Recent content by ygritte

Hi there! I'm looking for some broody hens. I'm a little worried that yours could be a little on the small side for me. all my hens (and rooster) are standard size. I know Hamburgs seem to hold their own pretty well, but my standard cochin is so mellow she just accepts being bottom of the food...

rf- good luck with the integrating, sounds like a stressful situation. I agree with all the above advice. My little rooster got beat up a bit when first introduced, but now seems to be finding his place juuuust fine. I'm also happy to report that he seems to be charming the ladies, and I have...

Thanks for the constructive critcism. My roosts are definitely less than 30 inches apart (22-25 if i remember correctly), but i think it's more about the angle in which you set the ladder. If it's too steep, doesn't matter how far apart they are on the ladder, poop is still getting on chickens...

Morning all! I'm so excited for you COChix, I'm resisting getting an incubator but I don't know how long my willpower will last, specially if I don't get any broody hens to raise next seasons chicks. The rooster is starting to fit in over here. He seems to be getting the hang of things, and I...

It can be used on a large scale. Since OP was talking about planting acres of land, I don't see why setting up a large fodder system would be anymore work. Also... if you can go from using 100 pounds seed in 3 days to 100 pounds of seed over 19 days that's a vast improvement! remember 2 pounds...

Have you looked into growing fodder instead? Or in the short term while you plan out if you want to mill. It seems when done right you stretch your feed budget loads (I've heard 2 pounds of seed can become 13 pounds of fodder) and the digestability goes through the roof (from about 30% to 80%)...

Sounds like quite the adventure! Hmm, gives me a lot to think about. How many chickens do you have give or take? Do you keeps any other animals or just chickens?

Thanks for the input! He's only 4 months, so I'm hoping that's most of the issue, and he will just naturally move to alpha as he fills out and matures. Depending on how things go I might have to adjust my plan with the chicks. i was planning on setting up the brooder in the coop, just section...

Whelp... I put the rooster in with the girls last night in the new coop. funny thing, he doesn't know how to roost, he prefers to just nestle down in the hay. I hope the girls teach him better. Anyway, He was really dominant to my little amercauna at first this morning and then got whooped on...

Good morning everyone! 21- soil amendments can be exhausting, but I'm glad you finally had some luck with the tomatoes! I'm going to be doing a lasagna style of cardboard/compost/brown material over a portion of grass this year. I'm trying to go no till and adopt a lot of practices that...

@21hens-incharge - Thanks! And hi! It's nice to see a fellow noco resident! Yeah, when I first got my hens I was in city limits, but moved out to the county (literally two blocks outside city limits) to an acre property and am absolutely loving to. Still close to everything Fort Collins...

From reading this it sounds like my deep litter, might actually be deep bedding (at least thus far), but I'm all for it over poop boards. I've had zero smell, and when I have a few leaves, leftover hay, grass clippings, branches covered in leaves... whatever organic material it may be (and is...

Whelp, we are winging it a little. I am getting a huge mix of hens again this year and decided to try out a mix of roos too. Today I just picked my first one up, a 4 month old Deleware. At the end of march I will be picking up all my chicks including (hopefully) and rhode island red roo and...

Hey all, I know I haven't been very vocal in here, but I just wanted to show off my first rooster! He's a 4 month old Deleware. He will eventually have some competition when I get new chicks at the end of March. Planning getting a pretty big mix of hens again, but trying out a rhode island...

Hey all! So much is going on! Glad it appears everyone came out of the storm unscathed for the most part. I probably got about 2 ft, and have some very decent drifts that my kitten likes to tunnel through (weirdo). Chickens are pretty annoyed, below was their coop on Tuesday, they are dug out...