6th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2015 Hatch-A-Long

[Kaylish]

Sort of off topic, I know that the standard answer to this is 4 sqft per bird but since the Australorp towers over even our RIR and BR and we're planning to start a pure breed Australorp flock, how many square feet per Australorp should I go with?  They will have access to a run every day as well so I also need to know how many square feet per bird in the run.

These chicks we're hatching for the HAL are all Big Daddy Crow's children so hopefully they will inherit his mass so the sqft per bird will come in handy pretty soon.  So it is sort of on topic for the HAL. 

More is always better. I think the minimum is 10 Sq feet in the run, 4 in the coop, per bird. And don't count the space taken up by nesting boxes, feeding stations, etc.

I can NOT keep up with this thread!! I am 500 posts behind, Here's what we did this weekend, I had to have the gymnast daughter tie the tops.

Nice run and a good helper!

A racoon or something got to one of my Polish frizzle pullets last night. I was out until after 10:30 pm and the coop door was still open. I'm so sad. I hatched her from my first attempt at incubating. She was my sweetie! She would run over so I could pick her up for hugs. I know that this sort of thing happens when you own chickens, but it was my fault for not closing the door before I left. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a bummer. I'm still super stoked about the hatch. And probably the Easter hatch too.

I'm so sorry, it's very hard to lose a pet.

Not part of the HAL but my ducks are hatching!

Please post pictures as they hatch!

Awesome!

 

[bamadude]

Green eggs and spam

 

[EastTXChickens]

Wow, this is a fast moving thread!

Chicken Picken, you ask about the breed of the potential chicks. The hen is a Sussex and the roo is a White Faced Black Spanish. Both came from The Garden Home in Arkansas.

The hybrid chicks outta be interesting. Both breeds are amazing.

Both chickens are young and I'm clueless so say a little prayer for this clutch

 

[LemonMeringue]

I keep going in the room to look....... And they are still there........

Going to force myself to do some chores!

 

[Cynthia12]

I keep going in the room to look....... And they are still there........

Going to force myself to do some chores!

 

[chicken pickin]

Wow, this is a fast moving thread!

Chicken Picken, you ask about the breed of the potential chicks. The hen is a Sussex and the roo is a White Faced Black Spanish. Both came from The Garden Home in Arkansas.

The hybrid chicks outta be interesting. Both breeds are amazing.

Both chickens are young and I'm clueless so say a little prayer for this clutch

This thread is fast moving, sometimes hard to keep up with if you don't check back often.

Your cross is interesting, the chicks should be very cute. Do you know if the white face on the White Faced Black Spanish is dominant or not? It would be interesting to see if any of the chicks get the fathers white face. Sorry if this question is silly, I don't know this breed well.

 

[jbenson]

I went into full on baking mode this afternoon. I have a gal I usually sell my eggs to like 10 doz at a time, but she did not need any today. So, I went to work trying to use some and also posted them to my Facebook to drum up interest. Got a couple takers now so I don't need to panic about how to use 12 doz eggs. Gals are laying more than a doz a day and the bator is full and I won't be collecting for the next set until Christmas day. So far I made bread and banana muffins and will be hard boiling a dozen (DH loves hard boiled in his lunch). French toast for breakfast tomorrow maybe. Never thought this would be a real problem. Egg math is worse than chicken math!

 

[Amberjem]

ty for answering about the gloves I was partly worried maybe the latex or nitirile might be bad for the eggs .. so can you use alcohol to clean the gloves and once dry then handle the eggs? or will some sort of residue be bad for the eggs then?

 

[Roan]

So the general concensus even for the Autstralorp is still a minimum of 4 sqft per bird? I think I'll go with about 6 sqft per bird since the breed is so much bigger than the RIR's and BR's that I give 4 sqft per bird to and way way bigger than the Ameracaunas which are in the pen with the RIR's and BR's so also have 4 sqft per bird.

As for the run, I found that 10 sqft per bird just doesn't seem big enough for my taste which is why they are mostly free ranging. So I think I'll go with 20 sqft per run for the BA's. I think our run for the others is 15 sqft per bird, but I can't remember since we never use it.

Thanks for all the answers.

 

[Roan]

ty for answering about the gloves I was partly worried maybe the latex or nitirile might be bad for the eggs .. so can you use alcohol to clean the gloves and once dry then handle the eggs? or will some sort of residue be bad for the eggs then?

I've read that you should use gloves when handling eggs because the oils on your hand can clog their pores.