Big girls and little girls together!

[schmism]

Well today was the day. Spent a couple of hrs working up an enclosure inside the big coupe for the little girls.

The top lifts off, the front is fixed. Still have to migrate to the tray feeder which will have a permant home in the corner. (just pour a scoop of food in every day or whatever)

There is a small door on the front. The idea is for the small door to be open durring the evening when the coupe is secure. They should be able to come and go but the big girls not be able to fit through. The theory being ill toss some scratch/treats out and encourge everyone to mingle but if it starts getting rough, they can run back to there side.

I have a compost area sectioned off with pallets. the big girls can fit through a space that is 5" wide but not the dogs. So i made the door opening 4" wide, 8" tall for the little girls.

I figure by the time they are large enough not to fit through, they wont need to worry about it.

 

[airmom1c05]

Ingenious!

Very neat, too.

 

[schmism]

Update:

The big girls and little girls are starting to tolerate each other.

Ive spied about half the flock (usually the larger ones) on the middle roost at night under the watchful eye of the head hen gertrude.

Sence we have put them out in the big coupe, we have opened the door to there half at night to let them mingle if they wanted.

If i let them in the same pen with each other, they still get chased some, but the older girls are definately learning to tolerate them more.

oh and karen that got pecked on the head fairly bad is healing up nicely. shes been back with the flock for about a week now. some of the feathers have started growing back, so her head doesnt look nearly as bad anymore.

 

[chantald]

curious.. why are the feeder and waterer tied to teh ceiling??

 

[jadell]

It keeps the litter from getting in both. If you put them on the ground, the chicks will scratch around and fill them up.

 

[chantald]

OH!! What a great idea!!! How far up should they be?? I guess a brick would serve the same purpose??

learn something new every day!!!

 

[Chicken Nugget]

We tried putting ours on bricks, and they still filled up fast with dirt and litter (though not as fast as on the ground).

Actually hanging them from the ceiling has worked the best for us. Ours are about 6-8 inches off the ground. Hanging the feeders and waterers also prevents the chickens from climbing on top and pooping on them, as they move if a hen tries it.

 

[gumpsgirl]

Very nice! Thanks for sharing!

 

[schmism]

Quote:
yes infact i had removed the larger hanging water'r and put it in the smaller side with the 9 little girls as it made sence to give them the larger one. (that and the big girls free range and get most of there water out of the dog bowls anyway) and we set it on a couple of bricks brick.

we set our smaller water'r on a brick outside the little girls pen.

i was having to change water EVERY day due to the amount of litter and poo kicked into it!

So 2 days ago i went back to hanging the larger one (which hangs about 6" off the ground) and havnt had any probs with litter like i did orginally (meaning a water change every couple of days or so)

 

[schmism]

update,

the separation barrier has been removed. The little girls have been free ranging for the past few days, mostly sticking to the brushy tree line 15' or so behind the coupe. I noticed that the big girls were starting to hang with the little ones, which arnt so little anymore. it will be 3 months in a few days. Most have mini-combs showing and are about 3/4 the size one of the big girls. They had been shareing roost space for the past 2 weeks atleast.

The only thing to consider now is a roost re-do so everyone has plenty of roost space. But im shure like others have said many times, i could give them 20' of roost and they would all still try to cram into the same 6'. (there are 11 of them)

I may have to start bying feed 2 bags at a time now that i have so many mouths to feed. it will be nice when the little girls finnaly start laying.