Here’s Karen, a white silkie mama, with her two surviving chicks the day she and Dwight the roo (half silkie/half Easter egger) moved into the tractor with the bantams.
We now have 3 of the 10’x12’ and 1 of the 6’x10’. These things make my day to day so simple. Yes they were pricey, but for us, the trade off is worth it. I have just moved a bantam silkie mama hen, daddy roo, and their two chicks that are a month or so into the bantam tractor and it’s going...
A review update...
ROOST BARS -
We removed the roost bar closest to the nest box since when the perch popper for the nest box released, it would hit the birds, we still have plenty of roost space for the 25 we have in each coop with space leftover.
In the 10x12, the bars do begin to sag in...
Can I walk into the coop or how tall is the door of the coop?
3 x 5 Coop has a 3’ door with an overall height of approx. 4’
6 x 10 Coop has a 4’ door with an overall height of approx. 5’
10 x 12 Coop has a 5’ door with an overall height of approx. 6’
Wow. Those prices are drastically lower that what I get here. I get 40 lb Nutrena All Flock for $24 a bag. I am considering getting from a local mill and it is 50 lb or $36 of non-gmo fresh milled monthly. I have near 60 birds.
I set up a small animal cage brooder with mama heating pad because I want to see them from the side. This was days ago and I never hit post. All 7 are doing great!
My daughter brought home 7 bantam silkie eggs and we put in the incubator. Our first time and all 7 pipped. So far today 6 have hatched and the 7th isn't gonna be too long. There are two bigger barnyard mix eggs a friend wanted us to try so we put them in a few days later. We will see how they...
Coops are together. Birds are in. 24 hens per coop and a roo in one. Assembly was simple and straightforward. I have not installed the perch poppers yet. However when I lowered them tonight I bumped a couple birds on the roost closest to the nest. I think making it 6-8” more forward...
Not currently. My wood John Suscovich style tractor that I use for broilers doesn’t have one and has never needed one (knock on wood). They get moved daily or twice a day.
We purchased two 10x12 Alumi-Coops with roost system and roll out Yuneek nest box (I already had one 48” best nest box for one of them. These two are identical so I suspect same manufacturer.) I’ve accepted the trade offs between stationary coops and mobile ones. Stationary I don’t haul feed...
Today she had pushed out 4 and left 5. Five in nest cool. 4 out warm. But one of each had icky watery contents. She moved out of nest with the chick. Do I candle the eggs and try to incubate or toss them or???
How long does one wait before discarding remaining eggs? Bluebell has pushed one out of the nest and sits on 8 remaining eggs while tending the one live chick.
In my large flock there are many breeds of hens and one RIR rooster. One of the blue laced gold wyandotte hens went broody while I was out of town a couple days and wound up sitting on 12 of everyone’s eggs. I just let her sit and moved her to the new broody/brooder area under the poop...