Oh, the stress is just beginning. Just wait until you have depluming mites!
I am so relieved that you have had such a good outcome. I thought about you guys all day.
Don't know if this will help you or not...I ordered earlier this year from Chicken Scratch. My babies also went everywhere, all over the midwest, and I, too, expected them after one day. I added up the hours and, after all was said and done, they had gone without food/water for 71 hours when...
That's what we did. Expensive, and we expect to have to replace it every once in a while, also an expense. Also took a lot of effort and a few man hours. However, we have had zero loss to predators. I could not bear the idea of my chicken's heads being bitten off while at work. We finished...
I made the investment in the hardware cloth AND the Havahart electric fence set up...call me paranoid, but I've never lost a bird. Otherwise, accept you will lose some birds.
Never had a dirty or muddy egg.
We use what you describe---covered run (corrugated plastic roof) and wood shavings. Can't wait to harvest the compost this spring. Go for it!
I am most impressed with the 14 year old young man you have raised! A man's man in this "chickified" world is a rarity these days.
Not often do I see a young man stand up and do the right thing, even when it may hurt himself (it was his rooster, after all). He truly put his little brother...
RIGHT NOW---Immediately---go pull the new ones out and put them in anything. A cardboard box or anything, really. Then, sit down and invest an hour reading this site, where there are about a million other people who have had this exact same problem. BUT FIRST, go save your birds.
What, the first sentence of his response was something like "You don't know me...I'm a registered sex offender...but I'd like to take your chickens?"
What did the man say to indicate that he is a sex offender? I've never heard of one doing anything but hiding his identity.
Is that a roost in there?
If so, how do you keep it upright, like what do you have on the bottom?
I think it's very cool. Nothing worse than losing one to a predator and an ounce of prevention...well, you know.
I think it's great to do this before you lose one...I read all the time of the...
Psychiatrist. Yes, there is a lot of misdiagnosis. There are lots of people who aren't good at it.
Glad nothing kept you out of the military. We are a military family (Navy) as well.