A Journey Through a Different Way - Funny Story Pg. 69

[MissouriChick]

Monique,
I'm wondering...approximately how many chickens do you have and how big is your coop. I've looked at all of your pictures and have a general sense of the dimensions and such, but I was just wondering if you could give me a few more specifics. We have 50 chickens that are three weeks old, we're brand new to all of this, and we haven't quite finished our coop enough to put the chicks out there. After reading your thread I'm really pushing to get it ready this weekend and get them outside! But I'm afraid that our coop is way too small. I wonder if that will matter much if all they are doing is sleeping in there. Plus, in our 50 we have roosters that we have to "harvest" but I'm wondering if they can mingle with the others until then. Lots of questions....

 

[GAchick]

Handsome flock, Monique.

 

[ruth]

Quote:
I really don't know the dimensions. As you can see from the pics it is rather large and from what Miss Susie says, she's the 95 year old lady who was born here, it was always the hen house. I added the beams near the ceiling where the more dominate birds like to get. I built the ladder but most just fly up there. I would estimate it to be almost 10 feet up. I also built all the stadium seating and it will hold a lot of chickens. If your chickens have access to outside and especially freeranging, you won't need a very big coop because they all like to crowd together anyway. You might want to consider something like the stadium seating because it uses mostly wall space and can hold a lot more chickens in less space than regular roosts and frees up the floor space.

 

[m2wandc]

If this was at my house...the dog would be eating about 4 or 5 of the chickens before the shutter closed on my camera while taking the pic!

What an amazing dog...clearly not interested in the chase or the kill...my dogs chase and kill any little critter they can all day long...mice, lizards, etc...the other day my front door was sprayed with the grossest musky smell from a wild weasle my dog cornered!

 

[NotTheMomma]

Monique,
When I grow up... I wanna be JUST LIKE YOU!!!

You're living the dream life gal, and enjoying it!

How's the house coming along?

And do show the garden and flowers PLEASE!!!

I MUST have two of those GEESE! They are gorgeous!!!

And the stadium seating, I LOVE it!! Since DH is at work until late and has a long commute every day, it is up to me to get them one built. Right now, most fly up into the rafters, but I think with that seating, some would go there!

How many eggs are you getting a day now? Are you selling them at the feed stores?

Janice

 

[ruth]

M2WANDC - no, Rex isn't interested in chasing them or killing them - unless.....they get too near one of his tennis balls, or pine cones, or black walnut, or stick, or empty water bottle - that he is waiting for me to throw for him. Then he makes them move. He will sleep with an open box of baby chicks next to him and they are all present and accounted for the next morning. He gets a little obsessed about "guarding" anything I put in a kennel and I use kennels as my "hospital" quarters and put them in the coop. So on any given day there is an injured or recovering bird in one. Rex tends to want to chase everyone else off and away from the kennel. So every time I put a new bird in a kennel and he starts his "guard" bit, I have to tell him "it's okay - no guard." He still tends to guard a mean as_ rooster I have in a kennel in the yard waiting for his ticket to Camp Cold. Won't let anything come near it.

Actually both Shepherds and our catahoula mix stray are good with the birds. Both Scarlett and Lucy were duck killers when they first encountered the ducks. Lucy did her "kill the varmit" thing the first time we let our ducks out. She killed six swiftly without so much as a mark when we turned our back for a moment. Once fussed at and taken into the duck yard a few times she realized "hey, they are just like chickens, part of the family" and has never bothered one since. Then we got Scarlett and when she was about 6 months old the Mallards started flying out of the fenced duck yard. She caught and killed and ate one a day for three days in a row before we caught her at it. Same thing, we fussed at her, started taking her into duck yard to meet the ducks. She hasn't bothered one since. A couple of months ago I started letting the ducks out of the yard to free range since all grass was gone in their yard. They have been free ever since and living all over our yard and farm and pond and none of our dogs have bothered them.

We even have a chicken that sleeps in the shed with the dogs at night and eats out of their bowls when they are eating. All of the chickens, ducks and peacocks are very comfortable with all six dogs roaming amongst them. They don't even flinch when the dogs are in their coop.

Now little Prissy does love to do what I call a "fly by". She just can't help herself. She doesn't try and chase or catch them but she loves to start running at full speed and run right past one, startling it so that it jumps and flys and squawks. She seems to derive great pleasure at her little "fly bys" and doesn't seem remorseful at all. But she too is out there with them all day long and has never bothered one. She only seems to do the "fly bys" when I'm present, trying to walk down the hedge lined walkways with stuff in my hands. I dunno, maybe she thinks she's clearing the walk for me.

NOTtheMOMMA - you could easily build the stadium seating yourself. I did. I used four 2x4s. Cut one in half. Nail one end to the wall and let the other end sit on the ground at an angle. Do the same for the other half. Then use the three long boards and screw them in from the side. I used support boards under them since they were so long (8') and I knew there would be lots of heavy chickens on them. So simply measure and cut another board to fit under each long board in the middle. Really easy to do and holds lots of chickens. No one used it at first and everyone wanted the highest roosts. But once we got so many chickens and the dominant ones laid claim to the top roost, everyone else uses the stadium seating. I prefer it because you don't have to walk under them and get pooped on. I can also use it to check everyone over at night and pull out anyone needing medical attention. I can't do that with the high roost.

Right now I'm only getting a couple dozen eggs a day and I have a list of people who buy them. They all work at the feed store so I just drop them off when buying feed. I do have a lot of new birds that have just started laying so that number should really double very soon.

As far as the gardens, I did include a link to my vegetable garden and just recently posted pics of my herb garden on the same thread. I'm currently working on the front flower gardens, the formal "parterres". I got one out of six done yesterday. It's a lot of work to dig out 40 year old compacted dirt and weeds and start fresh. I'll post pics eventually.

Around here, it's always a work in progress.

 

[ruth]

Well, what a day. My husband joined BYC, of his own free will, under the name "Boaz" - sort of fitting for husband of Ruth, heh??? He's been reading BYC off and on since I joined and even more so lately, using my name and password. He finally decided to take the plunge and get his own name and password. Just goes to show what a few chicks a couple of years ago led to. Now he's just as "into" this "chicken thing" as I am. He says once I decided to buy Black Copper King's entire flock of B. C. Marans he decided he needed to get into this "business" and what better way than joining BYC.

I hope you all welcome him. He's a very intelligent man - double majors in math and chemistry and a great sense of humor when he's not worrying about the sky falling.

Today he helped put "the great fountain" back up. The old fountain that stood at the entance to our home had the two tiers/bowls all broken. We bought new ones but they weighed a ton but he finally got them up there and it is now running again. He also worked on a separate pen for our little buck, J.J. which he will finish tomorow. Then he plans to start on the breeder pens for the B. C. Marans that we have to go and get from Mr. Jessee (Black Copper King) - they are the parents to my flock and we will officially be in the "chick business" hatching and shipping chicks. Now I need to get busy on a website and promo materials (one of my side jobs).

Been picking lots of veggies from my garden. In the last two days, I've picked brocolli, lettuce, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, peas - and tonight I picked rattlesnake beans. I cooked them with diced up ham and onions and then drained them up and drizzled garlic olive oil on them - they were really delicious. I also made a huge salad with everything but the kitchen sink in it and I couldn't believe I had grown it all myself.

Life is never boring on this journey and it gets even better with DH travelling it with me.

 

[GAchick]

Boaz, I'd like to be one of the first to welcome you to BYC. Your wife has fascinated me with ya'lls life story lately. But I guess you already know she's a hell of a woman.

 

[speckledhen]

Yes, welcome, Boaz!! We thoroughly enjoy your wife's wonderful stories and photographs.

 

[beefy]

Boaz, maybe you can talk some sense into that woman. She NEEDS some cows.