California - Northern

[lawatt]

Personally, I would build a separated area. The reason is that I started out with one long run and one big coop. I have been dividing it up because I now want to work on purebred/project birds.

Another reason is that next time you have broodies you can use the separated area to put them in - instead of having more and more eggs collect under them from the laying hens. If you line the smaller pen with the baby chick wire so the chicks can't get into the main pen, and the mommas and chicks can run around together (and the mommas protect their own chicks from other mommas) things will be much less stressful for everybody. If you put the birds that went broody in the smaller coop they will feel comfortable to stay there when (notice not if) they go broody again. Having that pen alongside will allow the integration to go smoothly, once they are big enough to free range together just let them all out.

Right now I have 5 pens. Three pens were made out of that long pen. I let everybody out together to range, and they all go back to the right pens. I can have more roosters, have more choices as to who I put where (growout pen is also bantam pen.. the older birds teach the younger roos manners) and I can switch them around if I want to.

I also have a portable cage I use for my "breeding pens" for the bantams (too small for big ones). I did single pairings (only had pairs) and hatched out purebred chicks to try and get some more females. These are put away when I am finished doing the breeding pens.

The other two pens are for my Silkies - and they share a very small coop in the middle but have long runs on either side of the coop. By doing this I have one coop for two areas - separated in the middle so the birds can keep warm together but not see or bother each other inside. I also divided under the coop into two areas so there is a digging hole area under there - thats the only place the two roosters fence fight - but it is through baby chicken wire so they can't even get their beaks through it.

If I was going to have one layer flock and not care about parentage of the littles and I only wanted one or two roosters - I would still have one big pen and one big coop.

But because my plans changed, thanks to this site and chicken math, I am now going for dividing areas up for less birds per area and more control over who breeds who..

thanks so much for the detail (and thanks to Kim as well) -- this is so helpful in thinking things through! sounds like a separate space would be the best addition at this point. i don't know that i'll be doing any breeding, but it might be nice to have the option... and you're right, that being able to keep broodies in a separate space but without fully separating them from view would be an improvement! good to know that they can free-range together but then go home to separate pens...

 

[capayvalleychick]

i've been trying to figure out how to calculate the "right" amount of space -- right now the henhouse is 32 sq ft (8x4), and the run is 96 sq ft (8x12) -- with 11 girls and one rooster, they don't seem crowded (and they get to free-range whenever possible, over 1.5 acres or so) -- assuming half the chicks are female (not at all clear that they are!), i might end up (for now) with 15 + 1. will this be too small?

If they are happy, then they must not be too crowded.

Even though I'm not certified, I like to use these standards as a guideline when designing coops for laying hens:
http://www.certifiedhumane.org/index.php?page=standards

 

[ronott1]

My DH is not usually interested in chickens but has mentioned wanting to try incubating eggs. So, I've been looking at options. I was thinking about just getting an inexpensive Hovabator, until I saw those. If you have an rcom, do you need an additional hatcher?

You can hatch fine in the incubators. It seems like the most automatic one with the lowest price is the Genesis 1588--as long as they have the bugs worked out now. It holds 42 with the turner.

The second incubator for hatching is nice for clean up and staggered hatches.

Watch Craigs List--The hatching season is winding down(for some people....mine never ends.....) and we should start seeing incubators for sale soon.

 

[juststruttin]

Crows are more of a scavenger--I would not worry about them.

My biggest problem lately has been rats. They are very bad this year. I finally have them under control now.....

There is a ranch near me that I sold chickens to a couple of years ago. They sell pasture eggs and have their chickens in large open fields. I asked them if they ever had problems with hawks and they said rarely,but they commented that they have serious problems with crows. Apparently the crows in their area have learned to take down chickens in teams. There are tons of crows in my I have never had any problems, and keep my fingers crossed that I never do.

 

[ronott1]

There is a ranch near me that I sold chickens to a couple of years ago. They sell pasture eggs and have their chickens in large open fields. I asked them if they ever had problems with hawks and they said rarely,but they commented that they have serious problems with crows. Apparently the crows in their area have learned to take down chickens in teams. There are tons of crows in my I have never had any problems, and keep my fingers crossed that I never do.

I have read that crows are very smart but that is impressive!

I hope they do not learn how to do that here--Woodland has a lot of crows; they over winter here in the big trees.

 

[Chickengirl1304]

I don't.  Rich brought in five bags of the new stuff so people could try it.  Of course, we were there and needed food so we bought all five bags.  I compared the nutrition labels and they are both pretty close.  The new stuff is $3 per bag cheaper.  It swaps corn/wheat as the first ingredient, other than that nutrition & ingredients are very close all the way down the line.  Except the new feed is higher fat.

The pellets are substantially larger, but still small enough for young birds.

We are trying it.  The birds are eating it fine and we'll see how they are doing.  We picked up another 15 bags, but then the 20 bags we have is only a 2-3 week supply.  So I'll let you know if I see any difference in my birds.  Unlikely though in that short time.

DH just told me Coloma Feedstore carries Nutrena, he was discussing it with the shearer when he was here to do our sheep.

I'm sure Hay Barn would still order the Nutrena if it's what everyone wants, he was just trying to save everyone some $$$ I think.  We buy half a pallet at a time.

A pallet at a time? How many chickens do you have?

 

[juststruttin]

I'm so sorry about your dog. Its is always tough to hear that news about someone you take care of.
You REALLY should have about 4 Black solider Fly bins too. You chickens would be ever so grateful. And the quails could eat the chicken one. You take the liquid from the bottom of the bin and spread it around the coop to keep the flies down. I was intending on feeding my breese grow outs BSF since the bug pickings around the house are slim, but they are breeding slooowly this year. Last year by this time I was getting 3-4 cups a day, now its hand fulls.
We had to use poison too, we had them in our roof and it was insane. They were tearing up insulation and I was afraid they get wires. We got one that is safe for cats, and rogue did eat a few rats that she found that were poorly and was fine. I took away what I found, but from her satisfied looks it was not all of them.
Owls are supposed to be chicken predators. We have huge ones here, but I have never lost a chicken to one. They are supposed to be able to get into coops if you leave a door open however, so I'm still mildly freaked out about them. I have been stupid and left windows to the main coop open before and not had owls swoop in, however so I think they are happier with rats and squirrels. And LORD knows we have them.

Mario's fixing of the smoker bator appeasers to be successful! I put all the eggs back in yesterday when I got home, hopefully some survived, I will check in a few days. Want to let them settle from the trauma first. The switch is not AS sensitive as the one we had before, so it has a bigger temp swing then previously. So we do have a switch coming in he will refix it with, and he is thinking about doing a bigger upgrade at that time and replacing the wafer so we have something not from sometime in the 1900's. And maybe add a humidity kit. I'm thinking the one for a Styrofoam incubator might not have enough oomph. But I have not found anything else. maybe we could use the system we have to get it in the general area, and use the smaller system to give me the exact % for more control... hrm hrm..

He also had an interesting thought. I replaced the egg trays that would not fit standard sized eggs that came with the incubator with cardbord egg trays. He is wondering if its blocking air flow too much?

Those of you with cabinets, are your trays solid or do they allow air through each tray? While the hatching is better then it was since I brought the humidity down to under 30% I have been doing a lot of reading on carbon dioxide and incubation, and am wondering if different trays would be helpful.

I lost a Mille Fleur Leghorn to what I believe was an owl. The roo decided he wanted to start roosting in the trees. I took the pool pole a few times and scared him out and carried him into the coop but then one night he flew so high up into the tree I could not reach him. I looked at the branch he was on and decided it was too weak for a raccoon to maneuver so I let him sleep out. I intended to catch him and clipped his wings the next day but did not get the opportunity. When I went to let everyone out in the morning there were feathers everywhere and I new he met his doom. I was perplexed until my friend told me he was most likely taken by an owl which makes perfect sense.

 

[juststruttin]

Hi all, I'm just starting to get ready to build my coop. Got some fancy-shmancy plans coming in the mail. Looks like I'm building a B&B out back, nicer than my house. My question is this... Who has tried, and did/didn't like the waterers that are little red "nipples" hanging off the bottom of a water container that the chickens peck for water? I thought it might be cleaner/dryer that way, but wanted opinions first. Do they get enough water this way and will they "hog" it and keep others away? Also, what is a favorite feeder? I'm looking at making one out of a PVC pipe that you fill from the top and they eat out of cutout holes in the pipe along the base. Any opinions? I want as low maintenance and clean as possible.
Thanks! Demaris

They work great!!!! I got 5 gallon buckets from home depot and installed 5 nippes in each. I cut a hole in the lid of the bucket big enough to fit the hose so filling is easy. I highly recommend. Some feed stores sell them, but they charge a fortune for them ($2.50 each). I bought mine off ebay for 50 cents each. They come from China and take a couple of weeks to get so order early.

 

[lawatt]

If they are happy, then they must not be too crowded.

Even though I'm not certified, I like to use these standards as a guideline when designing coops for laying hens:
http://www.certifiedhumane.org/index.php?page=standards

hmm, they recommend (for egg-laying hens) 1.5 sq ft per bird for "buildings" -- for 12 birds (current number), the 8x4' henhouse is 2.67 sq ft/bird, and the wire run is 8 sq ft/bird. (I don't add the square footage of the two together, because during the day, they spend almost zero time in the henhouse, just to get to & from their laying boxes.)

so things seem to be well within the certified humane standards -- but i still want to make sure i don't crowd the flock, even as chicken math might be setting in!

 

[lawatt]

I have read that crows are very smart but that is impressive!

I hope they do not learn how to do that here--Woodland has a lot of crows; they over winter here in the big trees.

two ravens cruised over my free-ranging flock this morning, in/under the big oak trees -- and the three broodies immediately corralled their babies into a pile of branches (collected together as kindling for next winter's woodstove fires), making wild alarm calls -- and the rest of the flock came running. by the time i got out there, the ravens had already gotten annoyed by the ruckus & flown off again.

an impressive showing!