2018 Newbie Chat!

[CannedMonster]

I believe polish do lay white eggs. I’m obsessed with egg color. Temperament and being dual purpose was big on my list. I’m also a sucker for heritage pure breeds. The fact that hybrids give their all for a couple years then give out kinda broke my heart so I was immediately opposed to sex links. I ended up with quite the mix because of that though! I had three blue laced red wyandottes for a few weeks and I gave them to a friend due to the bullying behavior I witnessed. Hopefully yours settles down!

Yep I’m starting to hear from more people with Wyandottes that they have a tendency toward bullying.
It’s doubly disappointing since they weren’t a breed I even had my eye on.
I’m wondering if I should separate her in a dog crate for a short time?
Her name is Penelope. She was lowest in the pecking order when they were young.
Now she’s 2nd.
She’s mean to Coco and Pepper. Especially Pepper who’s on the bottom now.
Pepper and coco don’t seem to be mean.
She doesn’t try anything with Red.
Except once when we watched her pull some of Red’s feathers out!
Red didn’t move. She didn’t run or squawk; just stared Penelope down.

Yeah I was going to get some black sex links but I’m afraid of dealing with reproductive problems.
It’s hard because Red lays a jumbo egg every single day.
She’s only missed one day.
I like that.

 

[PNW_Peepers]

Looks like I also have a pink layer. My girls have been singing the egg song to notify me of my awaiting gifts! It’s my favorite noise to hear from them!

My pullets are definitely open for business now!

 

[CannedMonster]

New coop is mostly done except for the pop door and some trim.
They don’t seem to want to use the pop door yet.
I decided to use a different kind of bedding I found at TS.
It’s a combination of straw, hay and zeolite.
Bad idea!! I had a pretty bad allergic reaction to it.
I was wearing flip flops when I spread it in the coop and I got a terrible itchy rash on my feet.
I raked it all out and put the usual pine shavings in.
Ahhh sooo much better!

 

[CannedMonster]

Coop photos:

Red’s here for inspection

 

[CannedMonster]

Hurray!!!
I didn’t see my babies in their run a while ago.
So went to see if they were laying down somewhere I couldn’t see them.
They were all up in the coop!
They all went up there by themselves to hang out during the day.
I’m so excited about that!
They wouldn’t go in on their own since I put them in there.
I put a brick and a 2x6 under the end of the ramp so it wouldn’t be so steep.
It must’ve helped.
My babies are growing up...

 

[CannedMonster]

The 3 big boys (unfortunately Bubelah is a boy as much as I wish he wasn’t )

Here’s Agatha (love her feathers!) and my little Silkie. I guess that’s going to be her name because I just can’t call her anything else

Frodo looking suspicious

Red and Conan eyeing each other

 

[Cbarr00]

Since we've just gotten done with clearing our backyard and haven't started on a permanent coop yet, DH decided to take my work shed and turn it into their coop. A part of me is sad because I still had a bookshelf I needed to finish, BUT I'm glad we don't have to start from the ground up! It's a 10x12 building and all they need is ventilation and a run. I know after this baby is here any solo projects I have involving power tools will be no more so I'm ok with giving up my space. I'll just take over DH shed one day. Our chickens are just getting way too big for their sad little prefab. So emptying it and run construction starts tomorrow!

 

[llombardo]

Every single time I think I have everything figured out with finishing the enclosure I read another predator story and add more security. This is turning into the project from hell...

 

[CannedMonster]

We haven’t had any predators.
I’ve seen a few hawks but nothing has tried for my birds.
There are a lot of dogs in our neighborhood and some of them are allowed to run loose.
At some point you just do the best you can.
One thing about hardware cloth is that you can attach it with screws and washers instead of staples.
It’s supposed to be stronger that way.
And you can always get a strong gauge of hardware cloth too.
The kind used on prefab coops is flimsy.

 

[PNW_Peepers]

I feel like every week we make a change to the coop and run. We added more roosts to the run a couple weeks back and that has seemed to help the Aggression between both age groups. This week we are changing the nesting boxes. We built them 12”x12”, that’s not nearly big enough for the barred rocks who seem to be struggling with laying in them. So we’re building less boxes that are much larger probably 12”x14”. We bought nest pads to soften the blow when the egg drops. We’re also adding an additional roost bar and droppings board. I’ve also noticed the lack of feeding areas available as one isn’t enough for everyone so I’m building a no spill 5 gal bucket feeder to place by the enterance to my run.

It’s in the high 80’s already this morning so I’m outside free ranging my girls While I work on the new additions.