This is the girls coop in our backyard. Since we are first time chicken owners I have been on BYC everyday. One of the things that concerned me the most was the temp and humidity here in Michigan. After reading several articles here on BYC I went on Ebay and ordered a digital thermometer/hydrometer to place in the coop. We did get cold tolerant breeds but I was worried about the comb on the Rhode Island red, Sparkle.
It is small and runs on batteries. So far the batteries have been unaffected by the cold temps and it works just fine. The first time the temp here was in the twenties I went out and checked and found it a balmy 50 degrees inside with the girls inside. The humidity was high so I opened their window more. When the girls go out the coop cools off fast so this week we found the first egg and of course it was frozen. It may have been there awhile. I wasn't expecting eggs until December.
Its is a small to medium egg and we have gotten 3 more this week.
The black chicken is Tara. So far I think only Sparkle is laying the eggs because she is the only one who squats when touched. I think the next thing we will work on is heated nests so the eggs don't freeze if we forget to check for them. After reading about heated nests using a reptile heating pad I went on ebay and found pet mats
and ordered two. I hope they work, and plan on lining the nest with these and a waterproof barrier over them and then place the plastic grass over that. I will let you know if it works. If they don't I'll use them for the other girls in our home.
Coco and Bella, miniature dachshunds that don't like the cold much either.
Here's Coco taking off her bandage after having surgery on her leg. She's our little trouble maker and is always into something.
This is Bella and she doesn't shy away from water or snow.( she doesn't care for extreme cold) She always wants to be held and runs like a little gazelle. She is afraid of the chickens because I think one pecked her, I heard a yike. Coco fights thru the fence with Sparkle over food and Sparkle never backs down. The two of them escalate till I separate them.
The run is completely covered with anti bird netting since we live in a area with a dense population of eagles and hawks.
