highonrunning90
In the Brooder
New to the whole BYC and chickens this year. We received 7 new Barred Rocks the first week of July. Well adjusted now, the ladies enjoy 3-4 hrs or more each day free ranging. They wander over to the neighbors, into the apple trees between yards and elsewhere. We can't wait until they start paying rent in eggs. For now there cuteness and clucking will do.
Living in northeastern Maine, where winters can be Cold for long periods of time got me thinking about some additions as I watch the ladies enjoy some scratch one evening. Keep in mind, we do rent currently so we're trying not to be too destructive of our landlords property who has been aswesome to allow us to have chickens! Any and all suggestions welcome! Thanks in advance!
1. We don't have nesting boxes! Yikes! Now they're only ~12 weeks old but I'd rather plan to get these built on now before my hands freeze just walking to the coop. I think I'll plan on leaving them 'closed' up until they are 18 weeks old or show signs otherwise. But I'd like some suggestions.
(temporary tarp until I find more roofing material for free/low cost)
We could put them inside where the roosting bar is but then room gets very tight. So I was thinking on the outside either on the end wall sticking out or cutting off some of the A-Frame roof and adding in an 'addition' sticking out horizontally. The other option would be to build something below the floor in the run space but i don't like this idea as it's not as protected and takes away from the run space they do have when they aren't free ranging. Suggestions?
2. My other conundreum. Extending the run space for this winter. It's easy to know it's going to be cold and snowy, but how much who knows. We'd like to build a run area off of this so the ladies has some snow free space to mingle and scratch at so they don't feel cooped (
) up. Trying to avoid too much expese and impact to the property, i was thinking a 10'x5' frame run with a slanted roof to avoid snow building up. Using hardware cloth around the edges...Ideally i'd love to find some clear roofing material to allow natural light in and avoid snow build up. I have some plastic from a previous job so i'll be wrapping much of the run in with that and buy more as necessary. Any ideas to keep cost down but keeping the ladies happy (obviously most important).
Living in northeastern Maine, where winters can be Cold for long periods of time got me thinking about some additions as I watch the ladies enjoy some scratch one evening. Keep in mind, we do rent currently so we're trying not to be too destructive of our landlords property who has been aswesome to allow us to have chickens! Any and all suggestions welcome! Thanks in advance!
1. We don't have nesting boxes! Yikes! Now they're only ~12 weeks old but I'd rather plan to get these built on now before my hands freeze just walking to the coop. I think I'll plan on leaving them 'closed' up until they are 18 weeks old or show signs otherwise. But I'd like some suggestions.
(temporary tarp until I find more roofing material for free/low cost)
We could put them inside where the roosting bar is but then room gets very tight. So I was thinking on the outside either on the end wall sticking out or cutting off some of the A-Frame roof and adding in an 'addition' sticking out horizontally. The other option would be to build something below the floor in the run space but i don't like this idea as it's not as protected and takes away from the run space they do have when they aren't free ranging. Suggestions?
2. My other conundreum. Extending the run space for this winter. It's easy to know it's going to be cold and snowy, but how much who knows. We'd like to build a run area off of this so the ladies has some snow free space to mingle and scratch at so they don't feel cooped (