Welcome to Hodawg's Chicken Page
Home of "Right Wing Chickens"
Mrs. Hodawg & I pick up the new chicks on Thursday, 01 Dec 2011. The coop is built, the run is 75% complete, and the brooder is set up and ready for the little biscuit fillers. More pics will follow soon.... Home of "Right Wing Chickens"
01 Dec 2011. Well here they are. Five little Plymouth Barred Rocks. We originally intended to have only 3 laying hens, but Ms. Sandie at the feed store said "4 are no harder to raise and feed than 3", so four it was. But on pick-up day, we decided on 5, just in case one didn't make it or one was a Roo. Chicken Math has started already. Their original brooder was an easy to clean Coleman 120 quart cooler that we already owned, feeder, waterer, heat lamp, and a couple of old refrigerator shelves that I had kept for some reason (now I know why). Here's the little biscuit fillers in their new home.
Our Daughter, Brenna, with all 5 of them fitting neatly in both hands...
15 Dec 2011: Here are the girls at 2 weeks. They have really grown a lot, and will soon be outgrowing their primary brooder. I have a secondary brooder ready out in the garage that they will move into soon.
Scratch that idea....see 3 days later...
17 Dec 2011: So much for the outside brooder. It has become quite apparent that Mrs. Hodawg doesn't want the little girls to go out to the garage, she wants to keep them in the Pub (man cave) where she can keep an eye on them. So, it's off to Lowe's I go to get more materials.
18 Dec 2011: So here's the "Not Ready for Dumplings" gang in their new brooder. It measures 4' long, 2' deep, and 32" high. Then I decided to add the peaked roof and front lid to try to hold some of the dust in. Man, it is getting dusty in here.
Notice the wire cage that I fashioned around the barrel of the feeder to keep the hopping little buggers from jumping up and pooping in their feed. It works great....
Lights out, and head count in the Penitentiary....
First time out on work release, and they don't know how to act...
The Yard Boss....can you say "Roo"? Yep.
The coop and run are 98% complete. Just a few minor details to work out. The coop is 3'x5', elevated 36" off of the ground with a 3'x5' run underneath. The main run is 5'x6', giving the birds a total of 45 square feet of run space. A 3'x5' front porch rounds out the basic floor plan. The coop and the runs have been well armored with 1/2" hardware cloth on the bottom, hardware cloth on the bottom 3 feet above ground, and chicken wire covering the top portion of the runs. The coop and run sit on the west side of our yard, shielded by privacy fencing to the west, north, and south. It also sits underneath the shade and protection of a large oak tree, so shade should be a premium during our hot and humid summers. We were more interested in shade and ventilation than worrying about how to keep the chickens warm. Once they feather out in a few weeks, low temps will never again be a concern.31 Dec 2011.
The 4 girls and (obviously) 1 Roo moved outside today. Temps were in the upper 60's for highs, and low 50's for lows. A good time for the transition. Plus, the Pub needed a serious dusting. So did the rest of the house. It's amazing how much the central heating system can pick up the overwhelming dust in one room of the house and evenly distribute it everywhere. We made a few minor adjustments to the coop and run. Pix will be here soon.....10 Jan 2012.
Well, we had to make a difficult decision. Since we live in a suburban neighborhood with vague City ordinances concerning the keeping of chickens, we decided to not push our luck by keeping what was obviously becoming a Rooster. So unfortunately, we had to find another home for "Mr. Waddles". We were so surprised at the response that we got from Craigslist. A really nice gentleman26 Jan 2012. who only lives about 15 miles north of us called within 15 minutes and wanted Mr. Waddles to help out with his 6 PBR hens, so Mr. Waddles is now living a happy life in Bayou George, FL, servicing his new harem. Happy tails, Mr. Waddles. Here he is on his departure day:
24 Feb 2012. Well, the remaining 4 little bitties are now 13 weeks old. They live out in the coop/run about 75 feet from the back door of our house. We go out several times a day to interact with them. They have become quite accustomed to Mrs. Hodawg being out with them while they free range in the back yard. They have been slowly but surely getting more and more adventurous and ranging farther and farther from their coop. Today when I came home for lunch, we went out the patio door into the back yard and there were 3 piles of what was obviously chicken poop near the patio door. We laughed, and I told Mrs. Hodawg "well, it probably won't be long that you'll look out the patio door and one of them will be pecking at the door and wanting to come inside." It was a humorous joke, and we figured that it may happen sometime in the future. Boy were we wrong.
Two hours later, Mrs. Hodawg calls me on my cell phone at work and says "You'll never guess who's at the back door....Gladys and Tootsie are pecking at the back door wanting either for them to come inside or for me to go outside!"
I laughed like crazy that it didn't take near as long as we expected. Anyway, here are some pics of the "Not Ready for Dumplings Gang" peering in through the patio door this afternoon.
