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- #51
It has been a couple of months since the girls moved into their big girl coop. I probably should have titled this thread an experiment in remote chicken keeping but all in all I would have to say the exercise has been a success. I started with 6 chicks thinking I wanted 3 adult hens.... figured there would be some early loss or even predator loss since I'm remote. So far, I still have six healthy happy girls.
The shed I ordered for the coop has been partitioned off on one end for the girls. They have a 5 gallon bucket with horizontal nipples for water that easily lasts a couple of weeks, although I change it every weekend. They have a PVC feeder, same thing, easily lasts a couple of weeks but I top it off every weekend. The roost in the corner makes it easy to come in when I get here on Fridays and clean the poop board and the sweet PDZ means the shed still smells like a shed, not chickens. Of course it has only been a couple of months so we will see.
The Ador pop door works great, and opens into a corner of the yard that I have cordoned off with 100' of Premier electric fencing. I have had concerns about cats as that is really the only thing that is going to get in with them but so far there are a few squabbles and the cats take off so I think the girls are large enough to handle that. On the back side of the fence that is not electrified there are 7 great Pyrenees dogs at the neighbors so I have no worries on that front and the electric fence seems to have deterred anything else, of course it is early in the experiment. They have a large Bradford pear tree they hang out under all day for aerial protection.
They are about 3.5 months old now so I'm off to build some nest boxes. I'm debating putting one under the tree since they like it out there so well. I still have a few months for the decision.
The shed I ordered for the coop has been partitioned off on one end for the girls. They have a 5 gallon bucket with horizontal nipples for water that easily lasts a couple of weeks, although I change it every weekend. They have a PVC feeder, same thing, easily lasts a couple of weeks but I top it off every weekend. The roost in the corner makes it easy to come in when I get here on Fridays and clean the poop board and the sweet PDZ means the shed still smells like a shed, not chickens. Of course it has only been a couple of months so we will see.
The Ador pop door works great, and opens into a corner of the yard that I have cordoned off with 100' of Premier electric fencing. I have had concerns about cats as that is really the only thing that is going to get in with them but so far there are a few squabbles and the cats take off so I think the girls are large enough to handle that. On the back side of the fence that is not electrified there are 7 great Pyrenees dogs at the neighbors so I have no worries on that front and the electric fence seems to have deterred anything else, of course it is early in the experiment. They have a large Bradford pear tree they hang out under all day for aerial protection.
They are about 3.5 months old now so I'm off to build some nest boxes. I'm debating putting one under the tree since they like it out there so well. I still have a few months for the decision.
