Jo

Once one lot of birds go to their new homes, I clean out the house first then sweep up all the old bits of branches, weed stalks etc that they've eaten while they were in the run. then with an old watering can I go over the whole area with diluted Jeyes fluid. Leave it for a couple of days until it dries, then sprinkle garden lime over everything. The lime kills off anything that the Jeyes missed!

Then hubby rotovates it for me. I can say that I've never had any diseases with any or the hybrids I've raised myself, even though they have to use the same runs again and again. It always worries me not being able to move all the henhouses around, but the smaller ones I can move onto fresh grass.

The only problems I've ever had is since I'd brought in birds from elsewhere, like the 6 hybrids I got off someone who couldn't keep them anymore, after a week or so of quarantine I put them in with my other layers, and one of them had the sneezes. hubby said that's okay, chickens do sneeze and shake their heads, but she passed it on to the others and now, months afterwards and 2 pots of antibiotics later, 3 of my older girls are left with a cough. I think the infection has left them with damaged airsacs or something, but otherwise they are fine, eating, drinking, laying!!!

Thanks for your blog. I have chickens too (but not on your scale – just 13 girls currently)and love to read how things are going with you.

A newbie question really but what is your method of sterilising the ground, please?

Thanks!