February 2017 Hatch-a-long

I use for my feed a big trash can with wheels it's sturdy and nothing can get into it like rats and mice would take a year for a rat to get a hole in that thing and I cover the lid with a block so nothing can get in that way and I do have some inside/ outside cats that just love mice!! One loves squirrels lol so I haven't seen any rats here
 
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It's funny, but my old coop and run which was an A-frame structure. I took the 2 sides and the front off and covered it with wire- I just attached the new coop to the old run with a little tunnel. I never took down the nesting boxes. We just use it as a covered part of their run. But the older chickens that spent the most time in the old coop - still lay their eggs in the old free standing nesting boxes (which are just Lowe's blue buckets). We built them really nice nesting BOXES in the new coop. They won't lay in there unless we put a blue bucket inside the nesting box. It's been close to 8 months. When we first dismantled it, we took the blue buckets away, but left the frame. They continued to lay in the frame - so we gave them back their buckets. During the rain, we put up tarps to cover the A-Frame.- coop section - to try to keep it a little dryer.


But my little February babies have been out in the new grow out coop for a couple of weeks. They get let out into the attached run during the day, but at night, I was having to go in and catch about 18 of them and put them back up in the coop. Last night, there was only ONE lonely little stressed out chick down in the run. The rest had gone up by themselves!! YAY!!!!

We cleaned out the teenage pen and found 2 dead mice - the chickens killed them, but didn't eat them, thankfully. Ewwwww. Up near the house, we found a rat trap crawling away. The rat just has one leg caught, and it was making slow process across the yard. He was easy to catch.

We put away all food at night, and I've seen fewer signs of them IN the coops, but it seems for every 1 you kill, 2 more come back.

I lost a serama chick the other night for the same reason. Momma got a few to go in with her, some hadn't quite figured it out yet, so I had been putting them in. I was a little late getting outside the other night, and one had died.
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It was kinda slow developing, little runt, I think. But such a pretty chick. I felt horrible, it was my fault.


And your girls have already learned the blue buckets. Wherever Mom puts the blue bucket, that's where she wants us to lay!
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I'm sorry, I'm also laughing about your one-leg-trapped mouse crawling across the yard.... "He was easy to catch"
lau.gif
 
It's the strangest thing, because you will be absolutely sure you've made the biggest mistake in changing things for them, and they will make such a fuss, but after 7 days, it's almost as if a switch goes on in their heads and they're all okay! I just did two major transitions - moved all my layers into a barn, and moved my two adolescent roos into co-flockmaster roles. Both times, I was on the verge of tears because they were so loud and upset and resistant to changing - but now, it's as if they've always been in the barn with these roosters. Go figure.
This is so good to hear, because I am doing major transitions right now.

1) I have a very big new coop and run set up, and last night I moved my peahen and her two nice hen buddies into it. They have all been living in the miniature barn that was on the property, but I may end up remodeling that into a guest house, or at least taking it back as my garden shed. I'm really worried about the peahen, because she is such a nervous Nelly and creature of habit. She seems really off put to be in this new coop and away from her beloved barn.
-Should I keep her and the two hens penned in there for seven days, before letting them free range?
-Or should I let them come and go? I am afraid if I leave the new coop open, the Red Star bullies will take it over. They are great layers, but so mean and bossy with other chickens.

2) I'm going to go ahead and put the little Sebright out with the Silkie during daylight hours, and bring her back in the house at night. I think that, at 5 weeks, she can handle daytime spring temps. She doesn't need to be in the hot brooder with newly-hatched babies that she doesn't like. I think she should start transitioning to outdoor life.

Thanks for reassuring me about the adaptability of chickens! I hope the peahen can adapt, too. Even peafowl people say that peas are odd.
 
This is so good to hear, because I am doing major transitions right now.

1) I have a very big new coop and run set up, and last night I moved my peahen and her two nice hen buddies into it. They have all been living in the miniature barn that was on the property, but I may end up remodeling that into a guest house, or at least taking it back as my garden shed.  I'm really worried about the peahen, because she is such a nervous Nelly and creature of habit. She seems really off put to be in this new coop and away from her beloved barn.  
-Should I keep her and the two hens penned in there for seven days, before letting them free range?  
-Or should I let them come and go? I am afraid if I leave the new coop open, the Red Star bullies will take it over. They are great layers, but so mean and bossy with other chickens.

2) I'm going to go ahead and put the little Sebright out with the Silkie during daylight hours, and bring her back in the house at night. I think that, at 5 weeks, she can handle daytime spring temps. She doesn't need to be in the hot brooder with newly-hatched babies that she doesn't like. I think she should start transitioning to outdoor life.

Thanks for reassuring me about the adaptability of chickens! I hope the peahen can adapt, too. Even peafowl people say that peas are odd.

As long as they have plenty of space in their new house, I would keep them there for a week. Otherwise they will go back to their old house, lay eggs in odd places, etc. It is ridiculously hard to endure their lack of adaptability; I had to keep reminding myself that in the long run they would be much happier once they settled in.
 
I lost a serama chick the other night for the same reason. Momma got a few to go in with her, some hadn't quite figured it out yet, so I had been putting them in. I was a little late getting outside the other night, and one had died.
sad.png
It was kinda slow developing, little runt, I think. But such a pretty chick. I felt horrible, it was my fault.


And your girls have already learned the blue buckets. Wherever Mom puts the blue bucket, that's where she wants us to lay!
lol.png


I'm sorry, I'm also laughing about your one-leg-trapped mouse crawling across the yard.... "He was easy to catch"
lau.gif
I lost one of my newly hatched Seramas yesterday too. It was the last to hatch, runt that just didn't thrive. Each day the big chicks in the brooder get bigger, the little bantam chicks aren't growing as quickly, so the difference is becoming more dramatic. But those little chicks stand up for themselves!!!


But....These chicks can probably eat for a week the amount of food they have kicked into their brooder..

They went from this:


To this in 36 hours...





The rat was funny, but sad. We stood there and watched it crawl for a little while, before we took a shovel and dispatched it. It kept looking at us as it was crawling away. It was quite cartoonish....
 
I lost one of my newly hatched Seramas yesterday too. It was the last to hatch, runt that just didn't thrive. Each day the big chicks in the brooder get bigger, the little bantam chicks aren't growing as quickly, so the difference is becoming more dramatic. But those little chicks stand up for themselves!!! But....These chicks can probably eat for a week the amount of food they have kicked into their brooder.. They went from this: To this in 36 hours... The rat was funny, but sad. We stood there and watched it crawl for a little while, before we took a shovel and dispatched it. It kept looking at us as it was crawling away. It was quite cartoonish....
I keep wondering if I should refill the feeder again, or if they should just scratch around and eat the stuff off the floor... there's probably a week's worth of food mixed in with the wood chips!!
 
I keep wondering if I should refill the feeder again, or if they should just scratch around and eat the stuff off the floor... there's probably a week's worth of food mixed in with the wood chips!!

I did that outside in my grow out coop. The coop has nesting boxes that I didn't put in the separators, and I put in a container as a shelf. The water is up on the shelf the food is not, it's in the gap next to the shelf in the brooder box area. Yesterday, that was an inch deep with feed (no wood chips, they kicked all those out). I took out the feeder and put it outside - trying to encourage them to go out. They cleaned up the area. There was still some food, but not NEARLY as much.


But inside - I use the puppy pee pads for the first several weeks. I have to change it every 2 days, but I think it's easier for their little feet. I'd LOVE to find the wood pellets that some people use, but living in Southern CA, where NOBODY has wood stoves, it just isn't available.

When I upgrade to wood chips, I always have the feeders in a tray of some sort. I usually just use a lid from a bucket.

I used to have bird feeders out front, for all the wild birds Now I have 3 rotating compost bins. I just dump the fully loaded (with chicken feed) pee pads into the compost bins, and I rake out the non biodegradable pieces when I turn them. I have NEVER had as many birds in my yard, as I do now, once I started doing that. I don't put out bird feeders anymore.
The compost bins are in my front/side yard way off to the side of the house - next to the garden. For the most part I never have any of those birds anywhere near my chickens. I still get to watch them from the porch.

Yesterday, we used a bobcat to scoop everything from one bin over to another. I wasn't there when they did it. They told me there were HUNDREDS of bugs , and once they moved away from the area - all the local birds were in there feasting. I asked them why they didn't scoop up the bugs and give them to our chickens?
 
I did that outside in my grow out coop.  The coop has nesting boxes that I didn't put in the separators, and I put in a container as a shelf.  The water is up on the shelf the food is not, it's in the gap next to the shelf in the brooder box area.  Yesterday, that was an inch deep with feed (no wood chips, they kicked all those out).  I took out the feeder and put it outside - trying to encourage them to go out.  They cleaned up the area.  There was still some food, but not NEARLY as much.  


But inside - I use the puppy pee pads for the first several weeks.  I have to change it every 2 days, but I think it's easier for their little feet.  I'd LOVE to find the wood pellets that some people use, but living in Southern CA, where NOBODY has wood stoves, it just isn't available.  

When I upgrade to wood chips, I always have the feeders in a tray of some sort.  I usually just use a lid from a bucket.

I used to have bird feeders out front, for all the wild birds  Now I have 3 rotating compost bins.  I just dump the fully loaded (with chicken feed) pee pads into the compost bins, and I rake out the non biodegradable pieces when I turn them.  I have NEVER had as many birds in my yard, as I do now,  once I started doing that.  I don't put out bird feeders anymore.  
The compost bins are in my front/side yard way off to the side of the house - next to the garden.  For the most part I never have any of those birds anywhere near my chickens.  I still get to watch them from the porch.   

Yesterday, we used a bobcat to scoop everything from one bin over to another.  I wasn't there when they did it.  They told me there were HUNDREDS of bugs , and once they moved away from the area - all the local birds were in there feasting.  I asked them why they didn't scoop up the bugs and give them to our chickens?   

Haha - seriously!! When my husband gets ready to skim our pool or change the filter, my birds come running! They love the water striders, occaional tree frogs and other tasty bits he dumps out!
 

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