The Chook Shed

13/11/2024

Starting to warm up?

Now is the time to grab some of our products so you are ready for the Red Mites.
These can be found & purchased on our website www.thechookshed.co.nz

* Koop M8 Powder - Can be used in the coop and on the birds, dust baths and nest box areas.
600gm $38.00
1kg refill - $45.50
5kg - $180.00

* Koop M8 Spray - A light recycled oil, highly effective as a great wood preservative & base for your Koop M8 powder to stick to. Contains Recycled Rapeseed oil plus garlic essential oil for natural pest repelling.
1lt Spray in Chemically resistant spray bottle - $59.95
Refills 1 lt - $49.95
5lt - $155.00

The oil and powder combination makes travel difficult for any crawling pests in your coop & kills the mites by disrupting their waxy coating leading to death.
It is100% safe for your chickens, the environment and you!

* Scaley Leg Mite oil - these mites travel from bird to bird so it is important to use your Koop M8 Oil on the perches to stop travel and Scaley Leg mite oil on the birds legs to suffocate the mites.
$17.95 250ml spray bottle

Oral Supplements

* Poultry M8 - Nutrient Mix Give your girls a boost in minerals, nutrients, electrolytes, herb blends, proteins. Contains over 20 ingredients to give your girls a great treat that is full of goodness!
$28.95 1.5kg

* Poultry M8 - Breeding and Laying version - ** NEW PRODUCT! **All the same great ingredients as the base version with the addition of natural laying stimulating herbs, Vit A, Vit B, B12, B1, C. Essential elements for healthy egg production and breeding.
$32.95 1.5kg

13/11/2024

Took a few photos of the girls lolling about in the chook enclosure. The 'lime' applied in late winter to counteract the rising acid/urea levels, has hit full growth phase!

No room for poultry sick soil or grass around here and the chooks love eating grass. Now its time to break feed the horses in there to try and get some control so the chooks can move around a bit more freely. They are getting hard to see :)

As if I need more.... welcome the lovely Roger (Plymouth Barred Rock Rooster) to the fold. He is a stunner and has such a lovely nature and really looks after his girls ( even though 30 is a little overwhelming for him)

Also new are a couple of Buff Orpingtons ( as we all need a lovely yellow colour ) and some crazy looking Faverolles.

Loving the variety!

Check out our new product too! Poultry M8 - Breeding and Laying Formula Available on Trade me or on our website www.thechookshed.co.nz
A great nutrient boost for your chooks at this time of year, especially if confined!

14/10/2024

Check out our NEW Laying and Breeding Poultry M8. More natural elements added to support breeding and laying for your hens.

Original Poultry M8 - Nutrient Support $28.95
Laying and Breeding Poultry M8 - $32.95

Head to www.thechookshed.co.nz to purchase yours today and give your hens & rooster, a well deserved pat on the back!

The Chook Shed - Sarah Robotham.
Essential Products for your Feathered Friends

10/10/2024

The lovely Splash Orpington

01/10/2024

*** FABULOUS NEW PRODUCT ***

Check out our new product for laying and breeding chooks.

Focused on providing a raft of essential vitamins required to successfully breed and hatch the healthiest chicks. All the usual goodies in Poultry M8 plus Vitamin A - Cod liver oil, B1, Niacin, Folate, Omega FAs, Vitamin C.

Laying is also stimulated by our Mustard extract providing Vitamin C and Beta Carotene.

Check it out at The Chook Shed www.thechookshed.co.nz

15/09/2024

Back to the Grind... The poultry Gizzard. A clever little thing...a compact muscle bound organ that serves to grind down seeds, grains, insects etc to enable digestion to occur.

The gizzard in a chicken is approx 5cm long x 4cm high. With the grit inside the gizzard, upon processing duties, if feels very hard!. The thick keratinous mucosal layer on the inside withstands stones grinding together and when removed it is 2-3mm thick and peels away from the gizzard muscle.

It is said that chook's sense what pebbles, gravel, sands etc they need for the function of the gizzard and select accordingly as they require a range of sizes for correct gizzard function.

I know when my chicks are day olds, they will peck at sand etc to start the process from this early age.

Gizzard is a delicacy is quite a few cultures and from hungarian stews to stirfry curries they are a popular source of meat.

They feel a bit along the lines of kidneys, liver and heart use to me, but if you are into using every bit possible of your processed chook's & that's your aim, then that's great!

13/09/2024

Few photos of the girls at night fall...

5pm - Wheat Feed time ( The gizzard grinding away on the wheat apparently generates heat which helps to keep them warm on a cold night ). If you head into the coop after dark and listen, you can hear the grinding noise!

11/09/2024

BEDDING!

What are the options?
What is the best?
What is cheapest & effective?
What are the Pro's and Con's?

Firstly, it depends on your coop setup. Some use litter in the nest boxes only. Others on the floor and nest boxes.
I have tried a lot of options over the years including:
* Hanging a tarp below the perch area to catch overnight p**p
* Sawdust
* pine shavings
* Sand
* bark Chips
* Hay
* Straw
* Shredded paper
* H**p fibre

Basically what you want is something cheap as you go through a lot of it, not dusty, not rough, absorbant and not mite friendly.

1. Tarp beneath perch area - works well but requires regular cleaning and washing. P**p lands straight on tarps generally so pretty smelly pretty quickly. Does keep the floor material in better condition for longer if using pine shavings etc but just fiddly.

2. Sawdust is generally a bit too dusty unless you water it down regularily. The chooks like to scratch around in it so sifting out p**p is generally difficult to impossible and you end up cleaning out the whole coop every so often when the ammonia level builds up.

3. Pine Shavings smell nice, are light and airy, soak up p**p and cheap. Do tend to fly everywhere a bit as the chooks love to scratch it up through the coop and nest boxes.

4. Sand - can be dusty and needs watered down regularily. Great for flooring area, not so good in nest box areas as too dusty. I use sand on the floor as I don't need any nestbox litter as they are non litter needing as rollaway units. I find it fabulous on the floor of the coop. I sift out the p**p every few days to week into the compost bins which works brilliantly.

5. Bark chips - too rough and uncomfortable on feet as well as quickly becomes smelly and difficult to deal with. In a run area, if applied in a deep bed, you can use a hose to wash the faeces down each week which helps to keep things clean. Birds need an area they can have a good scratch in though as the bark chips ( unless very rounded ) can predispose to bumble foot infections and the like.

6. Hay - cheap and works in nest boxes. Can harbour wetness and subsequent mould growth which can affect respiratory systems.

7. Straw - cheap. Similar properties to hay but coarser. unfortunately the hollow shafts are great for mites to live in and anything that makes life easy for the Red Mite is not a good idea!

8. Shredded paper - cheap, works well in nest boxes, compostible, wet faeces can be easily removed and replaced with fresh material.

9. H**p fibre - I have not tried this but it looks nice. It is perported to have anti-pest properties but I have not seen any scientific evidence to confirm this and I am weary of any unsupported claims.

As below, if you have red mites, they will not care what bedding material you use and are highly adaptable to any situation or setup materials.

RED MITES: All of these materials can make potential homes for red mites. Red mites do not like salt, so sea sand is a great flooring material to use as long as you keep it damp-ish. ( watering can works well )
They love to have places to live and hide away in so straw is a big no no and hay is nearly there. Red mite control is about management techniques and coop setup to make infestations impossible.

KOOP M8 SPRAY: We have an awesome product that works as a wood preservative for your coop. It is also a great oily base for applying the Koop M8 Powder to. The powder sticks to the oily base and provides a lasting deterrent barrier to any Red Mites coming into the coop on your birds. Prevention is always better than treatment and cure. Once our temperatures start to rise, you need to have your barriers in place!. Make sure you have treated your perch rail ends and around your nest boxes before the outbreaks occur.

Check out our great products on our website....
www.thechookshed.co.nz

10/09/2024

Interesting commercially available backyard Chook breeds/ crosses in the UK

10/09/2024

Check out our website for some Chook essentials 💪👍🐓🐔🐣

10/09/2024

Coop selection or design & Build

Here is a random selection of coops. Some are very cheap, some pretty pricey. Some are great for keeping chickens in, some are not. Some are perfect for Red Mite infestations, some are not.

Things to consider before you start looking/ building.

1. How many Chooks do you think you need/want/ require to supply eggs for your family? & hence need to accommodate?
2. Light breeds, heavy breeds or mix?
3. High winds a possibility & will need a heavy coop or very sheltered spot?
4. Do you want to make it easy to retrieve the eggs when it suits you by having the eggs roll safely into a rollaway collection area?. If eggs sit in a pile (Chooks like to lay a 'clutch' of eggs so if you have 6 hens & put in 3 nest boxes, they will mostly lay in 1. A lovely clutch of eggs is soooo inviting to go broody on! Visual stimulus 👀)
5. Rule of thumb is 3/4 hens per Nestbox.
6. Think when selecting materials, smooth with no seams, connecting boards or felt roofing is best. Red mites ❤️ a crack or join to setup in. Mostly at perch ends & Nestbox areas where the birds spend the most time.
7. Another thing! Don't build it too hot! 🔥 Chooks have super efficient feather insulation & as long as you don't have draughts & shelter, they love good ventilation. Lice & Red Mites ♥️Heat!!
8. If you don't think about these things before you start, repeated Red mite infestations due to a poorly constructed coop will drive you to give up keeping Chooks & is just awful for your Chooks!

Look at each coop construction for verdict on whether good or not so good based on the above reasoning....

09/09/2024

Nestbox option number 4

Fully Galvanised Steel, Double Rollaway Nest box Units

These are awesome and are the only boxes I use in my coop setup.

Pros

* Can be mounted so they are inside the coop completely, or mounted so the laying portion is inside the coop with the eggs rolling to the outside or the whole unit can be mounted on the outside.
* multiples can be used easily
* Internal plastic trays roll eggs into the collection tray so no need for bedding which cuts down places for mites to live and breed.
* Chooks love them! Mites don't like the exposure!
* Sooo Easy to clean. Two bolts mount the nest boxes so each can be lifted off easy to be washed out when required.
* Eggs are safe until you are ready to collect them
* No visual eggs for birds to think about going broody
* Even if the hens decide to go broody, they sit there on an egg until they have to get out to get food and water at which time the egg rolls into the collection tray. The hen comes back to find nothing and they usually give up within a week.
* Great ventilation
* Assembly options:
1. Laying box inside with Egg collection to outside
2. Laying box and egg collection all inside or outside.

* Makes a lot more room in the coop for roosting only. This makes mite control and cleaning out, a breeze!

Cons

* Have to think hard!
* Not a lot I can think of and an awesome long term thinking option. There are cheaper options of course but for all the pluses these provide, they are hands down the most robust, easy to clean and usable options I have found!

Purchase at The Chook Shed

$186.95 plus shipping.

06/09/2024

Number 3 Nestbox Review..

Introducing the My Cozy Nest Box

RRP $54.95

PROs

* Well made unit of shock resistant polypropylene
* Well ventilated
* Minimal light with a curtain for seclusion
* Good sturdy step.
* Manufactured in Europe to high spec standards
* Easily attaches to a wall with 4 screws.
* Dimensions 40cmW x 49cm D x 44cm H
* Good basic nestbox design
* Easy enough to clean out
* Attractive looking in your coop!
* Very reasonable if looking at installing multiples

Cons

* No rollaway for egg collection purposes.

A great low cost nest box that is robust and can be removed for easy cleaning. No corners where wood meets wood which is great.
Minimal places for mite populations to setup but you will need bedding material in the nestbox to provide cushioning so with that comes a nice place for mites to breed and live... potentially.

04/09/2024

2. The second nest box in our Nest box reviews

The NESTOMATIC!

Pros

* Galvanised Steel Construction
* UV Resistant Plastic
* Generous 30cm square x 49cm High
* Swinging plastic curtains make the box inviting & dark for hens
* Easily removed plastic matting inside the nest area
* Inside matting is raised on an angle sloping to the front so the eggs laid, roll into the collection tray at the front.
* Multiples can be linked together using spacers that come in each pack.
* European made so good quality materials.
* Easy to install
* Easy to clean
* Good ventilation

RRP $119 per unit, purchase yours from The Chook Shed for $109.90!

Cons

* Not many to be fair!
* Sometimes eggs get stuck along with p**p passed when laying the egg.
* only one way the box can be configured, so if you want the hens to lay inside your coop, you will need to go inside to collect eggs.
* Regular cleaning of the inside is required to make sure the eggs roll into the collection area properly.
* Nearly like a kiddie lock on the egg collection latch as can be difficult to open as you have to push in & pull up.
* pricey if you need 3-4 nesting boxes. (3-4 hens per box is the rule of thumb)

Otherwise a great little unit. Can be fitted to any flat wall area, horizontally or vertically in series.

02/09/2024

An interesting comparison...

Two very different egg sizes...

Question ⁉️ Is the yolk the same size between eggs with larger eggs just having more egg white (albumin)?

We cracked a couple open to see...

I might have to repeat this with two supermarket eggs at different sizes. The egg on the left is from one of my young girls, laid yesterday (hence dome shape appearance due to freshness). The larger egg is a recently purchased supermarket egg which is more of a flat button shape which occurs as eggs gain age from the laying date.

The yolks do look similar in size & if you imagine what the home laid egg looks like in a few more days, they will be the same I would say.

The egg white is vastly different though between the eggs, with the large egg nearly holding double the amount of albumin.

02/09/2024

First Nest box review:

1. Little Giant Nestbox- USA

High Density, impact resistant polyethylene.
Dimensions: 42cm W x 40cm D x 50cm H

Pros & Cons

PRO'S

* Light weight & easily attached
* Purchase @ The Chook Shed $99
* Semi- enclosed so hens feel a bit enclosed in the laying area
* Step present
* Plastic blow mold - light, durable, no corners of wood:wood for mite colonies to setup house
* Easy to clean & wash out
* Can be installed on any vertical wall in multiples
* Ventilated
* Sloped roof prevents roosting on top

CON'S

* Requires nesting material which can harbour mites
* Entrance could be a little snug for very heavy breeds but is quite generous
* Tricky to access a nasty broodie hen!
* Step small
* Eggs laid in situ vs rolling away so chance of egg eating increased.
* Could do with plastic curtain over entrance to darken box area for laying.

Summary: Quite a large unit to fit multiples inside a normal sized coop but a great, easy clean Nestbox for the price as it is going to last a lifetime vs wooden options & is easy to remove & clean out.

18/06/2023

Finished moulting? Hope your birds are looking this healthy now...if not, you need some Protein Boost. Available on Trade me or via The Chook Shed website.

25/03/2023

Moulting time!! Protein boost time 👍check a pack out on www.thechookshed.co.nz