It runs between 85 and 100 under the hover and I have a small heater in the building keeping it around 60 degrees elsewhere. Will they be ok with that?
I have a homemade hover I built and can't get it to maintain the temp at 95°. Would putting an apron around it help and will the chicks know how to go through it to get to the heat?
I have a 10 x 16 coop with 20 birds in it. When they are stuck inside due to weather, it doesn't seem to be enough. I am planning to add 25 more layers this spring and need to rethink my housing.
I am going to use your setup with a minor modification. I plan on using a self lock mechanism inside on the pop door so that when the door is down, it'll be locked and can't be lifted by a predator. Thanks for sharing. I've looked for a long time for a door opener that didn't require a degree in...
I am looking for feeder ideas that aren't the treadle type or PVC. I want something I can put a whole bag of feed in and that the chickens can't scratch or scoop the feed out onto the floor. My birds are wasting a lot of feed right now.
Are the intestines coming out of her vent or somewhere else? If it's somewhere else, like her abdomen, it's probably a rupture that got busted open by another bird. Ruptures like that happen a lot in hogs. It isn't a death sentence for the hog unless it gets torn open.
I eventually will have rain barrels coming off my garage that will flow into this as well. I'm going to have to use some kind of float for that so it's not constantly overflowing during the rainy season.
Here's my nest boxes. I attached them from the outside so there'd be more room in the coop. I put a 2x2 bar across the front so they'd have something to jump up on too. Hard to see it in this pic.
I used 2x3's with the angle of the roost ripped off one edge so they would sit flat. It also will swing up out of the way when it's time to clean out the coop. The chicks dig it.