Clean a Shelter - PEP BB animal.sand.cleanshelter

Clean my rabbit hutch

So the story of my chicken coop. I had a flock of six laying hens, but recently found out I had to move. So being responsible, I gave away the hens to a good home. Turns out, my move didn't happen. So my neighbors let me borrow two hens to maintain the coop and keep it active. I used the old water dish to be the new supplement container. I didnt have one before as I let my old flock free range during the day. I apologize for the lighting as well, My coop is dark so it was hard to get good shots in.

I cleaned out the chicken coop:

Cleaning the rabbit cage. I let this go too long. Poor bun was not happy with me.

We provide him a salt block but he doesn’t seem to have any interest in it. I’ve also given him a pumice toy to help with the teeth. He’s so so about it. I’m not sure if these can count as dry supplements. He otherwise doesn’t have any.

Cleaned the chicken's shelter/coop the other day!

Brushed out the shelter using rosemary branches and a selfmade feather duster. The floor of the sleeping area is purpously removable: took it apart, brush brush, and put it back together. Easy and fast! Added DE and grass that I harvested on my land a few days earlier. Outside: cleaned out and refilled the dust bath with sharp sand and DE + added new mulch all around their outdoor space.

I was afraid that the water bucket would be difficult to clean, but then I thought of rosemary branches again! Because of the branches' flexibility, I could reach inside and wiggle the branch around. Whatever would stay behind would be rosemary, which is not harmful to the chickens. It turned out to be the perfect waterbucketbrush! Since I put the bucket a bit off ground on the flat stones, the water stays MUCH cleaner then when I had it on the ground. No more mulch, nor food, nor poopies in the water!

There are two small bowls for dry stuff (I go see the chickens probably about 10 times a day).
I emptied and cleaned them, and filled the bowl 2 with dry food.

Bowl 1 got repurposed for supplements. Before, I wasn't giving any, so first I did some research to see how I could improve on that. Some of the websites I went through:
https://backyardpoultry.iamcountryside.com/feed-health/5-immune-boosting-supplements-and-herbs-for-chickens/
https://www.thepioneerchicks.com/8-natural-supplements-for-chickens/
https://morningchores.com/herbs-for-chickens/

After the research, I made a mix of sunflower seeds, flax seeds, brewers yeast, dried oregano and dried thyme, as a start.
At first, the chickens were not convinced, but I then every once in a while they picked a bit out of the bowl. That little bit I gave them lasted for 3 days, so they don't eat from it as food, but as a supplement :D From now on, I'll keep giving it once a week, and add more herbs to the mix as well. The chickens will let me know whether they want/need it or not :)

About calcium: The eggs I get from my chickens have the toughest shell I have ever experienced. I occasionaly give them crushed egg shell, nothing else. I'm afraid that if I up their calcium intake, I would later on need to use a hammer to crack their eggs. The chickens are around 6 months old now. Should I give them more calcium, or maybe only when they get older?

So when you're trying to make a video in bright sunlight, it's really hard to see the telltale light that tells you the camera is ON. Therefore, I missed catching the bits where I sprinkled clean bedding on the mats and refilled the mineral feeders. I did get a few seconds of Jax eating them, though, and Austin knocking the containers over after I filled the feeder.

cleaning the buck shelter

Gina Jeffries wrote:So when you're trying to make a video in bright sunlight, it's really hard to see the telltale light that tells you the camera is ON. Therefore, I missed catching the bits where I sprinkled clean bedding on the mats and refilled the mineral feeders. I did get a few seconds of Jax eating them, though, and Austin knocking the containers over after I filled the feeder.

cleaning the buck shelter

Okey doke
Here are my follow up pics of the mineral feeders

Taking care of these goats while the owners are away. They are not given any mineral supplements, so I supplemented them with dandelion leaves! Those have lots of minerals in them!

Visiting my sister in Texas who has chickens! As you can probably guess she was EXCITED to teach me all about her chickens and more than happy to let me clean her coop while she gave me directions.

I cleaned the moveable shelter. First I put a tarp under the shelter to catch all the dried chicken coop, which I later added to the compost pile. I scraped what I could with a small shovel and then sprayed the coop down with a hose. I also added DE to the sides/corners of the shelter.

I added more oyster shells to their dry supplement.

I wiped the water container out with rags and then filled it with rain water.