Keep Chickens!: Tending Small Flocks in Cities, Suburbs and Other Small Spaces (17 page)

After a few weeks, the dirt in the chicken run, if once compacted clay soil, will be dark and crumbly. The chicken drop-pings and straw, together with the nearly constant scratching by the hens in their pen, instantly improve any soil beneath their scaly chicken feet.

Some small-flock chicken keepers have another method of dealing with coop care — they do almost nothing. This is known as the “deep litter system,” and it works like this: no removal of droppings, no fluffing, just adding straw regularly to the coop and henhouse floors all summer through winter. In spring, all of that prime compost material has been mulching nonstop for three seasons. This is one way to efficiently compost chicken waste and organic matter directly onto a large area without doing much of anything. However, you have to control the odor that will surely emanate from the coop by leaving the chicken waste in and merely adding lots of straw and cedar shavings. The problem with the deep litter system, besides the inherent odor worry, is the tendency for the coop to get damp. Dampness is not a condition tolerated by chickens for long without some type of disease sprouting up in the flock (like coccidiosis, a parasitic infection transmitted through chicken droppings). Personally, I prefer the meager labor once weekly in freshening up the chicken coop. The deep litter system would work better in a small, mobile coop or in a coop on a large tract of land with not many neighbors nearby. For urban chickens, the deep litter system simply stinks too much.

Every couple of months, inspect the coop and henhouse to make sure there are no loose screws or nails, splinters, or jagged wire that could harm your flock. Chickens love to peck and pick at things with no regard for their own personal safety. They’d swallow a small screw in a jiffy if given a chance, so don’t give them the opportunity. Experience has taught me that important lesson.

I have a basement window that looks into the coop. I had noticed that the caulking was missing from the frames; panes were loose. This could be dangerous for the Girls if one of them pushed up against the glass. I put up the temporary garden fence and routed the hens out of the coop. Then I caulked the panes with generous helpings of wood putty. Hours later, the putty appeared dry and I bribed the hens back into the coop with — what else — cottage cheese. Early the next morning, I woke to a distant, rhythmic tap-tap-tapping. It sounded like it was coming from inside the house.

Thinking rats were rummaging around in the basement, I quietly went downstairs to sneak up on them. The tapping noise grew the lower I got. Tap-tap-tap. I looked around the dark basement. It took me a minute, but I realized that the hens were making the tap-tap-tap as they feasted on the window putty from inside their coop. Oh no! I ran outside to the coop and shooed the Girls away from the window putty. Fortunately, it was just one hen (Zsa Zsa) who did most of the eating — it was easy to tell because she was the only hen with a full putty “beard” outlining her beak. Fearing the worst but hoping for the best, I promptly fed her an apple, hoping to flush out the putty. I was lucky. Zsa Zsa seemed to have no ill effects from consuming several tablespoons of wood putty, and I didn’t lose a hen. I reputtied the pane, this time using a super-fast-drying brand. I also put up a wire screen around the window so the Girls couldn’t get right up next to it. No more putty for the poultry.

The scoop on coop care is basic and unwavering: Keep the coop clean all the time. No matter when you do it, or how you do it, do it. Your chickens and your neighbors will appreciate the fresh straw and clean accommodations. Remember, if the coop smells, it’s not the chickens’ fault . . . it’s yours!

• Check water; refill if low; remove debris from drinking tray
  
• Check food; refill if low; remove debris from eating tray
  
• Collect eggs
  

• Clean run and henhouse: remove manure droppings and dirty straw; add clean cedar shavings and straw
  
• Wash water dispenser
  
• Check grit dish; refill if low
  
• Check for rodent holes into run or henhouse
  

• Visit feed store for straw, chicken feed, grit, and scratch
  
• Call friends to pick up straw for their compost bins
  

• Make repairs to run and henhouse, if necessary
  

In summer, keep an eye on your chickens to make sure they are not too hot. Provide them with plenty of water. A heavy breed of hen can drink more than a quart of water each day during warm weather. Make ample shade available during the hottest part of the day. The henhouse can become an oven when the thermostat hits 90° F. Don’t let your chickens roast on the roost! Ensure the henhouse is adequately ventilated. Open its doors and windows to let any stray breezes drift through. If the day is hot and still, install a small portable fan in the coop by attaching it to the plug outlet used by the henhouse heating lamp in winter.

When chickens get too hot for their comfort, they pant. Their beaks part and stay open, and their little chicken tongues stick out with each labored breath. When the Girls look really pitiful, I let them out into the garden. They dig shallow holes in shaded soil and lie, breast down, wings spread open on the ground, until they cool off. If they are still hot, I fill a clean spray bottle with cool water and mist them.

Bantams aren’t as susceptible to overheating as their heavy breed cousins, but they are sensitive to freezing cold temperatures. When keeping bantams in your flock, be sure to keep them in an enclosed, draft-free, heated henhouse during any cold spells.

What’s the optimal temperature for a henhouse in winter? Depends on how cold it is and what kind of chickens you have. Heavy breeds, like the Girls, need a heat lamp when temperatures are at or below the freezing point. Bantam breeds need a heat lamp when outside temperatures dip into the 40s.

Use a 25- to 40-watt light bulb or the heat lamp from the chicks’ brooder to warm the henhouse. Affix the light or lamp away from straw and not directly over the hens’ perch. The heat from these bulbs will raise the temperature in a 3' × 5' × 5' (0.9 × 1.5 × 1.5 m) henhouse ten degrees over the course of several hours. Put the light or lamp on a timer so that it comes on around midnight and turns off when the sun comes up.

Do not use an oil or electric heater to warm the henhouse. Such devices provide too much heat for the compact space of a henhouse. The last thing you want is to dehydrate your poor chickens!

Four key elements make up a chicken health care program: a clean environment, plenty of fresh food and water, protection from the elements, and exercise.

Careful attention to coop care will ensure that your chickens have a clean environment. Nothing makes chickens (or any other pet, for that matter) sick quicker than filth.

Healthy hens are hungry hens. Eating is one of a chicken’s main hobbies and reasons for living, so don’t deprive your hens of munchies. Make sure the hens’ feed is fresh and plentiful.

Healthy chickens are dry and warm chickens. Make certain the henhouse is watertight. It’s difficult to make the coop completely water-free, so give the chickens one dry place to go in their quarters. A damp chicken is prone to catching colds (yes, chickens can catch colds!) or developing infections.

If you notice that your chicken has a cold (she will be sneezing and sniffling, same as you), crush some fresh garlic and mix it into her scratch, or put about a teaspoon of fine garlic powder into a gallon of the hens’ drinking water. The curative marvels of garlic do not discriminate between people and chickens, and soon your flock will feel better.

Healthy chickens need their exercise. They love to walk and scamper around the garden, scratch up dirt for bugs and worms, and run and flap their wings a bit (this latter activity may look like your chicken is trying to fly, but she won’t make any progress, especially if your chicken is a plump, heavy breed). This outdoor time breaks up the boredom of staying in the coop all the time. If your hens don’t get enough leg time in your garden, it can cause them to become anxious and fidgety, and they may start picking on each other. Regular free-range grubbing and running in the yard make for happy, well-adjusted chickens.

If I don’t let my hens out for a couple days because of bad weather, they’ll get cranky and stop laying for a few days (okay, Girls, I get the message). But as soon as they get some yard time, even half an hour between rainstorms, they start laying eggs again. It just goes to show that regular exercise is as important to a chicken’s health as it is to ours.

Chickens that don’t get enough activity get fat. Obesity in chickens contributes to the health problem known as egg binding, which occurs when an egg has become lodged up inside the hen, and she cannot expel it during laying. A fatty layer has built up around the hen’s reproductive organs, inhibiting the oviduct from moving the egg down toward the vent. Sometimes chickens bind up simply because an egg they are trying to lay is too large.

If you notice that your hen is looking uncomfortable, standing or moving in a strange way with her head or tail down, she might be binding up. Help her immediately! Place her in a warm area (under a heat lamp) to relax her. Sometimes warmth alone will help her pass the egg. If heat doesn’t work, massage some vegetable oil very carefully around her vent while gently massaging the hen’s stomach in the direction the egg should be traveling. If no egg emerges, hold the hen over steaming water, being careful not to burn her. I’ve read that some folks, as a last resort, will gently break the egg while it is in the hen, and bit by bit empty its contents, with the hen’s contractions pushing out the rest. However, the hen may die from shock or a heart attack if the egg remains stuck in or while the egg is being broken inside her. Exercise your hens consistently to avoid this and most other health problems.

Another health problem for chickens is feather picking, which occurs when your chicken, usually prompted by some type of physical or emotional discomfort, pulls off large quantities of its own feathers or the feathers of fellow hens. If you catch your chicken at feather picking, you can discourage this behavior by applying a mix of one part vinegar to five parts water with a washcloth to the bird’s bare areas. This cleanses the area, and the stink and taste of the vinegar discourage the chickens from further picking.

Chickens take dust baths to cleanse off any mites they pick up. However, if the mites are visible to your naked eye, the problem is too far gone for the hen to take care of with a dirt bath alone. Be on the lookout for a mite infestation: If one chicken has mites, chances are the others in the flock also do. Mites sometimes appear as tiny, almost invisible brown pinheads crawling on a chicken’s skin, beneath the feathers. The mites may also be visible crawling on the roost where the chickens sleep. Another type of mite demonstrates itself as patchy, crusty, whitish scales on a chicken’s legs.

You can eliminate mites with either a powder or a spray treatment available at the feed store or on-line hatchery and supply stores. These powders and sprays aren’t toxic and are usually effective with repeated applications. To apply the powder, place the recommended dosage in an area in the coop where the chickens take their dust baths. This way, they can apply the dust themselves without being handled. If you apply the powder or spray directly on the chickens, I recommend doing this at night after they have gone to roost. Chickens don’t see well in the dark and are quiet and passive after sundown. You can control exactly where you apply the medication, and the chicken won’t stress out and protest the application as they would during daylight hours.

A home remedy for leg mites is to soak the chicken’s legs in warm, soapy water twice daily until effective. However, holding a chicken still long enough to really soak those legs is more of a challenge than some could handle. Instead, use a damp, soapy sponge or washcloth to wipe the chicken’s legs with one hand while holding her under your other arm. Again, to make this treatment easier for you and the chicken, do it after sundown.

Like any other bird, your chickens will molt each year. Chickens start molting as early as midsummer, and the molt may continue until late fall. During their molt, chickens lose old feathers and new feathers, called
pinfeathers,
sprout out like porcupine spines. Some chickens molt so slowly and gradually that you barely notice they’re molting. Others throw off all their feathers at once and are half-naked for a couple of months.

Molting is stressful for a chicken. Just imagine if you spent your entire life covered in soft feathers, then suddenly lost them all and became covered in hard-shelled spikes instead. You’d probably be uncomfortable, too! Chickens aren’t real happy when they molt. In fact, they get downright crabby. Sometimes they become skittish, moody, and aggressive. And they lay considerably fewer eggs.

Make sure your chickens get plenty of good, nutritious feed during the molt. This will help them maintain their strength and vigor. A vigorless hen is a sorrowful sight.

For more information on chicken health and home care for certain ailments and conditions, check out
The Chicken Health Handbook
by Gail Damerow. It has everything you’ll ever need to know about chicken health through the years of keeping your pet flock. If you are not comfortable administering health care other than the basics, or if your chickens are too sick for home remedies, contact your local avian medical center or veterinarian specializing in bird medicine and surgery.