I searched and got nothing. Not sure why.
All my dogs and sheep are terrified of gunfire so hunting them makes it hard. We also have workers about so allowing strangers on our property with guns could be slightly dangerous! Our vineyard workers don't tend to wear orange vests, hehe.
So my set up is a small coop with a little run where I leave the door open to the run during the day to let the chickens free range in the pasture. I don't have a 'predator' problem with the chickens because I have a Livestock Guardian Dog.
What I do have is a problem with squirrels eating my...
OK, maybe I will remove all the shelves. Lower the roosts, move them off the walls a bit, add a roost across the back window, make some little ladders and put in the single nest box....
That 'should' eliminate any reason they aren't all roosting in there....
Then there is the door issue...
I actually was thinking of removing all the shelves and putting in a single nest box to give them a little more space around the coop. I just am not sure with this new development exactly what to do at this point. It seems like the shelves under the roosts are more trouble than they are worth...
Well I leave the door to the run open all day so they can roam the pasture. So anything could get in during the day. I am not sure if that would affect their laying since it has been like this for a year. They are still all laying in the coop but every couple days there are eggs on the floor as...
http://s727.photobucket.com/albums/ww274/ChandaOliver/Chickens/
Here are my pics, hopefully....
I have 6 girls.
1 buff orpington
1 australorp
1welsummer
1 light brahma
2 barred rocks
Their run is secure so there shouldn't be any predators although a mouse could get in???
I will take pictures today.
The thing that is weird is that everything was perfectly fine for almost a year and now all of a sudden everything is different!
OK this is a little tricky.
At the same time as I had some odd egg laying behavior my all my chickens but one decided to start roosting outside.
So I think part of the problem is that my coop setup is just wrong. It is a small coop with 6 chickens. There are two roosts inside one on each side...
Ok, this makes sense. I suspect the two laid in the middle of the floor may have just been accidents. The others were definitely scratched out 'nests'. I will just try and block out the 'bad' locations and keep open the good ones.
No eggs on the poop boards since I put the branchs there. One...
I just posted the other day about my nest boxes being too small so I reconfigured everything and now have much larger box spaces. A large shelf divided in two (about 18T x 18W x 11D, for 6 chickens lined with shredded paper and a golf ball.
My chickens are at 19 weeks and JUST started laying...
OK, I went crazy with cardboard and a staple gun!
I separated the shelf into two sections. Each 'box' is about 18 inches wide and about 11 inches deep and about 18 inches tall.
I just used cardboard to divide the shelf in half and then added a little bit more cardboard as an 'overhang' to...
OK, I think I will do that. I can actually just take a piece of cardboard and just divide the shelf in half and leave it at that.
The shelf is just over a foot in height. It is 3 feet long and about 7 inches deep with a lip on the front. If I just divide the whole shelf in half I think that...
I am pretty sure it was one of my Barred Rocks that laid those first two eggs in the wrong spot.
I just had my Buff Orpinton lay one in the box! One of my worker guys was unloading sheep hay and heard the whole thing so I ran right out there...
I am pleased that at least one laid in the box...
OK, I am a super newbie here! I bought the whole coop with 10 week old chickens so I didn't build any of this myself but here is what I got...
The coop is abut 3' x 3'. On one side of the coop there are two shelves (about 3 feet long), one above the other. The top shelf I put a roost above the...
OK, I am really new to chickens and I know that keeping dogs and chickens is risky. I let my hounds out to take them for a run and a chicken had jumped the fence. My greyhound chomped her and let her go quickly when I yelled.
I caught her and tried to inspect her for wounds. Being a newbie to...
I will look at the 'pop door' area and see if I can add an actual door there. There are so many great ideas on the coops pages here that I am sure I can figure something out.
I am lucky in that I have a Livestock Guardian Dog that guards my sheep and was raised with chickens. He hasn't had to...
Randomly last night they roosted inside! Not sure why they suddenly changed but they are seeming to be getting more comfortable in their new home. Their personalities are really coming out now!
Chanda and the girls
Hi, I am new to BYC and VERY new to chickens. I have owned them for 5 days now. I have six 9 week old girls I got from a friend who was looking to get rid of his whole setup. My first post was over in the coop section...
I am noticing that there are a couple things that might be a little...