Hi Everyone:
One of the Australorps sat long enough for 3 chicks to hatch. They are about 2 1/2 weeks old. I have them in a room in the coop. I'm considering letting them out of the room with mom, but wondered your thoughts on their ability to get up and down the ladder? It may be that mom...
. . . but I'm guessing. I got this as my exotic from McMurray's. He's (I'm thinking it's a "he") got a funny beak. I've not had fuzzy-legged breeds before. Can anyone confirm or deny my guess? Thanks!
Lots of helpful comments here. I'm relatively new to chickens, but they seem happy and healthy, so I think what I'm doing is working ok. I don't have access to many leaves, so use pine shavings and straw. When the run gets really wet I put down a good layer of barn lime and the cover with the...
What @TerryH said. I'm in my first year of raising chickens, so still wet behind the ears, but I really like the Black Jack #57. It's made clean up easy.
... and now.
My profile pic is the same guy pictured below as of a couple days ago. He is such a great rooster: hatched end of March, good with the girls, aware and protective, and starting to look, well, like a rooster. I really like him.
Thank you. I keep getting a few more pullet eggs, so I'm hoping in a month or so to have a consistent number for breakfast. :) Also, 4 of the roosters are slated to become chicken and noodles in the next couple of weeks. I'm tired of getting spurred. :-) Thanks again.
I thought I'd post an update of the coop. Instead of building a permanent run I've decided to stick with the Premier electric net. I like it a lot, and the birds seem to also. It's nice because it is easily moved around so when they scratch up an area of the pasture I open up a new area to them...
Here is mine. Got the birds out of the brooder yesterday. Thanks to BYC for all the great ideas! It was a blast to build.
I started a thread for the build some time ago (here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1098542/toolshed-coop).
A pic heavy update. The coop is done and the chicks moved in last night. It was a fun project. Though I thought about putting pontoons on it because of all the rain we've had. Again, thanks to BYC for all of the great suggestions.
The painting begun:
Nest boxes built:
I put down...