Hey All! I'm 11 years old and my family (much to my request) is getting 4 chickens in the spring. I wanted to get some further information from other chicken owners, so I joined the forum. Here are the names I came up with for my hens:
Snow White (White Leghorn)
Little Red Riding Hood (Rhode Island Red)
Cleopatra (Barred Rock)
Queen Elizibeth (Australorp)
My Coop
For the coop, I was thinking of making it attached to the back of my garage. In the plan I drew up, there was a run on either side of the coop, and a small one under it. I think that I'll have it raised about 2 feet or so. The back of the three sections of run and the coop itself will be the wall of the garage. The dimensions of the coop would be about 5 feet by 6 feet. I don't know about the run-pretty big, though, incase we (hopefully) ever get more chickens. There would be 3 pop doors- one on the bottom of the coop, one on the right side, and one on the left side. The windows would open for cleaning and taking in and out the waterer and feeder (I'm going to have a small feeder and small waterer inside the coop, and a big one and a small one in the run, one on each side). The nest boxes will jut out from the coop with a door on the top for egg collection. There will be canvas curtains over the entrances to give the laying hens some privacy. Good plan?
My Brooder
I was bored one day, so I decided to make the chick brooder for next spring. I had my neighbor come over (he has ducks) and we made a pretty good brooder, if I do say so myself. I had an old gerbil cage laying around, and we lined the entire thing with aluminum foil to reflect the lght of the heat lamp. Then we cut a hole for the lamp and covered everything with a towel (except for a small space where the door is and the lamp hole. I bought a galvanized feeder and a plastic chick waterer, found a mason jar, and bought another feeder just for the heck of it off Amazon.com. I lined the bottom of the makeshift brooder with a couple layers of newspaper, then with a few of paper towel. I'm going to put a few inches of hamster bedding over that. I do have a 250 watt red infrared lightbulb, but I can't find a heat lamp for the life of me, except for online, which is really expensive because of shipping. Well, that's my brooder. Like it?
I'll add some more to this meager page once we actually get the chickens!
Snow White (White Leghorn)
Little Red Riding Hood (Rhode Island Red)
Cleopatra (Barred Rock)
Queen Elizibeth (Australorp)
My Coop
For the coop, I was thinking of making it attached to the back of my garage. In the plan I drew up, there was a run on either side of the coop, and a small one under it. I think that I'll have it raised about 2 feet or so. The back of the three sections of run and the coop itself will be the wall of the garage. The dimensions of the coop would be about 5 feet by 6 feet. I don't know about the run-pretty big, though, incase we (hopefully) ever get more chickens. There would be 3 pop doors- one on the bottom of the coop, one on the right side, and one on the left side. The windows would open for cleaning and taking in and out the waterer and feeder (I'm going to have a small feeder and small waterer inside the coop, and a big one and a small one in the run, one on each side). The nest boxes will jut out from the coop with a door on the top for egg collection. There will be canvas curtains over the entrances to give the laying hens some privacy. Good plan?
My Brooder
I was bored one day, so I decided to make the chick brooder for next spring. I had my neighbor come over (he has ducks) and we made a pretty good brooder, if I do say so myself. I had an old gerbil cage laying around, and we lined the entire thing with aluminum foil to reflect the lght of the heat lamp. Then we cut a hole for the lamp and covered everything with a towel (except for a small space where the door is and the lamp hole. I bought a galvanized feeder and a plastic chick waterer, found a mason jar, and bought another feeder just for the heck of it off Amazon.com. I lined the bottom of the makeshift brooder with a couple layers of newspaper, then with a few of paper towel. I'm going to put a few inches of hamster bedding over that. I do have a 250 watt red infrared lightbulb, but I can't find a heat lamp for the life of me, except for online, which is really expensive because of shipping. Well, that's my brooder. Like it?
I'll add some more to this meager page once we actually get the chickens!
