2018 Newbie Chat!

[PNW_Peepers]

So we have had our chickens for a year! Our first batch of girls are officially hens! It's been a crazy year with chickens. We have gotten a total of 22 chicks since last March. We lost 3 as chicks, culled 3 cornish x, and got rid of 5 cockerels. Now we have our flock of 11 girls that I'm pretty content with for now. I really want to focus on landscaping our yard this year as chickens were our main priority last spring. Summer gets way too hot to be working hours on end.

Another question, is it possible to have a nice yard and chickens free ranging? Lol. I let the girls out and they eat the good grass we get growing instead of the weeds. Then they dig big holes everywhere. I'm sure I'll need to put chicken wire around my garden as well. I want to start a compost pile too. Do any of you have a compost pile?

I have a huge compost area, I don’t let my girls anywhere near it though. I compost my chicken poop, food scraps, grass clippings, and leaves. I supervise free range generally a couple hours before the sun goes down, so they go in on their own. They do destroy any and everything though. I haven’t let them free range in about a month, I’ve been landscaping and until the plants are established I won’t let my girls near any of it. They destroyed what I landscaped in front of their coop. Out of the fifteen things I planted only one tree survived. They decimated mint, strawberries, lavender, juniper, a rose bush, and succulents. All in all I think I lost over a $100 in plants because of them. I’ve been giving them treats every couple days to keep their egg yolks nice and dark since confining them all day

 

[Cbarr00]

How adorable. As the weather gets warmer--maybe get one of those play yards with a mosquito net and keep him nearby.

I work min of 10 hours per day and Saturdays, so time is limited. I do enjoy being outside wirking once its warmer.

Oh that's a good idea! The mosquitoes get terrible here. He's so calm outside we try to go out every day it's nice. We planted new grass seed and we had to keep the chickens locked up so they wouldn't tear it all up. Hopefully once we get the grass established this year they won't wreak such havoc.

 

[Cbarr00]

I have a huge compost area, I don’t let my girls anywhere near it though. I compost my chicken poop, food scraps, grass clippings, and leaves. I supervise free range generally a couple hours before the sun goes down, so they go in on their own. They do destroy any and everything though. I haven’t let them free range in about a month, I’ve been landscaping and until the plants are established I won’t let my girls near any of it. They destroyed what I landscaped in front of their coop. Out of the fifteen things I planted only one tree survived. They decimated mint, strawberries, lavender, juniper, a rose bush, and succulents. All in all I think I lost over a $100 in plants because of them. I’ve been giving them treats every couple days to keep their egg yolks nice and dark since confining them all day

Wow. Chickens can just go and go pecking at everything in their path. I'm amazed how much they can put away. That really sucks to lose all money time and effort on gardening.
I'm tempted to trap them in my garden bed to till up the soil. Lol. I'm sure they'll find lots of worms as rewards. They've dug good sized holes where the prefab coop was.
I need to look more into composting with limited space. I regret buying a home in the middle of town and not in the country. We keep seeing houses with acreage for sale on the outskirts of our town I wish we could buy. One day maybe.

 

[llombardo]

Oh that's a good idea! The mosquitoes get terrible here. He's so calm outside we try to go out every day it's nice. We planted new grass seed and we had to keep the chickens locked up so they wouldn't tear it all up. Hopefully once we get the grass established this year they won't wreak such havoc.

Nothing like fresh air for the little ones. He can do absolutely nothing and will sleep like a log at night...lol

 

[PNW_Peepers]

Wow. Chickens can just go and go pecking at everything in their path. I'm amazed how much they can put away. That really sucks to lose all money time and effort on gardening.
I'm tempted to trap them in my garden bed to till up the soil. Lol. I'm sure they'll find lots of worms as rewards. They've dug good sized holes where the prefab coop was.
I need to look more into composting with limited space. I regret buying a home in the middle of town and not in the country. We keep seeing houses with acreage for sale on the outskirts of our town I wish we could buy. One day maybe.

If you have a really friendly hen, take just her out. Maybe a buddy for her and let them till for you. I always get my favorite hens to do my tilling. Only have a couple birds makes looking after them more manageable. We bought an acre in the country, were about to possibly buy a half acre off our neighbor for only 7k, who doesn’t use it. My compost pile is multiple boxes made out of pallets. Each box has a different compostable material in it. This year I’m growing artichokes, onions, garlic, peas, cabbage, carrots, lettuce, potatoes, squash, cucumbers, beets, tomatoes, tomatillos, beans, and corn. I also have six different fruit trees and six blueberry bushes. We really lucked out, before this property had a house on it. It was a cow pasture, so our grass is really good barley, and our land is really well fertilized!

 

[CannedMonster]

I’m not sure if I mentioned it but last weekend I was at Tractor Supply getting wild bird seed
(we have to feed them to keep them out of our chickens food! )
and some other things and I walked by the chick bins...........

And now I have two black sex-link chicks!

I mean there was these two tiny black chicks all by themselves in that huge tub.
And I’ve been wanting to try BSL.
Seriously...I have a problem


My chicken math has come to an end now.
I hope...
Of course, I do have 17 bantam chicks coming from Murray McMurray the first week of May.
They won’t let you order less than 15 bantams at a time, even after April 1st.
And they had 16 available for that hatch date so I couldn’t leave just one!
And they had a free rare/exotic chick offering too so I couldn’t pass that up.

The 16 chicks are all the same breed (Bearded Belgian Antwerp Quail )
so I will be selling most of them and just keeping a few.
I’m excited to see what my surprise chick is though.
I just hope it isn’t a cockerel

 

[No More Empty Nest]

I understand how frustrating it is when you have a vision but all the steps required are so time consuming doing it alone. Most of time I'm working by myself outside. DH works a physically demanding job 6-6 mon-fri and picks up extra jobs on the weekends sometimes. So I hate to ask him to work extra with me some days. When I need something done I'm usually flying solo and I'm not handy at all. Lol. Now with a baby I'm really limited in what I can do. I usually wear him in a carrier but it puts a lot of strain on my back and I dont like to work like that for too long. Usually about 2 hours with him is all I can tolerate. He's 8 months and ready for 18 month clothes. This how we work. He can usually catch a good nap in too
View attachment 1710151

I really want to start on my raised garden beds but there are big rocks in my way that I know I shouldn't move with this 24lb weight on my back. Lol. Hopefully I can get it together soon tho because if I start too late I won't get any produce til the end of summer. Lol.

Such a little cutie! A play yard with mosquito netting would work fine as @llombardo suggested. Way back when we had a collapsible playpens that I'd take out side in the shade for my boys. Those playpens have long been banned due to danger of collapse if not set up right, but I loved it. Outside was about the only time I used it for any length of time...except once when my older son wanted to play with his toys that were too small for the little one, he decided HE would go in the playpen! Was so funny.

I use the area next to the pen for supervised free range. I don't cut that grass--I let them maintain it. It's a couple hours a day and they do a good job.

That's a great idea! I have some plastic fencing that I used to block off part of the yard when I cared for my daughter's dogs so they wouldn't scare the chickens. I've been thinking of using it to make an extension from the run door for supervised time out of the run. Thought I might put some netting over it so I can do a bit of gardening while they're out. That darn hawk was circling overhead again the other day.

 

[llombardo]

Such a little cutie! A play yard with mosquito netting would work fine as @llombardo suggested. Way back when we had a collapsible playpens that I'd take out side in the shade for my boys. Those playpens have long been banned due to danger of collapse if not set up right, but I loved it. Outside was about the only time I used it for any length of time...except once when my older son wanted to play with his toys that were too small for the little one, he decided HE would go in the playpen! Was so funny.



That's a great idea! I have some plastic fencing that I used to block off part of the yard when I cared for my daughter's dogs so they wouldn't scare the chickens. I've been thinking of using it to make an extension from the run door for supervised time out of the run. Thought I might put some netting over it so I can do a bit of gardening while they're out. That darn hawk was circling overhead again the other day.

I have a net over mine too. Hawks and owls here.

 

[llombardo]

Ok guys, I'm worried about my little sliver polish. She is half the size of the rest. So tiny that I call her tiny and little one. Tiny bit so expressive. She eats, drinks, plays, roosts, and poops like the rest--she has really good poop. She is the last to come when I bring treats--if she is sleeping, she doesn't get up food. She is the only one that still sleeps spread out like they do as little babies.

I've considered blind and even maybe bantam? I keep going back to the beak. It seems the beak is undergrown. It's not a cross beak. I sit and watch her eat and she eats fine of so it seems. It doesn't seem like the beak is closing like the rest and the top and bottom are the same size versus the top being slightly longer and covering the bottom.

She is a happy girl and I'm willing to do what is needed to help her along. I was going to give her some Nutri drench tomorrow and put that save a chick stuff in the water. It can't hurt any of them.

 

[Cbarr00]

If you have a really friendly hen, take just her out. Maybe a buddy for her and let them till for you. I always get my favorite hens to do my tilling. Only have a couple birds makes looking after them more manageable. We bought an acre in the country, were about to possibly buy a half acre off our neighbor for only 7k, who doesn’t use it. My compost pile is multiple boxes made out of pallets. Each box has a different compostable material in it. This year I’m growing artichokes, onions, garlic, peas, cabbage, carrots, lettuce, potatoes, squash, cucumbers, beets, tomatoes, tomatillos, beans, and corn. I also have six different fruit trees and six blueberry bushes. We really lucked out, before this property had a house on it. It was a cow pasture, so our grass is really good barley, and our land is really well fertilized!

That's a good idea! I'll have to use my older girls as they're less adventurous and curious than the younger ones. My EE Frida jumped our neighbor's fence yesterday. She is not used to being handled at all so catching her was a chore. My oldest earned $2 for the capture.
We have an area right beside the coop that I might be able to use for a compost pile. Especially after I get my garden situated this year it would be nice to add next year.
I'm so jealous of your land/space. lol. We have no trees on our property! I don't really know how we missed that but working in our yard last year we realized we had no shade to take breaks under.
What will you do with the other acre? More chickens or other types of animals perhaps? That is my husband's dream one day. He seriously tried to talk me into buying a horse. Where would we put it?! With the chickens? we have no land. Lol. Our neighbor owns a pretty large empty lot behind our house. We really want to buy it but she won't sell. I think her water well is actually on that lot and not on her property and thats why she wont sell. It would more than double the size of our backyard if we could buy it.