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I'm new to this. My chicks are about 25 weeks old and suppose to be early layers. We noticed some eggs in the bush several weeks ago. Hubby finished most the coop. Just need a door and perch for the inside. It's attached to a run.
Some days we get one egg and some days 2. Since I put them in their new home and not let them free range until afternoon, and after I put some ping pong balls in the coop I came home from the hospital today and found 3 lovely eggs. My EE aren't laying yet. The buff and one or two of the road island reds are laying.
After reading some posts I'm thinking they are laying more because they are having to eat their protein crumble more instead of running around the yard?
What do you all do for ventilation in the coops? How much is needed? We need to get that door on but the inside has hay all around and the nesting box is an old kitchen cabinet that has room for 2 chickens. They also have about 2 feet of space under the coop with hay and I put their food/water under there tonight in anticipation of the storm. We put a corrigated roof on. Considering we have no idea what we are doing I think the coop/run turned out pretty good. I would like to take some of boards off and put windows in though. Do you think plexi glass would work? We also want to put insulation on the inside of coop.
If we put insulation in do you think we need a warming lamp? I read that the chickens we have are suppose to lay through the winter. Does that mean without a lamp? I would rather let nature do it's thing and not force them to lay more than they were intended for.
Thank you for any ideas you can share.
I'm new to this. My chicks are about 25 weeks old and suppose to be early layers. We noticed some eggs in the bush several weeks ago. Hubby finished most the coop. Just need a door and perch for the inside. It's attached to a run.
Some days we get one egg and some days 2. Since I put them in their new home and not let them free range until afternoon, and after I put some ping pong balls in the coop I came home from the hospital today and found 3 lovely eggs. My EE aren't laying yet. The buff and one or two of the road island reds are laying.
After reading some posts I'm thinking they are laying more because they are having to eat their protein crumble more instead of running around the yard?
What do you all do for ventilation in the coops? How much is needed? We need to get that door on but the inside has hay all around and the nesting box is an old kitchen cabinet that has room for 2 chickens. They also have about 2 feet of space under the coop with hay and I put their food/water under there tonight in anticipation of the storm. We put a corrigated roof on. Considering we have no idea what we are doing I think the coop/run turned out pretty good. I would like to take some of boards off and put windows in though. Do you think plexi glass would work? We also want to put insulation on the inside of coop.
If we put insulation in do you think we need a warming lamp? I read that the chickens we have are suppose to lay through the winter. Does that mean without a lamp? I would rather let nature do it's thing and not force them to lay more than they were intended for.
Thank you for any ideas you can share.
