Meet The Flockers
I live in Palo, Iowa, a small town with 900 residents. To my urging, the city council voted to change the city ordiance to allow 4 backyard hens to each household. Within 3 days of the final vote, our 4 girls were home. Here are a few photos of our journey of making our first...
Our 4 girls were laying like clock work until beginning of July. For about a week we were getting either no eggs or soft eggs from one of the girls. It turned out, she started to molt. At first we thought it was the heat, but the other 3 kept laying. There were no feathers on the ground to be...
We rinse the eggs shells, let them dry and then crush them to give back to the chickens. We have been doing this since they started laying last June. We have grit out for them, but they hardly use it, instead find what they need when foraging.
We also have a small coop with 4 chickens. We started out with a rubbermaid lid under the roost for the first couple of months and then found it to be more of a hassel than help. What worked great for us in the winter is newspaper. Before they went to roost, we put newspaper under there and in...
We have large feeding pans that we fill with dirt. We also have a big rubbermaid tote filled with the dirt so we can add to the pans when needed and they even hop into the big container and use it. During the hot days, we run a fan on them and they love to sit in front of it.
We were also having the problems of scooping up more straw/wood chips vs poop. We now put newspaper under the roost and right before they go to bed or after they are already up there and in the morning we just roll it up and put it into the composter. It's been working great and is much faster...
We also have 4 chickens. We have a small coop with an attached pen. To save room in the coop, we screwed a mineral feeder to the wall, and have a small waterer in there up on a block of wood. In the outdoor pen, they have a hanging waterer and a hanging feeding tray. The barely use the water in...
We have a small coop and instead of a poop board, which we found a nuisance, we now put newspaper under the roost. In the morning we just roll it up and into the composter it goes. Works great, plus we are recycling.
10 degrees today in Central Iowa and the girls were crying to get out and play. Like the post before, ventilation is the key, not the weather!! We have had -20 wind chills and the girls still want to come out. Today they were in part of the garden where the snow had melted and were taking their...
Our 4 girls started laying in July/Aug. We were getting 4 eggs a day until time change. Since, we are getting anywhere from 1 to 4 a day. It will pick back up in the spring.
We live in Iowa and just endured windchills temps in the -20's and this morning it was -10. We have no heat in the coop and this morning the girls were begging to go outside. Ventilation is the key--not heat!
Fake egg in the nest box. For a couple of days we thought one of our girls wasn't laying and thought it was weird since everyone has been regular, even in the cold and less light. Upon closer inspection, we found that she was laying in the pen under the ramp. We placed a big block of wood where...
On the days that our girls are out all day, they still come back to the coop to lay and then go back out and play. A happy hen is a laying hen, better to let them be outside as much as possible then cooped up.
We too only have 4 chickens and we buildt our chicken tractor with just some plans in our heads. Standard framing, particle board, we used Ty-Vek on the outside for some weather protection and covered it with our left over privacy fence that we cut down to look like barn boards. It has gotten to...