Hi!
I'm mostly a reader of this forum, recently mostly about how to keep my pullets safe after losing one to a raccoon (I think).
Here's what happened after I installed my new electric fence. I'm still reeling from how crazy this all was! In short, two possums attacked the tractor, one...
Today was a big day. The teenage girls moved out!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=172113&id=1575386991&l=c7c1f0767d
Preliminary feedback on my coop - while it isn't that large and the door isn't full human sized, it is very comfortable to reach into the coop. Today I hung the feeder and...
Not that I'd not like one, but I can't have one. Divorces are too expensive LOL.
I already bought 8 chicks to be sure I will have 6 come wintertime. But I spy on them every waking minute to figure out any boy-ism. Like 'uh oh, does this one have too much of a comb?' - 'uh oh, that one has...
My babies are a month or so old, and I have been letting them go outside for a couple of minutes each day, in a little run I built. There are pictures here
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=171665&id=1575386991&l=e51875c937
Question - if they pick at grass and worms outside, do they need...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=171665&id=1575386991&l=e51875c937
Lots of pictures of my babies as well as the coop which is now finished on the inside.
Today I built a 4'x8' covered run so I could let my 'teenagers' have some air. They loved it! They're growing up so fast, sniff sniff.
I am finding myself trying to change my life for the better, in the green sense. By that I don't mean buying $300 bamboo bed sheets (and throwing out my old, prefectly good ones) but truly trying to reduce my life more to the basics: Family, food, the home, making things I need rather than...
I need to build a run that is safe enough for me to go away for a weekend - we have hawks and foxes and probably racoons, too. I have even once seen a fisher cat.
Sooo..... I want a 8'x10' run, and I think I will have to dig a trench all around it to bury the wire, right? It sounds like a ton...
I have heard of a heated waterer and I think I will want one. I just put an outlet in my coop for it. I will have 6-8 layers in cold climate over the winter. I have the coop insulated and all that jazz.
Also, is a hanging feeder the best? One or two feeders?
I have 2 Araucanas - one is cross beaked so I am worried about her. She's super nice. The other is super flighty, bossy and crows loudly, also her tail feathers sort of stick 'upwards' a little. I am worried I will end up with no blue eggs!!!
I put my 2-weekers on wood shavings and promptly my Speckled Sussex got all clogged up and I had to help her poop. There were woodchips in her poop. I put her back with the 1-weekers on newspaper and paper towels, and she seems fine now, but I wanted to post a word of warning.
They're like 10 days old and I put a little practice roost in there that I made out of scrap 2x4. This morning, the husband saw them all lined up (and the poop lines up neatly underneat). I wish I had a picture. I have only seen 2 or 3 at a time yet. Is it retarded that I am proud of my chicken...
My coop is insulated (4"walls) so there are 2 layers of plywood and 1 layer of insulation between the chickens and the weather.
Question is - should I side it or just paint the outside plywood? I think I am too lazy for siding plus I don't want to pay for the materials...
2 BOs and one golden-laced Wyandotte are calling my name. What do you think the chances are I can resist picking up more????
This chicken thing is so addictive. And they're so cute and cheap and then you think 'Ah, one more won't make that much of a difference' LOL
I have my chickies on newspaper like my book says. Once I put a couple of wood shavings in there and the silly babies fought over who got to eat them. Which will give them pasty butt.
I m thinking chopped straw, maybe?
Would it be bad to rake up some dry leaves outside?
Another question is...
I am getting 3 more babies tomorrow - like 3-day olds. My other 4 babies are between a week and 1 day and maybe almost 2 weeks. They're pretty big already!
So do I put them all together? Do I let the new ones settle in in their own brooder for a couple of days until I am sure they do well? I...
One of my Araucana babies seems to be a bit flighty. She flew out of my 14" tall brooder cage - right through the hatch.
I had planned on moving them to a rubber maid with no lid. Is that a bad idea? If your brooder doesn't have a lid, how tall are the sides and how old are your babies?
Here is a link to pictures
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=170331&id=1575386991&l=a253c
I don't really know how to post pictures on here. How bad is it that when someone made a joke the other day about heated roman spa floors I seriously considered giving the chickens a heated floor...