My students and I built a chicken coop in the school courtyard. It looks great, well-done, etc. However, we found out afterward that there is a security light that comes on just before dark that lights the whole courtyard.
The coop itself is dark enough, but will they go into it if the...
I wanted
1. A new, bigger coop that was really easy to use and clean.
2. lightweight and movable.
3. use mostly recycled or repurposed supplies to reduce cost.
4. start raising modern game bantams.
5. bend over as little as possible.
6. both contained and yard accessible.
So on bulk trash...
I just built a really nice coop for bantams I don't have but wish I did.
I hope to add several BB red and Self Blue Moreden game Bantams. Maybe also a 1.2 crele OEGs.
I'm not sure where to get them from in the summer, though.
We've kept chickens for almost 10 years already. We started with 3 orpingtons and 5 random bantams.
Right now we have four hens:
buff Orp., production red, Delaware, and barred rock.
We lost our bantam silkie rooster recently.
I'm a science (STEAM) teacher, and also keep /have bred colubrid...
Austin, TX. Summer. My three 2-yr-old Orps have stopped laying. All I can think is it's the weather, but it hasn't gone above 100 yet, and they have a shady run. What could be the problem? I'm out of eggs. Bummer.
Your chickens will be prefectly fine. It was a nice addition of protein to their diet. I've left a huge daed rat in the pen which they ate to the bone, they eat chicken and turkey carcasses, left-over meat, etc.
Its a ratsnake, though generally called a "greenish" rat snake, its the same species as the black rat, Elaphe obsoletus. Its a color morph of the black. There are also yellows, grays, and Texas rat snakes, all the same species.
Rat snakes constrict. They almost never will eat until the prey is dead.
They prefer warm-blooded prey like birds and rodents.
Use hardware cloth to keep them out.
They can squeeze into fairly small holes, but snake that are large enough to eat chicks cant fit through anything smaller than a...