Our backyard birds

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rakkasan84

rakkasan84

In the Brooder
Oct 15, 2015
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Hi, I just wanted to share a few pics of my coop and 2 cinnamon queens we are keeping for eggs. Mine is Chikweeta and my girlfriends is Jemima. We decided to start small and go from there. I added a tarp over top to keep them from flying out. I also added a pecan branch inside their coop to roost on. We are beginners so any advice is appreciated!
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Welcome to BYC :)

I would suggest improving the security of your coop and run, or you are likely to experience problems with predators. Covering your fence wire with hardware cloth would be much more secure. And if your run is not completely secure, including closing in the top, the coop should have a door that can be latched closed at night, as well as some hardware cloth-covered ventilation openings. It would be very sad if you lost your birds to an attack.
 
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Yes thank you we will plan on improving our security. We live in the middle of a big city and hoped that we would only have to worry about our dogs. I have seen a hawk swoop but stop when he saw the fence and tarp.
 
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Thanks, fortunately I found someone to help w a new run. We plan on making something we can move around in the yard. This fencing is from an old garden. I'm locking the girls up at night in their coop, the ramp I made covers the front opening. Hopefully this will prevent nocturnal predators temporarily. I added supplemental lighting that goes on from 5-8 am to help with the shorter days. Here's some newer pics, thanks for the advice.
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We had 6 eggs our first week, Chikweeta has been laying most or all of them I think. I'm not sure if Jemima is laying yet. They were advertised as 8 month old hens, but I think Jemima may be a bit younger? She weighs less and doesn't have as much feathers as Chikweeta. Chikweeta is definitely queen bee. I'm also not sure if they were on supplemental lighting before I got them ( last Sunday). I've been very happy so far though getting an egg almost every day!! I get to eat my first fresh egg sandwich today at work
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The girls have been making a huge mess of their food! I put enough food in their feeder for about 6 days, and they have spilled it all out twice. I am using nutrena nature smart organic feed. The feed store guy said to mix in corn chips at a 1:1 ratio. After doing some more reading I guess that was not a good idea? I have since tried just giving their feed in the feeder but same results. Today I took the feeder out so they will have to eat the food on the ground. We do give table scraps and dried mealworms occasionally.
 
We lost a hen so I decided to upgrade their run. It's now 16x8' so I have plenty of room for more hens later. We added two black sexlinks Becky and Gretel. They are 22 weeks now and have not started to lay. I think they will soon, as they have been making these little nests in the coop and yesterday they moved one of the fake eggs our of a nesting box and into their little nest along the wall. I also made a new feeder out of a bucket and 3" PVC elbow.
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