Absolutely New to Chicken

Pics
Date sort Score sort
orrpeople said:
A

Awesome plans! Would love to see pics as things begin to come together! My birds aren't super friendly (like my dog who thinks I stoop down just to smell his breath!), but if I have treats, I definitely become a rock star! :)
Click to expand...
Step 1 I am thinking is this watering system....https://www.amazon.com/The-Chicken-...srs=11455256011&ie=UTF8&qid=1500866275&sr=8-4
since I will have to buy my own glue and put it together I was thinking one arm would need a u joint to the inside for watering inside the coop.

Step 2 to buy some secure Hardware cloth for ventilation and predator control to all open areas of the (doghouse/coop) and bolt it in place.

Step 3 build a door with a 8 inch stoop to hold in the pine shaving floor and install the roosting timber plus put in a poop collecting floor under the roosts I can just scrape down daily at about a 20 degree angle under the roosts.

I have a full year before I will ever need they brooding boxes so those are on hold. That is my plan of attack. I can upload photos of the current structure during tomorrows daylight hours should you desire.



But I think I have my priorities in the right order since everyone needs to grow out, what is your impression of the realities I face keeping these guys and gals safe from primarily, coyotes, hawks(mockingbird defence), owl, jackals and raccoons. I do intend to install raccoon safe locks too. If my fence isn't adequate it is a 6 foot chain link stapled down every 6 inches with 12" ties I will be burying a 24x12' apron of hardware cloth around the perimeter of the coop and bolting it to the floor of the coop too.

Oh I also forgot to mention I have 250 pounds of highly trainable dog flesh that will have no trouble learning what a chicken alarm sounds like and will instinctively want me to open the door for them to investigate and correct the situation just to make me proud.
 
Last edited:
AllenK@new2this said:
Step 1 I am thinking is this watering system....https://www.amazon.com/The-Chicken-...srs=11455256011&ie=UTF8&qid=1500866275&sr=8-4
since I will have to buy my own glue and put it together I was thinking one arm would need a u joint to the inside for watering inside the coop.

Step 2 to buy some secure Hardware cloth for ventilation and predator control to all open areas of the (doghouse/coop) and bolt it in place.

Step 3 build a door with a 8 inch stoop to hold in the pine shaving floor and install the roosting timber plus put in a poop collecting floor under the roosts I can just scrape down daily at about a 20 degree angle under the roosts.

I have a full year before I will ever need they brooding boxes so those are on hold. That is my plan of attack. I can upload photos of the current structure during tomorrows daylight hours should you desire.



But I think I have my priorities in the right order since everyone needs to grow out, what is your impression of the realities I face keeping these guys and gals safe from primarily, coyotes, hawks(mockingbird defence), owl, jackals and raccoons. I do intend to install raccoon safe locks too. If my fence isn't adequate it is a 6 foot chain link stapled down every 6 inches with 12" ties I will be burying a 24x12' apron of hardware cloth around the perimeter of the coop and bolting it to the floor of the coop too.

Oh I also forgot to mention I have 250 pounds of highly trainable dog flesh that will have no trouble learning what a chicken alarm sounds like and will instinctively want me to open the door for them to investigate and correct the situation just to make me proud.
Click to expand...
I think you are about ready to build "Fort Squawks"! Sounds super secure - and from my own experience, having my dogs out there as general deterrents has been a real bonus. We have only had one "break in" - a raccoon - but instead of leaving a blood bath, it only got away with one cockerel before my doggie duo was on the scene - and, it didn't come back, even though it left a sizeable hole in my coop (I had one difficult to secure section of hardware cloth that we have since just boarded up) and the rest of the roos in that bachelor pad were exposed all night. Well trained pups are such a help!
 
Welcome aboard! :frow
We are glad you joined our flock.
This video will help you learn how to navigate this site:
Get settled in and share some pics of your flock!
 
orrpeople said:
A

Awesome plans! Would love to see pics as things begin to come together! My birds aren't super friendly (like my dog who thinks I stoop down just to smell his breath!), but if I have treats, I definitely become a rock star! :)
Click to expand...
IMG_3348.JPG

Here is what I am starting with and with minor modifications will be a snap to make into a proper coop! I only need to make it hold together in a Hurricane, but this will not be their home if one hits they will be moved to other structures on the property if that happens. I'm thinking the easiest coop method would be to add hardware cloth to the floors and siding. On a sadder note last night a raccoon ate my first pineapple ever home grown-(
 
AllenK@new2this said:
View attachment 1088683

Here is what I am starting with and with minor modifications will be a snap to make into a proper coop! I only need to make it hold together in a Hurricane, but this will not be their home if one hits they will be moved to other structures on the property if that happens. I'm thinking the easiest coop method would be to add hardware cloth to the floors and siding. On a sadder note last night a raccoon ate my first pineapple ever home grown-(
Click to expand...
Raccoons. Ugh. They sense love, even for a pineapple!! You still have green grass! I am envious...although, of hurricanes, not so much! :) looks like a great structure with which to construct a chicken house! We used an old horse trailer for one of our bachelor pads - we call it the "Roo Zoo". (Btw, picture brown, dried grass everywhere. It's stunning, truly stunning. :cool:
20170207_165628.jpg
 
orrpeople said:
Raccoons. Ugh. They sense love, even for a pineapple!! You still have green grass! I am envious...although, of hurricanes, not so much! :) looks like a great structure with which to construct a chicken house! We used an old horse trailer for one of our bachelor pads - we call it the "Roo Zoo". (Btw, picture brown, dried grass everywhere. It's stunning, truly stunning. :cool:
View attachment 1088887
Click to expand...
Hehe love the attitude towards raccoons! Love the "roo zoo" seems everyone loves to be creative and up-cycle for their flock.
 
Well nearly 2.5 months later fort Squaks is almost complete(turns out one of my hobbies is procrastination), but they are safe at night behind the 1/4" hardware cloth. The only signs of digging were from my own dogs eating the chicken feed they like to throw everywhere and falls through the floor from their TSC 30 pound hanging feeder. I went cheap with the automatic watering system ordering a Little Giant Float waterer that is fiddly and prone to leaking plus required a regulator(not supplied) to take the water pressure down to 50psi or less. The roosts I provided them apparently aren't up to Sumatra Code as they all climb the Hardware cloth up to the top of the coop and roost there, but it saves me on chicken poo cleaning duty as I don't mind them fertilizing the ground outside at all so its a win win for us both.

I had the worst luck with my straight run as sex is finally expressing itself in their feathering at this moment I received what appears to be 8 males to 2 females(I still have a couple of denial based iffies). Luckily for me I was able to unload 2 of the males today on a neighbor who really liked what he saw in the Sumatra's. I'm really not looking forward to giving any of them the axe by doing chicken math subtraction. I offered him more if he wants to slaughter them but he only raises chicken for eggs. I am really hoping my neighbors excitement turns into more leads for folks looking for Sumatra Roos.

Presently, I am harassing anyone who breeds that I can find in Texas for hens, as nobody is hatching out Sumatras with the internet based breeding houses. I do not plan to ever gamble on a straight run again after looking up its definition. I was dumb and thought that would get me a near 50/50 split on the sexes. If I got a 10-0 or 0-10 split I wouldn't have a basis for a complaint.

I am having a hard time getting them to come out of their pen to free range at present. They only free range if I supervise so I'm horribly disfigured at present from mosquito bites as we had 2 days of rain recently and are experiencing the Caterpillar apocalypse! The males are running around crazy gulping those worms down and growing fast. The two for sure females are so lazy they crack me up foraging for caterpillars they just lay in a tall stand of grass and wait for them to come.

Well that is where I am at present with my first plunge into chicken keeping. Right now I'm weighing whether I should buy a machete vs axe, and know which stump I'll hit up with the chainsaw to practice chicken math as needed to cull for behavior(this part of chicken keeping sucks) with the excess males. I'm still holding my breath until I turn purple first to see if any other rehoming offers appear as the aggression levels in the pen are still quite tolerable.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom