raised beds or other containers. Make sure you fill them with clean soil and amendments from trusted sources.

• Avoid planting in pressure-treated or previously painted wood, railroad ties, telephone poles or tires since these materials can transfer contaminants into the soil.

• Site your growing area away from roadways and buildings that may have deteriorating painted surfaces.

• Maintain healthy soil with proper nutrients, with appropriate phosphorus levels and pH between 6.5 & 7.

• Minimize access to bare soil. Cover planting soil with mulches to protect from splash and wind. Keep walk-ways covered, too.

• Wash hands well and consider using gloves. Be careful not to bring soil into the house on tools, clothing, and shoes.

• Wash plants well, remove outer leaves and peel root vegetables.

• Watch children carefully while in the garden.

Sources: Environmental Sciences Analytical Center at Brooklyn College, New York State Department of Health/Cornell University, University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension, University of Vermont Extension.

Free-range poultry can be exposed to toxic materials hidden in urban, suburban and even rural soils.

WHAT ARE BEST PRACTICES?


When we first decided to grow food on our property, I knew I wanted to test the soil but I had lots of ques-tions. What should we test for? Where and how should we test? Where do we take the samples?

I started looking around and discovered that many labs are set up for institutional and commercial testing only. Our local extension office offered nutritional evaluation but wouldn’t tell us how to test for contaminants. Eventu-ally, an organic landscaper told me to try the soil-testing center at Brooklyn College. This facility provides affordable and user-friendly services for residential and community gardeners in the New York City area.

After that first round, I began a long-term study of lead contamination in suburban soils with Dr. Joshua Cheng, chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, a partner organization of the NYC Urban Soils Institute. In four years of soil, plant and egg testing, I’ve learned a lot about what, how and where to get samples tested.

WHAT TO TEST FORSoil testing is a bit wonky but even if you haven’t looked at a periodic table since high school, don’t despair! Each lab has its own submission procedure with a list of tests such as these:

HOW TO GET YOUR SOIL TESTED

And so, it’s been quite an education. Today, Puff and her flock mates are regularly blood tested, and when necessary, given chelation therapy for lead exposure. Although their eggs generally test within safe ranges, I’m hesitant to eat any because it’s difficult to know the exact levels in any given egg, on any given day. Luckily, we don’t count on our hens for

meat. Like an unwanted guest, lead can leave the blood but stick around in an animal’s tissues and bones. And that, I think we can all agree, is hardly the best recipe for a good dinner.

Lori Fontanes is a freelance writer who lives in New York. She regularly contributes a humor column to Backyard Poultry.

WHERE TO GET YOUR SOIL TESTEDMany local extension offices will handle heavy metal testing or can refer you to a lab that can. If not, try your state

department of environmental conservation for a referral. A local or state facility will probably have the best understand-ing of the region’s soil (i.e., some areas have higher levels of naturally occurring elements than others).

In addition, if you know something about your property’s history that suggests there may be legacy residues, you may want to specifically test for those as well. Please note that testing for chemical compounds is more expensive and can be difficult to obtain.

HOW TO READ THE RESULTSDepending on the facility, you may get slightly different interpretation guidelines, but results should come with a guide and resource. Either way, it’s a good question to ask the testing center before you submit your soil samples. Here are a few other good places to start:

New York State Department of Health/Cornell University —“Understanding Your Test Results: Metals in Garden Soils and Vegetables” www.cwmi.css.cornell.edu/UnderstandingTestResultsMetalsSoilsVeg.pdf

Brooklyn College/NYC Urban Soils Institute —“How to Read the Numbers: Heavy Metals in Garden Soils” www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/aca_centers_esac/110901_Soil_HeavyMetalInterpretations_March10.pdf

University of Vermont Extension —“Interpreting the Results of Soil Tests for Heavy Metals” www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsheets/interpreting_heavy_metals_soil_tests.pdf

• pH • Soil class • Soluble salts • Organic content • NPK • Basic lead (Pb) test

• Heavy metals — lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), ar-senic (As), cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and mercury (Hg)

• Major and minor nutrients • Particle analysis


TOXINS

in the Environment

By Gail Damerow

Poisoning is relatively unusual in backyard poultry, especially if you use com-mon sense in keeping your flock away from pesticides, herbicides, roden-ticides, fungicide-treated seed (intended for planting), wood preservatives,

rock salt, and antifreeze. Poisoning may be the result of misguided management. Common sense tells you not to put mothballs in your hens’ nests in an effort to repel lice and mites, since naphthalene is toxic. And not to spray for cockroaches or other pests where your chickens might eat the poisoned insects. And not to put out bait to kill garden pests such as slugs, snails, or earwigs where your ducks might find it. The environment contains plenty of potential poisons without your help.

Natural ToxinsSome weeds found in pasture can be toxic, but should not be a problem if

your flock has plenty else to eat. Most toxic plants don’t taste good and therefore are not tempting to eat, except to a starving bird. Since birds nibble here and there to get a variety in their diet, if they do get a bite or two of a toxic leaf or seed, it’s unlikely to create a problem. Then, too, whether or not a specific plant is toxic may vary with its stage of maturity, growing conditions (such as drought), and other environmental factors. Even if a bird does get a potentially toxic dose, the effect depends on the bird’s age and state of health. The accompanying table lists com-mon plants that potentially pose a danger. Some mushrooms are toxic, as well, but mushrooms would have a hard time getting a foothold where poultry are active.

Another naturally occurring po-tential toxin in the environment is sele-nium. Chickens and other poultry need selenium in their diet, but an excess of selenium increases susceptibility to sal-monellosis. Grains grown in the Great Plains of Canada may be naturally high in selenium, because the soils there con-tain an excess of this mineral.

The organism that causes botulism naturally lives in soil and commonly occurs in the intestines of backyard poultry without causing disease. But when the Clostridium botulinum bacte-ria multiply in the carcass of a dead bird or other animal, or in a rotting cabbage or other solid vegetable, they generate some of the world’s most potent toxins. Birds become poisoned after pecking at the rotting organic matter or maggots feeding on it, or drinking water into which the rotting matter has fallen.

A poisoned bird gradually becomes paralyzed from the feet up. Initially, the bird sits around or limps if you force it to move. As the paralysis progresses through its body, the wings droop and the neck goes limp, giving the disease its common name limberneck. By the time the eyelids are paralyzed, the bird looks dead, but continues to live until either its heart or respiratory system become paralyzed.

If the bird isn’t too far gone, you might bring it around with botulinum antitoxin available from a veterinarian or by using a flush (see accompanying box). Prevent botulism by promptly re-moving any dead bird or other animal you may find in the yard, by sorting out rotting fruits or vegetables before feed-ing kitchen scraps to your flock, and by cleaning out excessive droppings and other decaying organic matter from a pond for waterfowl.

Blue-green algae poisoning resembles botulism. It is rare in chickens, but more common in waterfowl. It is caused by so-called blue-green algae, which looks like algae but in reality is a type of bacteria known as cyanobacteria that produce toxins collectively known as cyanotoxins. During warm (72°-80°F), dry, low-wind days the proliferation of these bacteria results in the appearance of bloom or wa-terbloom consisting of dark green, bluish green, or brownish green surface scum in a shallow inland lake, pond, or slough. A bird drinking the contaminated water will die within minutes. Waterbloom requires a high concentration of nutrients. Pre-


vention, therefore, involves minimizing nutrients by keeping fertilizer away from the water, preventing runoff from poultry and other livestock manure, and properly maintaining your septic system to prevent nutrients from leaching into the water.

Chick PoisoningChicks are especially susceptible to cer-tain toxins, including:

• Carbon monoxide when being trans-ported in the poorly ventilated trunk of a car (chicks die)

• Disinfectant over-use, especially in a poorly ventilated brooder (chicks huddle with ruffled feathers)

• Fungicide on coated seeds intended for planting (chicks rest on hocks or walk stiff-legged)

• Pesticide used to rid housing of insects (chicks die)

• Rose chafers (Macrodactylus subspi-nosus), a type of beetle found in late spring and early summer in eastern and

central North America (chicks become drowsy, weak, and prostrate, go into convulsions, and die or recover within 24 hours)

• Nitrofurazone, an antibiotic used to treat some bacterial diseases (chicks squawk loudly, move rapidly, fall for-ward)

• Coccidiostats (nicarbazin, monensin, sulfaquinoxaline) added to water in warm weather, when chicks drink more and may obtain an excessive, toxic dosage.


Although chicks are more susceptible to toxins than mature birds, brooding them in a properly managed environment will protect them from poisoning.

Toxins in FeedToxic seeds are sometimes acciden-

tally harvested along with feed grains. Such seeds include:

• Crotalaria, also known as showy crota-laria or rattlebox (Crotalaria spectabilis) — causes a rapid drop in egg production, emaciation, and death in laying hens and droopiness, huddling, and death in growing birds.

• Coffee weed, also known as coffeepod or sicklepod (Cassia obtusifolia) — causes a drop in egg production in laying hens and reduced weight gain in growing birds.

• Coffee senna (Cassia occidentalis) — causes weight loss, diarrhea, paralysis, and death.

• Jimsom weed (Datura stramonium) — causes nervousness and sudden death.

Fungal poisoning can be the result of by-products generated in moldy feed. A number of poisons, or mycotoxins, are produced by molds that grow naturally in grains, and some molds generate

more than one kind of poison.Aspergillus flavus, the same fungus

that causes aspergillosis, also causes afla-toxicosis, a disease that increases a bird’s susceptibility to heat stress and infection.

Fusarium sporotrichioides, along with other species of Fusarium, causes fusa-riotoxicosis, a digestive disorder that interferes with egg production, growth, and feathering.

Claviceps purpurea produces a highly toxic alkaloid that causes ergotism, the oldest known mycotoxicosis, character-ized by shriveled combs, sores on legs, convulsions, and death.

Aspergillus spp and other fungi generate ochratoxin, one of the most poisonous of all mycotoxins. The fungi that cause ochratoxicosis prefer high tem-peratures that, unlike ergot and fusarium molds, thrive in pelleted feed, which is manufactured under intense heat. Most feed companies include mold inhibitors in their formulas for pelleted rations.

All mycotoxicoses increase a bird’s need for vitamins, trace elements (espe-cially selenium), and protein. Poisoning is difficult to identify and diagnose, in part because the feed may contain more than one kind of mycotoxin. A positive diagnosis usually requires analysis of the feed to identify any fungi present. Owners of backyard poultry generally buy feed in small quantities and would most likely use up a given batch before

thinking of having it analyzed. Once the contaminated feed is removed, birds usually recover.

Preventing feed from getting moldy is more problematic for waterfowl than for chickens and other upland birds. Ducks and geese, especially young ones, tend to get water in their feed, and in warm weather, moist feed goes moldy fast. Avoid fungal poisoning by making sure waterfowl feed troughs are emptied and wiped clean daily.

To prevent mold from forming in stored feed, keep it away from humid conditions and use plastic containers rather than metal ones, which generate moisture by sweating. Never give your flock any feed that has gone moldy. If you discover you have bought a bag of moldy feed, take it back and insist on a refund.

FlushingWhen a bird suffers from food poi-

soning or an intestinal disease, you can hasten its recovery by flushing its sys-tem with a laxative that absorbs the tox-ins and removes them from the body. Although Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) make the best flush, birds don’t like the taste and won’t readily drink it, therefore must be treated individu-ally. If a number of birds are involved, or handling them would cause undue stress, use molasses in a flock flush. Flush only adult birds, never chicks.

Epsom salt flush: one teaspoon Epsom salts in 1/2 cup water, poured or squirted down the bird’s throat twice daily for two to three days, or until the bird recovers.

Molasses flush: one pint molasses per five gallons water, given for no lon-ger than eight hours.

Found ObjectsSmall objects carelessly tossed into

a poultry yard can cause distress or death. Cigarette filters, for instance, can cause impaction. Ducks and geese are attracted to small shiny objects like nails, pop tops, and bits of glass or wire. Eating one of these sharp objects may simply irritate the bird and cause depression, but may instead result in a blockage that interferes with digestion, or cause an internal tear that becomes infected. Prevent such possibilities by meticulously picking up foreign objects found in your poultry yard and ask visitors not to toss them on the ground.


Book Excerpt: The Small-Scale Poultry Flock

Our most recent strategy for putting the flock to work has been such a suc-cess, I want to share it with you. I had always assumed that use of working chickens in the garden was necessarily quite limited. That assumption

changed after we put up a deer fence around our garden.Ellen and I had gardened here for 24 years with virtually no interference from

the deer — but in recent years, their pressure has become relentless. I held the deer at bay temporarily with the same electronet I use to confine my flocks, but knew from research that deer are likely to defeat electric fencing eventually. We decided to bite the bullet and invest the money, time, and effort into erecting a permanent wire fence to keep the deer out—twelve-and-a-half-gauge galvanized woven wire, 4-inch mesh, 8-feet high. At the foot of the fence, we dug in chicken wire to a depth of 10 inches as an additional barrier to ground-level intruders like groundhogs and rabbits.

I was not pleased, having to expend so much effort to protect my garden—until the fence started a cascade of ideas about new approaches to gardening within its confines. Prominent among those ideas was bringing in a flock of gardening chickens for the entire growing season.

When we put up our deer fence, I had been successfully using chickens as shredder-composters for a couple of years. Along the far side of the fence was an area of newly enclosed ground that I planned to use as the garden’s compost-making area, and the fence seemed to offer itself as one wall of an enclosure for a flock of full-time composting chickens.

Once I had adopted the fence itself as one wall, it was a simple matter to complete an enclosure with three more sides made of chicken wire on 1-by-3-inch wood fram-ing, ripped on my table saw from rough-cut oak fencing boards. I hinged a wire-on-frame door in an opening on one side, 48 inches wide, allowing plenty of clearance to haul compost materials in, or finished compost out, using either wheelbarrow or garden cart. I put wire over the top of the enclosure as well, to prevent attacks by both

The following excerpt is from The Small-Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery (Chelsea Green Publishing).

aerial predators like owls, and climbing marauders like raccoons.

As soon as the wire was up, I planted vining beans at the base of the entire Compost Corner fence, except the door. By the time stressfully hot weather came on in midsummer, the beans had overgrown not only the sides, but the top as well, creating a dense, cool shade within, which also helped retain mois-ture in the compost heap. And at the end of the season, the spent vines were a big start on next year’s compost heap.

Since the chickens would only be in residence in the warmer months, I built a minimalist shelter inside the enclosure, using exterior-grade plywood and metal roofing, to provide sleeping quarters and protection from rain.

As soon as I put the chickens into the Compost Corner, we started haul-ing in all the organic debris the garden generated — just weeds initially, with soil clinging to their roots to “inoculate” the growing heap with soil microbes, and then spent crop plants as we harvested through the season. We also hauled in horse manure from a neighboring farm, countless cartloads of oak leaves, and many additional loads of fresh-cut com-frey — an excellent composting plant. As the heap became more active with decomposer organisms — pill bugs, crickets, earthworms, together with the usual hosts of microbes and fungi — the chickens spent more time working it. While doing so, they also worked in the ongoing deposits of their own manure, and the residues of the generous amounts of cut green forage — from lawn clip-pings to chard and mangel leaves to cuttings from small grain and cruciferous cover crops — I threw to them daily.

By early fall the chickens had turned the heap of garden debris into about two tons of compost, applied in the green-house for the winter gardening season.

Chicken CruiserAs described earlier, what Andy Lee

calls a “chicken tractor” I call a “chicken cruiser,” and I have used several of them over the years to employ chickens for till-age chores in the garden. Earlier versions hardly deserved the name cruiser, how-ever—they were a bit too large, clumsy to move within the tight confines of the gar-den layout, and not sufficiently durable. I made changes to past designs for a more nimble, solid, and durable garden cruiser.


• Size: In my new garden layout, I knew that I would be using the cruiser in the garden a great deal and that I would have to maneuver through some pretty tight turns. The cruiser, therefore, had to be small. I made it a mere 8 feet long, 40 inches wide — the width of one of our garden beds—and 26 inches high. The total area inside the shelter was almost 27 square feet.

• Weight: Another factor favoring maneuverability was shedding as much weight as possible with materials and design choices. I used metal roofing recycled from previous shelters — some aluminum and some baked-enamel galvanized steel — to cover much of the top and half the sides. The rest of the sides and top I covered with 1-inch chicken wire, which helped minimize weight, and allowed more sunlight into the interior.

• Frame: “Strong but light” was the guiding principle for making the frame. Fortunately, I happened to have on hand a few pieces of high-grade, clear fir, leftover from redecking a porch, three-quarter inch thick. Its greater strength, in comparison with common construction-grade lumber, allowed me to use narrower framing pieces, reduc-ing weight. The result, with generous use of diagonal bracing, was a light but rock-solid frame that was easy to ma-neuver among the garden beds.

• Durability: I spent the extra bucks for star-drive, stainless-steel deck screws to fasten the frame together. Given the constant exposure to weather, they should last longer than any other op-tion. In order to keep the bottom rails of the frame out of contact with the highly bioactive garden soil, I mounted them on two runners cut from recycled plas-tic decking, 5-1/2 inches wide, which should resist rot a lot longer than any wood alternative. In addition to increas-ing the frame’s resistance to rot, the plastic runners made the cruiser much easier to slide down the garden beds.

• Access: I allowed for access to the interior, for use when feeding or replenishing the waterer, with a wire-on-frame lid over the section of the top not covered with metal roofing.

• Nestbox: I provided the sheltered end of the cruiser with a hinged piece of scrap plywood for easy egg gathering from the straw-lined nest box mounted on the framing inside.

At the end of the season, when many gardens are abandoned for the winter, my garden flock (in the chicken cruiser, far left) is still getting beds ready for sowing overwinter crops. Photo by Harvey Ussery.

After working up a new asparagus bed in the cruiser, the garden flock will return to compost making in the Compost Corner, to the left. Photo by Bonnie Long.

I put 11 birds into the cruiser, one cock and 10 hens — about 2-1/2 square feet for each bird. This turned out to be too crowded, and I began limiting the number of tiller chickens to eight — 3-1/3 square feet each. Even that spacing is rather tight, but work assignments in the cruiser are periodic—while working in the Compost Corner, on the other hand, the flock has about 225 square feet available.

The first assignment for my birds in the cruiser was to work up new ground for an extension of our asparagus bed. I had made a start the previous fall with a heavy application of chicken-powered compost and a cover crop. Now I tilled in the cover crop by running the cruiser down the new bed; then made an additional pass, dumping in large loads of earthworm-rich compost which the chooks tilled in while picking out the worms. I then moved the cruiser elsewhere, and planted my new asparagus plants.


For the rest of the season, the garden flock alternated between the Compost Corner and the cruiser. There was al-ways work to be done on the compost heap, so the assignment at any given time depended on whether there was a bed in the garden needing its cover crop to be tilled in.

A further change in our new ap-proach to gardening was the devotion of fully half our garden beds to cover crops, for substantial and repeated increases to soil organic matter each year. Starting this past season, every other bed in our gar-den now grows cover crops, and the rest grow harvest crops. Then, in the follow-ing year, the beds that grew harvest crops will be planted to covers, and vice versa. Since a cover crop bed may be planted to several covers in succession during the growing season, there is plenty of work for cruiser chickens to do.

On the last pass with the cruiser over beds in the early fall, I dumped into it large amounts of compost made elsewhere, and allowed the chickens to till it in, while eating the earthworms in it — then returned the garden flock to the Compost Corner and sowed cover crops to protect the beds over winter. The fast-growing fall covers served as well to capture the soil nutrients in the droppings worked into the beds by the chickens as they tilled, and prevent their leaching to groundwater. The result was that as winter approached — a time when many gardens are abandoned or, worse, bare — my entire garden was lush with cold-hardy cover crops: clovers and al-falfa, winter peas, small grains, various crucifers. Many of the latter — mustards, turnips, rape, tendergreen, kale — we harvest whenever we need cooking

greens for the table, in lieu of growing them as separate fall garden crops.

PredatorsTo my surprise, I have had no predator

problems with my garden flock whatever. Raccoons are great climbers —but I think the distance established by the fence be-tween the perimeter and the cruiser pre-vented them from recognizing the chickens in the cruiser as available prey. There was a single attempt on the Compost Corner —most likely by a fox — but the chicken wire we had dug in at the foot of the fence paid off. Digging predators are not stupid — they don’t waste energy on intensive digging if there isn’t a ready payoff.

A Future ProjectWe have a minor problem with as-

paragus beetles each year. In the future, however, I plan to use the chickens in the Compost Corner to help with control of the asparagus beetles as well.

The compost enclosure is right be-side the asparagus bed. At the end of the asparagus harvest, I will set up a tem-porary fence separating the asparagus bed from the rest of the garden, using either electronet or chicken wire. I will release the chickens through a small door or pop-hole in the enclosure’s wire, allowing the chickens to go after the beetles among the growing fronds, while keeping them out of the rest of the garden with the temporary fenc-ing. In the fall, after I cut the asparagus fronds, I will give them another run, to scratch in the mulch for both the beetles, which hibernate in the winter, and their larvae. The rest of the time the pop-hole will remain closed, and the chooks will concentrate on making compost instead.

The Compost Corner, the wire enclosure in which the garden flock turns garden debris into compost. Photo by Bonnie Long.

Fast-growing hyacinth bean vines quickly covered the enclosure to provide dense shade for the chickens. Photo by Bonnie Long.

AUTHOR Harvey Ussery

PUBLISHER Chelsea Green Publishing

PAGE COUNT 394

The Small-Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery promises to continue to educate us in using poultry as an inte-grated part of a self-reliant farmstead—a topic not addressed at this depth in any other poultry book.

THE SMALL-SCALE POULTRY FLOCK


Spanish BreedsThe Penedesenca and Empordanesa

Are Perfect for Hot Climates

By Christine Heinrichs

Penedesenca. Empordanesa. They roll off the tongue, like guitar chords to a background of castanets. Their Spanish names are unfamiliar, but these breeds could be perfect for a hot weather climate.

“Not very many breeds are as good as they are in hot climates,” said Jason Floyd of Hang-town Farms in California, who keeps about 20 breeding birds in both breeds and several color varieties. “They generally lay better in hotter climates. I haven’t kept track, but I’m certain mine lay better than 160 eggs a year.”


Penedesencas are unusual in thatthey lay dark brown eggs despite

their white ear lobes.

These two local Spanish breeds from the Catalonia district have been revived in Spain, but only the Penedesenca and some White Emprodanesas have been brought to the United States. The Black variety is accepted in Catalonia, but the American Poultry Association has not recognized them. There are no bantams of either breed.

Both are Mediterranean egg breeds. They lay unusually dark eggs, ranging from warm terra cotta to a very dark chocolate brown. Birds are small, av-eraging around five to six pounds for roosters and four pounds for hens. The Black variety is more dual-purpose, with roosters weighing up to six-and-a-half pounds.

“Partridge and Wheaten are said to lay the darkest eggs, though I have seen dark eggs in all the varieties, in-cluding the White Empordanesa,” Mr. Floyd said. He has kept a flock for sev-eral years and created a website, www.penedesencausa.com, to distribute in-formation about the breeds, which are

not recognized in the American Poultry Association Standard of Perfection, available.

Penedesencas are unusual in that they lay dark brown eggs despite their white ear lobes. They may have acquired the dark brown egg trait from some unknown Asiatic breed, but the facts are lost. Penedesencas may be black, wheaten partridge or crele.

Empordanesas have the usual red ear lobes for brown egg layers. Their plumage is similar to Catalanas, buff with contrasting tails — either black, blue or white. Only the White Empo-radenesa has been imported to the U.S. The two breeds are similar, except for their ear lobes. Penedesencas should have ear lobes more than two-thirds white. Emporadenesa earlobes should be no more than 30 percent white, en-closed by red.

Spanish Farm BreedPenedesencas were first described

in December of 1921 in their native Cata-lonia in Spain. In 1928, at the Sociedad La Principal de Vilafranca del Penedés, Professor M. Rossell I Vila expressed concern for the survival of the local Penedés chicken breed, which was be-ing replaced by imported chickens. He framed it as a patriotic duty.

Penedesenca breeders took up the call, and were actively breeding flocks by 1933. Penedesencas disap-peared from public view during the upheaval of the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. A Spanish Standard for the most common black variety, Black Villafranquina, was ac-cepted in 1946.

In 1982, Spanish veterinarian Anto-nio Jorda took up the cause and began working to preserve the breed from extinction. Initially, he was intrigued by the very dark brown eggs he bought at the market in Villafranca del Penedés, in the region of Penedés. He asked around, and found local farmers raising small flocks of birds with white earlobes, slate legs and lateral rear appendages in the comb.

The CombThe Penedesenca comb may have

a mass of side sprigs at the back of the single comb, or it may look like a cross from above, with one large sprig stick-

Penedesenca eggs

A PartridgePenedesencahen


ing out from each side. The comb starts as a single comb but expands into sev-eral lobes at the rear. In the Catalan lan-guage, this is called a “carnation comb” (cresta en clavell) or a “king’s comb.”

The hens they found had varied plumage: mostly partridge or wheaten, a few black or barred. The roosters had black chests and tails with red backs. With some stock and eggs from the flocks he and his colleague, Amadeu Francesch, found, they launched the project. Over the years, they standard-ized Black, Crele, Partridge and Wheat-en varieties. They also began work to save the Emporadanesa.

They worked at the Poultry Ge-netics Unit of the Institut de Recerca i Techo-logia Agroalimetaries of the Generalitat de Catalunya in the Center Mas Bove of Reus, Tarragona, Spain. Eventually, they increased their flock to about 300 birds.

Hardy and Alert on Open RangeBoth the Empordanesa and Penedes-

enca are heat hardy and alert. They are well suited for farms in hot climates. They are more wary of predators than many breeds are. Roosters are excellent flock protectors. They are not aggressive though they are generally skittish in closed in areas.

“When I have hawk problems, I lose Ameraucanas but not Penedesencas,” he said. “That flightiness is what makes them what they are.”

Since 2001, three individuals have imported eggs from Spain to the U. S. Mr. Floyd hopes to arrange another importation soon. The required paper-work and fees ($180) are manageable, but someone will have to fly to Spain to pick the eggs up in person and fly them back in the pressurized passenger com-partment, to avoid subjecting the eggs to temperature and pressure changes.

“Both the Empordanesa and Penedesenca are very rare in the Unit-ed States,” said Mr. Floyd. “They are wonderful breeds deserving far more attention than they receive. These are the ultimate farm chickens for hot areas.”

Christine Heinrichs writes from California and works closely with the American Live-stock Breeds Conservancy. Founded in 1977, the nonprofit works to protect more than 150 breeds of animals from extinction. For more information, visit www.albc-usa.org.

These two localSpanish breeds from the Catalonia district have been revived in Spain, but only the Penedesenca and some White Emprodanesashave been brought to the United States.


Coop InspirationDo you have a fun story behind your chicken coop, or just some really

cool design ideas? We’d love to share them with our readers. Email us at [email protected] with a few pictures and a story about your coop!

XXXXXXXXXX

Rural Colorado Coop

Our family — Dan (dad), TJ (mom), Silas (son) and Lydia (daughter) — moved to rural Colorado about one year ago from Minnesota. I have always dreamed of living in the mountains. Montrose, Colorado emerged as the perfect living place ... summer weather is fantastic; spring is long; winter is mild (compared to Minnesota), and fall is amazing!

We relocated to a 13-acre property, within 1 mile of town. It has nearly a 360-degree view of the San Juans, Grand Mesa, Flat Top, the Black Canyon and the Uncompahgre National Forest. This really is a dream property for us. However, there was a missing key element: no chicken coop.

We knew living in rural Colorado meant wild and domestic animals could be a problem with chickens, so we decided to build our own coop primarily with security features in mind and with large enclosed northern/southern exposures.

With our exterior, we needed overhangs in summer and sun availability in winter. Basically, we wanted southern sun exposure for winter time to keep the chickens dry and warm while keeping the snow out. We wanted northern exposure for summer time to maximize shade. We built roughly a 22’ x

By The hieBerT family, coloraDo

12’ entire structure, with 8’x12’ enclosed coop interior and two wire enclosed sides that measure 7’x12’ on north and south.

We rented a skid ster to do some ground leveling since we had to build the coop on a slight hill and we had to fix drainage around the coop to ensure during heavy snow melt the water would move around the sides and away from the coop. The coop rests on 16” x 16” concrete pavers that are 1.5” thick to help alleviate animals from burrowing under. The flooring frame is encased in 1/2” hardware cloth to prevent critters from getting into the coop. We attached the hardware cloth on the top and the bottom of the flooring for redundancy and security. Lastly, we attached the sub-flooring plywood to the treated floor frame. Note: Keep in mind on the flooring it is probably best to use at least 5/8” or 3/4” treated plywood if possible, it will greatly strengthen the sub-flooring and worth the investment. I initially used that OSB (oriented strand board) flooring. The coop was not structurally sound until I switched to 3/4” plywood.

Once the floor frame and sub-floor were in place, we began construction on framing of the coop with the interior dimen-sions of 8’x12’, with 8’ walls. For the roof, we hand constructed


Dan designed and built this awesome chicken coop. It has a lean to on the north and south side for seasonal preference. Colorful roll away nest boxes and a “Chick Inn” sign to complete the palace.

Our 4 year-old-son, Silas with our Buff Orpington pullet, Nugget.

our own gable trusses to cover the 12’ ex-panse on each side including the shaded overhangs. 4’ was for the enclosed coop and 7’ for the overhang. I think extend-ing the coop with a 12x3 pitch was tricky, but using some good levels and bracing, we were able to accomplish the continu-ation of roof line out over our eventual wire areas.

The rusted tin we got from Recla Met-als. We bought four panels of 3’ x 24’ and had them cut them in half, so we had eight panels of 12’x3’ in their 1/2” bare skin cor-rugated metal. Once the roof was on, we left about 3” at peak for the ridge vent, adding 1/4” hardware cloth over the 3” vent, basi-cally to keep critters out and allow for good ventilation on hot summer days.

Note: The exterior overhangs are roughly 7x12 to allow for roof pitch and overhang, but I used a 12’ sheet of cor-rugated tin, wanting to keep a few inches for drip overhang.

I believe it was at about this point we got our first 6” snow storm! We were glad to have the roof in place before the snow hit. Plus we got to take a couple days break. We actually got hit by a second storm.

My wife had ordered windows from Shed Windows and More. We had used Shed Windows and More products on

a previous coop and really liked the windows.

I framed in the windows and then cut holes using a Sawzall. The windows come with a basic screen but we added an additional 1/4” hardware cloth over all the screens for predator protection. All the doors are custom framed, cut, and trimmed. I framed in the door, cutting again with the Sawzall, then we framed in another 2”x4”, to give a good frame of the door something solid to close and secure against. Lastly, we added hinges and latches for closing.

The coop was nearing completion. I used 1/2” hardware cloth for the exterior shaded areas and stapled it every 3” and sometimes more! We added a 24” hard-ware apron to prevent animals from dig-ging under the sides into the coop, so the hardware cloth comes down to the ground and then goes below about 2” round and then extended another 24” horizontally, under dirt away from the coop.

I built the nest box with six nests for our 12 hens. The roll away nest boxes allowed us to be gone for a day without having to collect eggs. TJ did all the inte-rior painting. She used a kiltz primer and Behr exterior paint.

The final, final project was attaching our sign from Dakota Sign Co, our friends in Rochester, Minnesota.

Our chickens now have a functional and secure home. A special thank-you to our friend Jean. She put in a lot of hours building the coop and helping us move, always coming with a positive attitude, en-couraging us, and keeping us motivated. The only remaining feature we plan to add this summer is an exterior chicken run 50’x100’ with 5’ tall wire fencing with another underground hardware apron.

The project was completed on our

17-year anniversary, so it doubled as my anniversary gift to my wife. “The Perfect Gift,” she says.

Visit the Hieber t Families blog at : http://l i feinr uralco.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-coop.html.


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Backyard...The Small-Scale Poultry Flock Excerpt from the book The Small-Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery. 45 Spanish Breeds The Penedesenca and Empordanesa are perfect for hot