Pix of my chicken house and their run

[Beekissed]

Rosemarie...first I want you to give your husband a big ol' hug and kiss for me because he is a GEM! What a sweetheart to do all that moving and groovin' for your chickens and for you! I simply LOVE what you all are doing here and it should be shown to the whole forum because this is what keeping chickens should be like~ instead of merely having chickens. Grow frames, a ginormous run, deep litter of the best kind, a perfect feeder...the list goes on and on, but those chickens show the results of all the excellent care they are getting. I'd be proud to have any one of those birds in my flocks for they look so vibrant, healthy and contented!

I can really see the difference in those soils...I wish others could experience this in their runs and see how well better soils resist disease, absorb water, cleanse the runs, etc.

I wish I lived next door and could help you because this is my favorite kind of projects..those that make something better, more useable, a better life for the animals or humans involved. I can't say enough good about your coop and run and the methods you are using for this new flock. You are going to be so flooded with eggs soon and chicks next spring that you won't know what to do with all that bounty! I hope you teach others around you about how to do chickens, because this is what it's all about...growing, making it better, doing it right and not waiting until you have sick and dying birds on your hands before you get around to good flock keeping.

I'm so very proud of you!

Remember...give hubby a smooch from ol' Bee!!!

 

[RoseMarie1]

Rosemarie...first I want you to give your husband a big ol' hug and kiss for me because he is a GEM! What a sweetheart to do all that moving and groovin' for your chickens and for you! I simply LOVE what you all are doing here and it should be shown to the whole forum because this is what keeping chickens should be like~ instead of merely having chickens. Grow frames, a ginormous run, deep litter of the best kind, a perfect feeder...the list goes on and on, but those chickens show the results of all the excellent care they are getting. I'd be proud to have any one of those birds in my flocks for they look so vibrant, healthy and contented!

I can really see the difference in those soils...I wish others could experience this in their runs and see how well better soils resist disease, absorb water, cleanse the runs, etc.

I wish I lived next door and could help you because this is my favorite kind of projects..those that make something better, more useable, a better life for the animals or humans involved. I can't say enough good about your coop and run and the methods you are using for this new flock. You are going to be so flooded with eggs soon and chicks next spring that you won't know what to do with all that bounty! I hope you teach others around you about how to do chickens, because this is what it's all about...growing, making it better, doing it right and not waiting until you have sick and dying birds on your hands before you get around to good flock keeping.

I'm so very proud of you!

Remember...give hubby a smooch from ol' Bee!!!

LOL will do Bee. He'll love that!

Me and you are a lot alike on this making stuff better projects. I truly enjoy it to. We came to town today to get some more supplies we needed to finish the pen hopefully tomorrow. I told him I needed a 2x4 ten foot long to go on the roof inside to put their feeder on because there's no enough space between the post and the wire inside for them to go around it on one end. They'll be wanting to hop over the feeder filling it fill of DL. So I just got a board so I could have something to hang it from in there on that end. We put metal pipe on the top to hold the wire up there so you can't nail to that.
Thank you Bee for your sweet comments and

right back at cha.
So glad you are teaching us how to do all this to! It's with your help that we are and have accomplished this that's for sure!

Oh me to on you living close by! Man we'd have a blast doing all this kind of stuff. I could help you and you could help me and then we'd figure out something else we can do.

Yes me to on others learning how all this works and wish they would also do this because it really works PLUS I LOVE the fact that instead of tossing it out when a year comes, I can toss it into my garden and REALLY work that soil in that POOR garden!

It's sooooo sandy until all the nutrients and water just go right through it. I'll have to relearn how to grow something in it once the soil gets better. I wont be having to water the garden every other day and adding more fertilizer every time I turn around with this good stuff in there. I can't wait to see how well it does!

 

[Beekissed]

Guess what I did the other day? Made my first coop tweak done solely to accommodate birds that should have been culled long ago...officially turning me into a bad flock master. Just wanted to try an experiment to see if it's something I can recommend to others. Big Bertha and Ginny both have callouses on their feet...Ginny's just showed up here recently. She has been roosting on a roost that was never meant for roosting, only for a boost to the nests, and the board is pretty rough and too small for her size.

Bertha came back from the bad place with both feet showing callouses that could very easily turn to bumblefoot if she was living in that life still. They have not gone away but they also do not become inflamed, so I'm leaving them alone. But recently she has moved to a less desirable roosting spot that is also too small for her heavy frame. That end of the roost was meant for junior birds but Bertha's old age symptoms have relegated her to the fringe of the flock(another reason I should have culled her already).

So, in the time before both of these birds will be culled~I've decided to process them both when I process these roosters~I've devised a little padding for their roosts and it seems to be working out well. Only time will tell if it helped with the callouses, so this is a testing time. In any case, it should make for warmer roosting this winter! I applied grey pipe insulation to my roosts and fastened it with zip ties. Each piece cost $1.39 for 5 ft. of insulation, so not a costly tweak at all.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Guess what I did the other day? Made my first coop tweak done solely to accommodate birds that should have been culled long ago...officially turning me into a bad flock master. Just wanted to try an experiment to see if it's something I can recommend to others. Big Bertha and Ginny both have callouses on their feet...Ginny's just showed up here recently. She has been roosting on a roost that was never meant for roosting, only for a boost to the nests, and the board is pretty rough and too small for her size.

Bertha came back from the bad place with both feet showing callouses that could very easily turn to bumblefoot if she was living in that life still. They have not gone away but they also do not become inflamed, so I'm leaving them alone. But recently she has moved to a less desirable roosting spot that is also too small for her heavy frame. That end of the roost was meant for junior birds but Bertha's old age symptoms have relegated her to the fringe of the flock(another reason I should have culled her already).

So, in the time before both of these birds will be culled~I've decided to process them both when I process these roosters~I've devised a little padding for their roosts and it seems to be working out well. Only time will tell if it helped with the callouses, so this is a testing time. In any case, it should make for warmer roosting this winter! I applied grey pipe insulation to my roosts and fastened it with zip ties. Each piece cost $1.39 for 5 ft. of insulation, so not a costly tweak at all.

Bee that's a good idea AND cheap to! So sweet of you to fix it to where they will be more comfortable!
What do you mean by fringe of the flock? I know how much you like tweaking and I know you enjoyed that!!

We're getting closer to being done with ours pen until we can get more posts. We will put the roof wire back on there tomorrow and it will be done until we can get the other posts. That way they can have their whole run again......We only have 2 more 8 foot sections to do and the whole run will be like new again. Already bought my welded wire for putting on over the poultry wire and told hubby today I thought we needed to put it on in 8 foot sections instead of just rolling it out and putting it on like that. This way IF we need to replace boards or anything the whole fencing wont have to be taken down for just 1-2 boards to be replaced. We'll just cut each 8' section and nail it in place and staple and then go the next section and do the same. Will be soooo much easier later on to replace something with it like that.

Well we had a rattlesnake in ours pen today!

Let me tell ya what happened!

Was out there working on their pen this whole time now and had one panel of wire down and the chickens get BACK inside their pen since the panel is down. They were pecking away at their trough trying to find food in it. lol They'd been in there for a good while when I noticed they were making a lot of noise and I was like what in the world? So I look up and they are ALL LINED UP at the door I keep shut inside their pen because I keep things stored in there. SO I'm like WHAT are they looking at in there? So I walk over to the other side of the pen and look and it's a SNAKE in the closed up area I keep my things in. It has it mouth wide open and thank GOODNESS it couldn't strike at them because the wire on that door is 1/4 wire almost halfway up the door. The rattlesnake was about 1 1/2 foot long. BUT the area BESIDE the door on over has the poultry wire on it and then the front side has the poultry wire as well. I had the netting up around the roosting area so it couldn't go through that side and it was right beside the netting. Anyway hubby got the shovel and killed it but had to make the chickens get outta there before he could open up the door to get at it. Was wanting me to but I wanted to KEEP MY EYES

on that snake in case it DID make it into their roosting area into that deep litter! I'd never found the thing unless I used the pitchfork to fork it ALL out of there and that would have been a job since I had JUST added some more to the pile today! So he shoo-ed the chickens on out of the pen so he could get at the snake to kill the thing. chills......sooooooo glad they were in there and found the thing but so thankful it didn't bite one of them. I went back and checked on them tonight once they got on the roost just to make sure none of them had swollen legs or anything or to make sure none were acting sick or anything. My very next project will be to get that netting up around my whole pen! I guess the rattlesnakes are crawling to find them warm places to get for the winter and my chicken pen is NOT the warm place for them!

So needless to say my eyes have been peeled every since this happened! chills It's suppose to get in the 60's a night around here shortly they said on the news so they're looking I guess.

 

[crazyhen]

Its definitly that time of year , but I have been lucky in that one respect. The people next door killed off all the snakes for weeks then months after they moved here. All I have seen was a couple of king snakes and one water snake at the creek. Thank Goodness you or the hens were not hurt.

 

[Peep-Chicken]

I want a run like that! Great job!

 

[RoseMarie1]

Its definitly that time of year , but I have been lucky in that one respect. The people next door killed off all the snakes for weeks then months after they moved here. All I have seen was a couple of king snakes and one water snake at the creek. Thank Goodness you or the hens were not hurt.

yes me to on glad none of us were hurt! thanx!

 

[RoseMarie1]

I want a run like that! Great job!

Thank you.

Actually it started out a duck run so they could spread their wings and fly inside the pen but after a few years I had to get rid of the ducks since I stayed sick all winter trying to keep their pool water nice and clean. So now the chickens are enjoying it. Having to replace a lot of things though since the posts and 2 bys have rotted. We're over halfway there now.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
Meaning Bertha has been dethroned for far too long to ever get her standing back in the flock, so she is roosting where the younger pullets should be roosting...the furthest from the rooster. So is Ginny, though Ginny has always been a loner, she is even more so now and has been showing it by roosting on the lowest bar in the whole pen, the farthest from the rooster on the opposite side of Bertha...until I went up tonight.. and she is now roosting beside Bertha's spot, the outcasts spot. These distances from other birds usually means something, I have found. When a bird becomes less social, doesn't fight for their rights in the flock, it usually means a weakness of some kind even if we cannot see it...the flock sees it and has forced them to be on the fringe of society.

This distance for younger birds merely means they are the lowest on the pecking order, but when a mature hen goes from being top dog and slowly descends to the lowest, even lower than younger birds, it's time to cull her. She hasn't laid for many months now and Ginny only lays sporadically, but is really molting hard right now, so is not laying at all.

Bertha is a very heavy bird and has been unable to shed her weight enough to regain good mobility, so she is slowing down. Both birds have calloused feet, either from where they are roosting or because they are both too heavy right now...this tells me they are not foraging like they used to do either or are unable to do so. All signs point towards old birds past their prime and heading towards death, so I want to eat them before they just up and die one night.

They aren't sick and they aren't suffering, but they are lonely and they are not feeling as good as they once were and now it's time to say good-bye.

Rose, that snake might have been after rodents...got any running around there? Be careful when your girls start laying about reaching your hands in those nests! Place some mothballs in your storage area where the chooks can't access them and also hide some up high in your rafters around the perimeter of your coop.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Meaning Bertha has been dethroned for far too long to ever get her standing back in the flock, so she is roosting where the younger pullets should be roosting...the furthest from the rooster. So is Ginny, though Ginny has always been a loner, she is even more so now and has been showing it by roosting on the lowest bar in the whole pen, the farthest from the rooster on the opposite side of Bertha...until I went up tonight.. and she is now roosting beside Bertha's spot, the outcasts spot. These distances from other birds usually means something, I have found. When a bird becomes less social, doesn't fight for their rights in the flock, it usually means a weakness of some kind even if we cannot see it...the flock sees it and has forced them to be on the fringe of society.

This distance for younger birds merely means they are the lowest on the pecking order, but when a mature hen goes from being top dog and slowly descends to the lowest, even lower than younger birds, it's time to cull her. She hasn't laid for many months now and Ginny only lays sporadically, but is really molting hard right now, so is not laying at all.

Bertha is a very heavy bird and has been unable to shed her weight enough to regain good mobility, so she is slowing down. Both birds have calloused feet, either from where they are roosting or because they are both too heavy right now...this tells me they are not foraging like they used to do either or are unable to do so. All signs point towards old birds past their prime and heading towards death, so I want to eat them before they just up and die one night.

They aren't sick and they aren't suffering, but they are lonely and they are not feeling as good as they once were and now it's time to say good-bye.

Rose, that snake might have been after rodents...got any running around there? Be careful when your girls start laying about reaching your hands in those nests! Place some mothballs in your storage area where the chooks can't access them and also hide some up high in your rafters around the perimeter of your coop.

OHHH OK I see what you mean. That is so sad to me but I know it's nature and it has to happen at one time or the other but it still doesn't make it less sad. I can see why you wouldn't want her body to go to waste to by just dying. I had something happen today and hubby and I both were falling out laughing at them. We were working on their pen again and I had taken me an apple out there to eat and was sitting down eating it. Well a couple of the RIR pullets came right up to me and I broke off a few pieces for them but tossed the other pieces to the roo which was a little farther away from me. They dearly loved the apple and before I could bite off more pieces and get them small enough I had one of the pullets trying to jump up on me after the whole apple.

Hubby says you better watch her. She got me with her nails on my legs as she went back down to the ground. But it didn't draw the blood or anything. We all... the two pullets and the roo and me finished mine up so hubby says I think I will go get me one now. So he does and he has to share his to. Well he gets him a mouth full of apple to do in smaller pieces and here comes the WHOLE group! The chase was on for those little pieces of apples. Instead of breaking up the core like I did and dividing it with all mine he just throws out the WHOLE core and as soon as he did it I was like oh noooo they will play tackle with that for awhile because it's too big for one of them to eat. It was quite funny watching them running playing keep away and one grab it and take off and then another grabbing it. Don't know WHO wound up getting the most since we started working on the pen and forgot about it.

Bee there is only those old cock roaches in there. I have seen about 4 of them at night time. I have what food I have in that area in glass 1/2 gallon jugs with lids on them so no way they can get in there to the food. Those old roaches are all I have seen in their pen. I also shine my light overhead before I go inside that pen at night time!!! I'm thinking the deep litter is putting off heat under their roost with all that poo and that is what it was coming in there for (it's close to the roosting area) BUT it couldn't get at it because I have the netting all around their roosting area. Rattlesnakes are very cold blooded as you probably know and it's getting chilly at night time. Not like your chilly though.
I'll have to get me some moth balls and put in there. Haven't thought about that. Someone had said someone told them to take a PVC pipe about the same size as the mothballs and drill holes all in the PVC pipe and put the mothballs in the pipe. This way they will stay longer and the smell will get out the pipe to. I might have to try that and put the pipe all under the eve back there on that back side where their nests are. Speaking of nest, the boogers are dumping out their nesting materials into the floor rooting around in them. I have gathered it up off the floor of the nesting area three times so far. I am mainly seeing the RIR pullets in them but once in a while the BA's will hang around in there to. They all are getting soooo pretty!
Thanx Bee!