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Although of course the quantity matters. One fresh dropping on a lawn does not seem to cause any problem, but people usually handle it by the shovel or bucket or wheelbarrow.

I don't know about the wood shavings. I've mostly dealt with chickens where the litter was dry leaves, shredded newspaper, sometimes a bit of hay or straw, and similar things. My mother would pile the chicken bedding (complete with lots of droppings) on the garden beds every spring and fall...

You may have already considered this, but plenty of other people make a square or rectangular wood frame for the door, and use wire mesh to cover the rest of the end. Tarp is one option for weatherproofing, but it needs to be fastened down tightly so it cannot flap and shred itself, and...

Sometimes a dish of chicken food is enough "treat" to get chickens to come. I've had chickens with dry food available all the time, who would come running for a dish of wet food. Apparently it is much better, even though it's just the same stuff with water added! For luring chickens into a pen...

I have had chickens at various points over a period of 30+ years, in several different locations, in several different styles of coops. My introductory post on BYC was at a time when I did not have chickens. Some people like to take photos frequently, and some people do not. I am one of the...

Mostly personal preference and lack of photos.

Sorry, I actually can't/don't post photos at all. Maybe I'll just keep quiet :oops:

My main problem with bread is what it does not have (total protein content, certain amino acids in particular, many vitamins and minerals). A chicken will only eat so much food in a day, so eating more bread means they eat less other stuff. Depending on how much of what other stuff they are...

The addling (mixed yolk and white) might just be caused by the yolk breaking, which seems to happen more easily when infertile eggs have been incubated for a while. I have cracked open infertile eggs, that spent a week or more in the incubator. The yolks broke very easily, as compared with...

I would skip the bread, and just give the starter with supplemental egg. If you can get the high protein end, I would just feed that from the very first day, and not bother with egg, or two kinds of feed. Mixing a higher-protein feed with a lower-protein feed can also work. Depending on the...

Yes, I think that is pretty conclusive. His "grits" are some kind of food. Although I still wonder why he thinks those "grits" will help the chicks' gizzards to function 🤔

Since he is talking about the gizzard, I think this "grits" must be the plural of grit (little stones for the gizzard to grind food with.) I know that "grits" can be a kind of food, but I do not think that makes sense here. (Unless he thinks that porridge is somehow good for the gizzard, unlike...

For baby chicks that are completely confined, with no ability to forage for other food, a modern commercial chick starter is better than a mixture of hard boiled egg and the bread that can be bought in a modern store. For chicks that forage freely with their mother, in a situation with plenty...

A century or two ago, bread crumbs and hard boiled egg probably was one of the best possible chick foods (compared to what else was available at the time). But something is only "best" until something better comes along, like modern chick starter.

On the whole, I agree. I just notice the problems when people try to see animals as being just like people, while entirely missing the differences. It's obviously one of those cases where some balance is needed-- there are both similarities and differences, and missing either one can cause...

Sometimes there are problems with antropomorphism. It depends on how it is being used. I have seen people on here with questions, worried about how their chicken "feels" about something, and missing an obvious, physical, chicken-appropriate explanation (that solved the problem.) Sorry, I can't...

Yes, we call that "corn" too. With all the different colors, people sometimes call it "indian corn" or "ornamental corn" or when it is all one color they may call it blue corn or red corn or whatever. Is there a reason you need to grind the grains at all? Chickens usually do fine with whole...

It seems perfectly sensible to me :confused: We live in houses with walls, and have doors to go out. We fence chicken runs but put gates in them. It is much easier to put in a gate when the fence is built, than to decide to add it later.

Have you looked under the bedding to see if very much is getting spilled? Of course it is good to let them eat as much as they want, but some chicks are real experts at throwing the food out and wasting it.

It's based on a pun. Star Wars: "May the Force be with you" Pun: "May the 4th be with you" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Day