Vermont

[Metella]

PICTURE FRIDAY !!!


Hoop Coop going up and these are Momma Chickies real babies - who I gave to a neighbor a few years ago ....







This is what happens when you use your truck as a tool box while building the above Hoop Coop and happen to leave the door open:

 

[Pyxis]

Great pictures M!

Just got an awesome craigslist find! Pictures and more info once I have it set up!

 

[bruceha2000]

Hello!

This is my first time posting here. I have a question: I have 8 chickens and 3 ducks, 13 wks old, who share the same coop (the ducks decided they wanted to live with the chickens instead of in their own house). They will be sharing the coop this winter. The problem is, the ducks always make a mess of the water and it's a challenge to keep it clean. We have a goat trough set up with a small fountain pump to circulate the water through the trough and into a 6 gallon container, and most of the sludge settles to the bottom, but I am worried that it still isn't clean enough, and I am only able to change it once daily due to work. We tried traditional waterers, but the ducks just splashed it out all over the floor. Then I tried putting the waterer in a large shallow rubber box with wood pellets underneath to absorb the water (an idea I got from BYC), which kept the floor drier, but within a day the pellets had been turned to sawdust and the sawdust was in the water. Does anyone know of any type of pump with a filter to keep the water cleaner? I am open to any and all ideas. Thanks!

Is some of the concern that the ducks' water is a mess or that it is a mess AND the chickens drink from it too?

If the latter, I suggest chicken nipple waterers. I don't know that the ducks would/could use them but the chickens would have clean water. My setup is saddle nipples in 3/4" PVC pipe in the coop fed from a 5 gallon insulated drink cooler that is in a ROUGHLY made and somewhat insulated box outside the coop. I run a very small reptile fountain pump and either a stock tank heater (good to about 0 F) or aquarium heater (set to 75F) when the outside temps are lower. The water never "goes" green since it never sees the light of day.

 

[bruceha2000]

PICTURE SATURDAY! (Because I didn't get on yesterday

)

The Black Jersey Giants from Meyer that were supposed to be Black Australorps. Taken last Monday. They didn't show well in the picture I posted last time.



A couple from two weeks ago of the girls foraging with their foster Mother (the BA) and foster Aunt (Faverolles). Zorra started laying again last week and has done a 180 on chick rearing. She has been hanging with the other BA so Clemence has taken full charge.



And an older one of the hens I got 3 years ago.
Upper right is Persephone, my EE green layer
Lower right is Andromeda, the EE blue layer taken by a fox in April last year.
The black and whites are Anconas - Yue and Zia
The Blacks are Black Australorps - Echo and Zorra
Middle front is Fae - Cubalaya
Not in the picture are the other Cubalaya (Peep) and the Faverolles Anais and Clemence

 

[Metella]

Bruce - love those names - very Greek/Roman mythical My dog which passed away a year ago was Nemesis and she lived up to every aspect of that name. ha ha Maybe I should have given her a more demure name.

NICE PICS !!!


Pyxis - hey - why the tease .... what did you get ??? Spill it !!!

 

[Pyxis]

Sorry for the tease, lol! Here it is!

A new coop for my silkies! It's got its own run that they will always have access to, and once they're settled and reliably going into the enclosed part to sleep at night, I'll be opening the gate on the front of the built in run to let them into their own bigger run that's actually inside the big run that belongs to the laying flock.

An inside shot:

The makers of the coop call those floor slats "roosting bars" (lol) but obviously they are not roosts. They are, however, perfect for silkies who don't roost but instead lay in a pile on the floor. Their droppings will fall through the slats so they're not laying in them. You can see the built in 'nesting box' in the corner which I've got set up until I can get a real nesting box in there for Witchypants, who is actually currently laying.

During the winter I'll cover the whole run with plastic so they have plenty of snow free space. I think it's gonna work out will for them. The makers of the coop intend it to house four sex links - I would never do that, it's not big enough and it has no roosts, but for silkies it's great.

 

[bruceha2000]

They actually designed and sell that as a CHICKEN COOP? Now I've seen (almost) everything.

But I agree, for birds that just will not roost up on a bar, it looks pretty serviceable.

 

[Pyxis]

They actually designed and sell that as a CHICKEN COOP? Now I've seen (almost) everything. 

But I agree, for birds that just will not roost up on a bar, it looks pretty serviceable. 

Yep, they say it will fit 4 medium hens or two to three large ones - as if! Which the person who bought it for their laying hens quickly figured out.

 

[bruceha2000]

Sure it will FIT them, to transport from one place to another! I really wish that most of the people who sell chicken coops commercially would just fess up that they have NO IDEA what they are doing. 2x2 roosts, small space that "fits" 3x the number it can actually accommodate (and that is BARE minimum space), no (or inadequate) ventilation, no windows for light, etc, etc, etc

 

[Metella]

Fit to transport is about right !

Or mine - I got a snap lock for a grow out - and it only "fits" the birds that stay there because they only go in it at night to sleep and get out at the crack of dawn! ha ha fit to sleep and that is it - not to live. Can't even stretch a wing properly ....