Cleaning Out & Preparing to Hatch

Today is the big clean out day. Each week I poop pick the chicken coop and take the top layer out of the duck house and top up the bedding, but once a month I have a major clean out.

I’m a big fan of Stalosan F and use this in the coops and run to dry up the poop and it is a great disinfectant. After cleaning out all the old bedding and newspaper from under the perches I use a diluted Jeyes Fluid mix to clean the inside of the coops and then once dry I dust with Stalosan F before adding fresh bedding. I use hemcore for the chooks and ducks as I find it the most absorbent and the birds all seem to like it, especially in the nest boxes.

I have a rubber chipping base now from Mud Management in the run and have found that if I make a Jeyes Fluid mix and wash them down and then dust with Stalosan F overnight it helps to keep the flies away and stops the run from smelling. This is really important with the ducks as I can’t poo pick like I do with the chickens so it helps to keep their run pleasant for them to live in and easy for me to look after.

It is only a matter of days until Eve is due to hatch out the ducklings so I have made sure I am stocked up for them. The low level drinker and feeder are ready as well as unmedicated chick crumbs for the ducklings. Eve is obviously aware they are due to hatch soon as she is coming out for shorter periods of time to eat, drink and poop before running back to her eggs. Yesterday she had a panic as the coop door shut while she was out and she squarked for Britain letting me know she couldn’t get back to her baby eggs! I found a lovely pic of Bumble & Bee as ducklings as well as last years hatch by one of my broody hens Rose so thought I would share them with you.

Despite the excitement of the impending duckling hatch all has not been happy animal wise. My little Niblet puss has been missing for five days so this afternoon is due to be spent putting flyers through letter boxes asking is anyone has seen the little terror. Niblet has gone missing before, she has a wandering tendency, but always comes back after two or three days so I am now quite concerned that she is okay. As you can see from the picture below she is a cute little kitten!