I don't know exactly, as it was all built in place and designed to maximize the space we had... if I had to guess, I'd say it was probably a 150-200 sq ft run, with 1/2 being sand and 1/2 being a "playbox" filled with alfalfa hay and occasional kitchen scraps. Rather than a traditional enclosed...
Oh I forgot to mention, when she first hatched her chick/adopted the day-olds, they were in their own run inside the main run. They were locked in there for just 3 or 4 days, and then we re-integrated them, and everything went fine. When they started roosting with the other hens and not sleeping...
Hi all, I just have one Exchequeuer chick bought as part of a group of day-olds from MyPetChicken, and readily adopted by a broody Buff Orpington sitting on a clutch of eggs. She is absolutely gorgeous at the age of 8 weeks, even though the "checkering" is still a bit uneven as she develops. She...
Our BO was a sweet, mellow, calm hen, probably bottom of the pecking order but our flock was calm and settled so you wouldn't really know it. Those days are gone... now that she's had babies (hatched one chick and adopted 4 one-day-olds), she's a different hen altogether. When the chicks were...
We have used a very coarse sand from day 1 and would never use anything else. We do have about a third of the run boxed in with 6" of alfalfa hay and that is where we throw kitchen scraps, etc. so they can have the best of both worlds, but the ability to take a lightweight rake and within...
Hmm, kids who don't want to go to bed... Can't be uncommon, right? ;-) In seriousness, how late are you waiting before herding them up? Mine seem to have a switch right around dusk, when the air gets a chill in it, they can't get into their "bed" fast enough. Also, is Mama Hen helping at all...
We started running a fan now that summer is definitely here (90s almost everyday) and the chickens are now trained to sit right in front of it even when it hasn't been turned on yet! Quite a sight, 7 big girls and 5 chicks all scattered on the sand right in front of where the fan is blowing...
We've always had a few Australorps in our flock for their steady laying, communal personality and beautiful colors. Never had a problem with them until one ended up as the top of the pecking order and let it go to her head... we tried to give her time to settle down, but the abuse of the other...
Our Buff Orpington is probably the sweetest, calmest girl we have right now. She's not small by any means -- maybe even the biggest? -- but her personality is extremely mellow. She lays well, and her eggs are consistently large and pretty medium brown. She also goes broody pretty much like...
"Easter Egger" seems to include a lot of variability in the breed... we got 3, and all 3 look different. However, they all have very sweet and calm temperaments, and lay eggs that range from olive green to blue-green. Very pretty! They've never been the most productive birds in our flock, and at...
We have 2 cuckoo marans and it's never hard to tell their eggs apart from the rest! Dark brown with even darker brown speckles, so pretty. The birds aren't aggressive but aren't the most docile either, so they settled in somewhere in the middle of the pecking order. They do seem to be smaller...
Sunny was one of our first hens when we first started keeping chickens. Being slightly older than the other girls, she was the obvious top of the pecking order, and everyone needed to know it! But once that was settled, she became a very sweet leader who never abused any of the other birds. She...
Today as Intervention Day 1. The Mean Hen :rolleyes: was allowed to eat, drink, investigate the new nest boxes with the flock this morning, but then was promptly kicked out. Unfortunately keeping her confined in a small area and letting the rest of the girls explore a larger area wasn't possible...
Hmm. Doesn't rosemary supposedly have some bug repellent properties? I wonder if a big bush of rosemary in a pot would add some good ambience to the run... o_O Would they eat it, I wonder?
We just did a bit of a change-up in our run. It's about 25 ft. x 10 ft., roughly rectangular, fully enclosed with 1/4" hardware mesh along all walls, the ceiling (which is 10 feet tall), and underneath the sand floor. About 1/3 floor area of it has been made into a "sandbox" of alfalfa hay for...
Our flock of 8 had an RIR as the alpha for years and she was a calm, protective leader. She then passed, and an Australorp has stepped up and is creating a Reign of Terror. It's been well over a month now, but she still feels the need to assert herself by abusing the other girls. She still picks...