Recent content by SparkMonkey

  1. SparkMonkey

    How early can I tell if my Barred Rock chicks are boys or girls?

    Here's the best I could do. They're pretty camera-shy. This one we think might be a cockerel. The lighting in the photo isn't great, but you can see where the comb is starting to stand up and it's pink along the base: Here are the two we think (hope!) are pullets: And the three...
  2. SparkMonkey

    How early can I tell if my Barred Rock chicks are boys or girls?

    We bought 3 straight-run Barred Rock chicks at the feed store, along with 6 pullets of other breeds. I wanted more BR, but they only had four in the bin, and one of them had a really yucky butt, so we bought the three good-looking ones. Ideally, we'd end up with just one of those being a...
  3. SparkMonkey

    Looking for Brooder Lamp Stand Ideas

    My brooder is set up under a shelf in the garage. I screwed a hook into the front of the shelf and the lamp is tied to it by its cord (it's very lightweight and the cord is pretty heavy-duty so I'm not really concerned about strain on the cord; I do check it daily). I can adjust the knot to...
  4. SparkMonkey

    coop cost justification

    I agree completely with this. We just spent about $200 on materials to build a brooder and fix up an existing (but neglected) coop. By far the biggest-ticket items were the shingles for the roof and the hardware cloth to cover the openings. Two bundles of shingles and one 3'x25' roll of...
  5. SparkMonkey

    Would my babies like a dust bath?

    We got our chicks yesterday! Nine little week-old peepers. They seem pretty robust--nice clean eyes and butts, big voices and appetites. I put a fireplace log, a stick, and a piece of scrap wood in there for them to perch and climb on, and they seem to be very happy about that. They're...
  6. SparkMonkey

    Baby Chick Pictures!!!!! POST!

    After three years of renting our house, a year of owning, and a lot of talking about it, we FINALLY have our chickens! Three each of Rhode Island Reds, Silver Laced Wyandottes, and Barred Rocks. All of the RIR and Wyandottes are girls; the BR are straight run. We're hoping for one rooster...
  7. SparkMonkey

    Large tree in run?

    Nope. The lowest branches are at least 10 feet from the ground, and the roof of the run would likely be no higher than 6'.
  8. SparkMonkey

    Large tree in run?

    No. It is at the top of what will become the run. The ground does slope down a bit from our garage to the chicken house, but we can easily divert runoff through that area to go around and away.
  9. SparkMonkey

    Large tree in run?

    We're in the process of getting our chicken house up and running. I'd like to build a run for them, but the chicken house is in a location that makes things a bit awkward. The best place has its own challenges--it's on a slope that levels out at the bottom, so the fence will have to be kind...
  10. SparkMonkey

    How would YOU fix up this coop?

    Thomasboyle, we'll definitely be tearing out that chicken wire and putting something more substantial up! We might be able to build a small run off the front; I definitely hope we can. What would be a useful size for 10 or fewer chickens?
  11. SparkMonkey

    How would YOU fix up this coop?

    Ridgerunner, a gutter is an excellent idea, and one I hadn't thought about at all. "Quite cold" in a normal winter here (central Indiana) means there's about a month where the daytime highs are a little above freezing, and nighttime lows get down into the teens. This past winter, as probably...
  12. SparkMonkey

    How would YOU fix up this coop?

    This is the chicken coop that came with the house we bought last year. It's fairly large, about 7 1/2' square and very tall--maybe 9' to the peak of the roof? We didn't measure that, but the door opening is 6 1/2' tall, and there's enough head room that we're considering building a small loft...
  13. SparkMonkey

    Hello from Indiana!

    Hi everyone! I'm Shanelle from Lebanon, Indiana. My husband and I bought our first house last year--we are finally, finally out of the city and living peacefully among the cornfields. We don't have chickens yet, but we will get some chicks within the next couple weeks--my father-in-law is...
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