2020 Flock Life

[drstratton]

I got out and played with the little ones today... I didn't get video of it but I gave them their first carrots. They thought it was acid rain.

But I got some photos of them and the big flock.

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I don't know how she's doing it, but she escapes every morning! GT is a sneaky thing!
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Everyone enjoying breakfast and scratch
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Toasted doing his roo dance around Pepper, she didn't go for it.
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Foraging is fun.
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We figured out the roosting thing! I think they like it....
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We love pecking at mom's feet and making her jump...


I'm keeping an eye on them and hoping no more losses! So far so good!

And still on the waiting game for the eggs.

Looks like your flock is thriving! We're getting ready to set up the roosts for our chicks in the coop! We have one out in the pen area and they love it!

 

[MysticUniKitty]

Looks like your flock is thriving! We're getting ready to set up the roosts for our chicks in the coop! We have one out in the pen area and they love it!

it took them a while to get the hang of it, but once they did the barred rock girls use it as a launching point to try and get over the top silly chickens! I've learned out of all of the breeds barred rocks are the escape artists out of all of them!

 

[drstratton]

I'm hoping that our 6' high fence will keep ours in the pen...their lives depend on it! For right now they are confined to the enclosed pen and coop area and probably won't get to use the free range pen until next spring, they're going to love it! We want to give the grass seed that we will soon be planting a chance to take root!

I will try to remember to not add any barred rocks to our flock...I don't need any escape artists...

 

[MysticUniKitty]

Woke this morning to a new storm, wasn't supposed to rain today so everyone is soggy. And work on run is on hold again. Boo!!! We'll get it done....one day?

How is everyone else doing today?

 

[MysticUniKitty]

I'm hoping that our 6' high fence will keep ours in the pen...their lives depend on it! For right now they are confined to the enclosed pen and coop area and probably won't get to use the free range pen until next spring, they're going to love it! We want to give the grass seed that we will soon be planting a chance to take root!

I will try to remember to not add any barred rocks to our flock...I don't need any escape artists...

ooo that sounds like an awesome set up!!!
If you see or think they might try flying out look into bird netting, super cheap and all you do is drape and staple it over the top of the pen. That's what we will be using on ours, we have hawks and eagles that steal from us, so this would be a way to help keep them at bay, and if something gets tangled in it it's easy to replace and set free what ever it was. Having ground and sky predators bad this last winter really showed us what we need to beef up in the form of chicken security.

 

[drstratton]

ooo that sounds like an awesome set up!!!
If you see or think they might try flying out look into bird netting, super cheap and all you do is drape and staple it over the top of the pen. That's what we will be using on ours, we have hawks and eagles that steal from us, so this would be a way to help keep them at bay, and if something gets tangled in it it's easy to replace and set free what ever it was. Having ground and sky predators bad this last winter really showed us what we need to beef up in the form of chicken security.

We have more issues with the ground predators, I've never lost a chicken to anything from above and they were Banty's! Putting up netting isn't an option for us...the free range pen is 110'x48' and has too many tree's! If it wasn't for the tree's I would love to be able to do that! Thank you so much for the suggestion!

The section from the new fence all the way to the back fence of our property on the right is the new pen area! We still need to build our gate, but that will have to wait a bit, we have some other more pressing projects going on!

This is before the fence was finished but it shows the layout of the coop & enclosed pen. You can also see where we have our rabbit hutches!

We are currently building two new raised garden beds like the ones in this picture, but they will be 4x14 instead of 4x12 like the ones pictured! The new boxes will be to the right, where the garden hose is laying! The projects never end, but these raised beds make gardening so much easier on old bodies...lol!

 

[MysticUniKitty]

We have more issues with the ground predators, I've never lost a chicken to anything from above and they were Banty's! Putting up netting isn't an option for us...the free range pen is 110'x48' and has too many tree's! If it wasn't for the tree's I would love to be able to do that! Thank you so much for the suggestion!

The section from the new fence all the way to the back fence of our property on the right is the new pen area! We still need to build our gate, but that will have to wait a bit, we have some other more pressing projects going on!
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This is before the fence was finished but it shows the layout of the coop & enclosed pen. You can also see where we have our rabbit hutches!
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We are currently building two new raised garden beds like the ones in this picture, but they will be 4x14 instead of 4x12 like the ones pictured! The new boxes will be to the right, where the garden hose is laying! The projects never end, but these raised beds make gardening so much easier on old bodies...lol!
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Beautiful!!!

Love those gardening beds! i'm not allowed to touch as i kill plants faster then anything else
ooohhh yeah that would make it hard. but if you don't have "air predator" then that would make it easier anyways. you have a very nice set up!

 

[drstratton]

Beautiful!!!

Love those gardening beds! i'm not allowed to touch as i kill plants faster then anything else
ooohhh yeah that would make it hard. but if you don't have "air predator" then that would make it easier anyways. you have a very nice set up!

Thank you!

My husband is the true gardener...I just tell him what I want...

 

[Brahmachicken240]

Good morning/ evening everyone
Hope everyone has/had a great day!!

 

[MysticUniKitty]

Good morning/ evening everyone
Hope everyone has/had a great day!!
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It's been wet and rainy, but turned out to be a great day!