Recent content by LaurelC

  1. LaurelC

    Crossed BCM x RIR with great results

    If this is helpful to anyone, this cross is sold by Hillside Hatchery under the designation "chocolate egger" https://www.freedomrangerhatchery.com/shop/product/chocolate-egger/
  2. LaurelC

    Heat sources for larger brooder in unheated building

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DM1JMWPD?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1 Thanks! When we brooded ~50 last spring they were in a ~5x8' enclosure and had plenty of space, so I'm expecting I may need to split them after a little while, but I'm hoping it's enough for at least a week while we...
  3. LaurelC

    Heat sources for larger brooder in unheated building

    When I initially asked about a heat plate with larger quantities of chicks in an unheated building last year the recommendations were that we were likely to see crushing issues with plates, so I'm not relying on a plate of any kind with a larger group. The instructions from the hatchery also...
  4. LaurelC

    Heat sources for larger brooder in unheated building

    We will be brooding ~45 chicks in a 3x8 galvanized tub (I have a second one I can employ if these get too crowded in the single and need an additional space before their mobile coop is completed). Last year we brooded ~52 chicks in another mobile coop inside our unheated shop building using two...
  5. LaurelC

    Easter eggers maturing

    it depends a lot on the season and the age that the parents started laying. We have a handful of easter egger mutts and they started laying last summer around ~24 weeks old, while our "production" bred leghorns and olive egger mutts started laying at around 18 weeks, and our cuckoo marans at...
  6. LaurelC

    I hate my new waterer

    Not sure if this is helpful so late in the thread but installing nipples on a cooler and then sticking a 60- watt bird bath defroster inside has kept nipples on my cooler thawed at -8 degrees F.
  7. LaurelC

    If nest boxes are available inside the coop, but you want to add more, is it necessary that they're accessible from inside?

    We haven't seen any issues with aggression or birds being bullied, despite having a pretty wide range of temperaments. Our flock is made up of leghorns, production olive eggers, ameraucana-based easter egger mutts, and cuckoo marans.
  8. LaurelC

    If nest boxes are available inside the coop, but you want to add more, is it necessary that they're accessible from inside?

    OK cool. I couldn't come up with a solid argument for accessibility inside but I also don't know what I don't know and thought maybe there was a compelling reason to The standards don't have any rules regarding access to the boxes, but here are the specific standards with regards to perch...
  9. LaurelC

    If nest boxes are available inside the coop, but you want to add more, is it necessary that they're accessible from inside?

    We are working on obtaining a "Certified Regenerative" certification for our farm and part of that is including "enough" nest boxes, which by their standards works out to 5 hens per box or in a communal nest design, 20 square inches per hen. We have an existing coop that we ran all of last year...
  10. LaurelC

    Applying farm implement enamel over POR15 coating?

    I have an old horse trailer that I'm gutting and turning into a mobile chicken coop to haul around my farm. My hope is to not need to mess with the paint again, so I'm wire wheel/flappy disking basically everything, removing all loose paint, rust bubbles, etc. Then I intend to coat everything...
  11. LaurelC

    Mobile duck house - logistics

    Thank you guys. This is exactly the info I needed. I'm going to pass on ducks
  12. LaurelC

    Mobile duck house - logistics

    We are a small farm and expanding our egg business. We currently run a trailer with ~50 laying hens around our regenerative farm. They're completely free ranged and it's been working for us so much we're adding another trailer. I'm considering adding ducks to the farm - probably khaki...
  13. LaurelC

    Millennium Feathernet

    old thread, but genuinely curious - how are predators like owls managed in a setup like this?
  14. LaurelC

    Interesting correlation with cold weather

    They all stay in the same coop and outside of not being thrilled with the very cold weather seem to have handled it fine. Our 2 roosters have a little frostbite on their combs, but we have plenty of ventilation. They all have plenty of access to food and water at all times. Yeah, I'm...
  15. LaurelC

    Interesting correlation with cold weather

    They were all hatched in mid february of 2024, so just under a year old.
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