Recent content by QODTMWTD

Clearly the DOH people realized that you were the sane, honest one. Unlike the crank next door.

Wow. Between the neighbor and inspector you found a couple of real d-bags. Sorry you have to endure that ongoing aggravation and tension. Building inspectors are just tax leeches: Even when they know the code they don't hold builders to it because that's complicated, but they have no problem...

It looks great with the clear plastic roof. What was your neighbor's problem? And how is that plastic roof any different than having a plastic roof on a shed, from the neighbor's perspective?

For over a year we made do with a heavy duty white tarp nailed down to joists over the run area, but it was starting to get ripped from the wind and it was starting to leak. We just had the run roofed in sheet metal panels. At first I was a little disappointed because it was slightly darker in...

I have 28 hens and 20 total nest boxes. The boxes are the two-tier metal type and there are two sets of them. The birds regularly use maybe 8 of the boxes. There are probably another 8 that they never use, and the rest get occasional use. All but one of my birds (a runt) lays; the oldest are...

That's funny. Mine didn't like pelleted feed, but they didn't exactly refuse it. They just used it up a lot more slowly. They do really well on Purina Flock Raiser crumbles. They've got a big yard for hunting crickets, frogs, and mice, which they love almost as much as mealworms. Same for...

We've ordered only from Hoover's Hatchery twice, 8 months apart. All 30 chicks from the two combined orders arrived alive and healthy and stayed that way. We have 28 birds now because two brown leghorns died, one at 6 months of age and one at 8 months, and the hatchery was in no way...

We use old wood shavings in the run after they've been cleared out of the coop. The run has a dirt surface so we rake the old shavings periodically to stir things up. The run's covered but the sides are just hardware cloth so in many places the shavings get wet when it rains. Mixing the wet...

This is really encouraging. I've had to integrate chicks just once and it went really smoothly, but it was also time consuming. I waited until they were nearly the size of the resident hens. I used deer netting hung from the run joists and weighted at the bottom to keep the two groups...

It's absolutely possible. We use something very similar: foam playpen mats. They lay perfectly flat, they're light, and they come pre-made with creases that allow them to fold up flat for easy transport in and out of the barn. They're also really easy to cut to size with scissors for the...

We use foam playpen pads cut to size under the roost bar and under the ladder roost. They're made to fold up and also to lie flat, so every morning we fold them up, carry them outside, and hose them off, then hang them to dry in the barn. At night they go back down under the roosts. I...

I've had chickens for only a year and even though they all get the same treatment they've been really variable even within breeds. It also seems to vary by age, in that they go through stages of being more or less okay with humans. When they were still in the brooder they were mostly skittish...

We’re near Texarkana. We use a portable AC when the temp gets over 90. It doesn’t cool anything but the immediate space in front of it, but the birds seem to appreciate the cooler airflow. We also use a box floor fan and a wall exhaust fan. I put ice in a mini swimming pool with 2-3” of...

Good idea. I had two pullets with lameness issues this past spring and was disappointed by the lack of information out there. There’s a need for better prosthetics and temporary bracing devices, too.

We bought our first batch of day-old chicks at the end of August. The second batch came in the first week of March. The timing for both groups worked out well; we picked those times randomly when the urge for chickens struck. I wouldn't add new chicks in cold weather, though, which around...