California - Northern

[Flowers of Abba]

Coons are nasty things and one reason a friend of ours doesnt have a backyard flock. They live near one of the drainage highways that the coons patrol.


This brings the whole coop design issue to mind in my brain. For me I think to build as secure a sleeping and laying house as I can. Usually out of wood making ventilation as inaccessible as possible. (Small spaces wire covered, reinforced even thinking of using solar powered fan to cover the space)

Having the enclosed space makes them secure when they are most vulnerable. 


On a side project
I'm looking into a mechanical way to raise a sliding coop door on a timer. Something similar to a garage door opener which will wind a cable to open the door and release the cable to lower the door. (Gravity to lower really) A spooled cable can be measured to length and then directed through eyes/pulleys. 

We had a large vent opening about 1 ft by 3 ft on one wall with a hinged covering. The bear found it and sent her cubs in and so did the coons. Now our ventilation consists of bird blocks covered by mesh under the eaves . To small for the Cubs and to high for the coons to reach the perches. Coons leave such a filthy clean up. I find we learn the most important lessons by painful experiences... these sad stories are wise to share.

 

[alchemist farm]

Hey everybody!

Thanks for helping point me in the direction of some Isbar eggs, I have some in the incubator set to hatch in two weeks - my daughter wakes up every morning and says "I want to see the green eggs!" we are Dr. Seuss fans around here Pictures of cute chicks incoming soon!

Does anyone around here keep a flock of Svart Hona? I would love to see them running around our back yard and would like to purchase some from folks who live close to me

I also just scored a small flatbed trailer I am going to build a mobile coop on top of so my ladies can roam around different parts of our farm - pictures of that project coming soon if anyone is interested in doing something similar!

Thank you so much for your inspiration and fun ideas

 

[Sylvester017]

Hey everybody!

Does anyone around here keep a flock of Svart Hona? I would love to see them running around our back yard and would like to purchase some from folks who live close to me
I understand the Ayam Cemani and Korean Ogye are all related to Svart Hona (Swedish Black Hens). Probably all have similar temperaments too. Greenfire Farms has dropped their prices significantly on their black hens.

I also just scored a small flatbed trailer I am going to build a mobile coop on top of so my ladies can roam around different parts of our farm - pictures of that project coming soon if anyone is interested in doing something similar!
On BYC's "post your chicken coop pictures here" thread there was someone who built a coop over their little flatbed trailer to pull around their yard. Since the thread has so many pages I can't tell you exactly what post it is but you might want to peruse that thread for fun. Post your project on that thread to inspire others too.

Thank you so much for your inspiration and fun ideas

 

[AmyPaperlady]

How long should I let Frieda set before giving her eggs? Y'see, I had arranged with Ron for Arkansas Blue eggs whenever I next had a broody. However, Frieda's broodiness just happened to coincide with Ron's hens taking a break. He'd had one still laying, but she's stopped now, too, I guess. Frieda's been broody for two weeks now.

how fat is she?  you worry about sitting too long if they don't eat and drink, i've had silkies   try and kill themselves that way. You could give her chicks now, but  eggs are iffy if shes skinny.

ETA well, everything--stupid phone deciding that was a click, not a scroll...

Anyway...

I haven't actually seen her off the nest myself this time, except for one day that I went to gather eggs and she was on that day's eggs instead of the (infertile) eggs I'd given her to see how many she could cover, and then couldn't find the heart to take back. She did stay with her nest once I moved her back, though.

When it stops raining, I'll go see how she feels, weight-wise--I've just started antibiotics today for strep, and want to stay dry.

 

[chickee]

A friend of mine called devestadet over the death his chickens which were killed last night. They were kept in a large coop with chain link, lined with chicken wire. Somehow, Raccoons ripped the chicken wire, reached in through the chain link, and which ever chickens they could reach, tore them apart.
He walked into a blood bath this morning. Some were still alive, but, beyond saving, so he had to end their suffering. Many of his beloved chickens are dead, and he is beyond consoling. My heart goes out to him and his poor, lovely chickens who had a horrible death.
It is breeding time for many predators, and they are on the prowl. Raccoons have no problem ripping the regular chicken wires. I hope this horrific incident doesn't happen again.

Lual

What a terrible thing for him and the chickens!! Raccoons are the worst! To keep predators out of my chicken pens (houses are secure) I have electric wire top and bottom with an extension at the top of the fence that angles out to keep the Bobcats from going over. It is a challenge to keep chickens safe!!

 

[lualshannon]

A friend of mine called devestadet over the death his chickens which were killed last night. They were kept in a large coop with chain link, lined with chicken wire. Somehow, Raccoons ripped the chicken wire, reached in through the chain link, and which ever chickens they could reach, tore them apart.

He walked into a blood bath this morning. Some were still alive, but, beyond saving, so he had to end their suffering. Many of his beloved chickens are dead, and he is beyond consoling. My heart goes out to him and his poor, lovely chickens who had a horrible death.

It is breeding time for many predators, and they are on the prowl. Raccoons have no problem ripping the regular chicken wires. I hope this horrific incident doesn't happen again.


Lual

What a terrible thing for him and the chickens!! Raccoons are the worst! To keep predators out of my chicken pens (houses are secure) I have electric wire top and bottom with an extension at the top of the fence that angles out to keep the Bobcats from going over. It is a challenge to keep chickens safe!! 

I felt so bad, and my heart went out to this tall, big man who was sobbing like a child. He adored his birds. I will relate your message to him about the electric wires. It is an excellent idea to run the wires on the top as well as the bottom. Bottom ones would have never crossed my mind. He moved the remaining birds into his garage for the time being until the coop is secured. Thank you so much for the electric wire information; much appreciated!

Lual


I

 

[Audio51]

Well I'm totally bummed out right now

and officially need a lock for my home office...(Warning: rant to follow

)
I've had my Brinsea on top of an old dresser full of my craft and sewing stuff in my office/craft room since I got it last spring (no one ever gets into the dresser but me). My last hatch was 35 out of 37 from my own eggs.
2 weeks ago I set 24 Orp eggs in the Brinsea and another 20 a few days later in a borrowed Farm Innovators; of course, I set the ones I really wanted in the Brinsea. This is the first hatch I've done since I'm now back in the office 45+ hours a week so am not home to keep an eye on humidity; temp, etc. I did a quick candleing (just stuck the light on top of a few eggs) on day 4 and was very excited to see quite a bit of nice veining. However it is the 3 year old (now being watched by DH) that I didn't factor in.

...somehow between day 4 and day 10 my brinsea was bumped hard enough to cause a spiderweb crack on the BOTTOM of one of the eggs and must have detached the embryos on some others.

(DH doesn't know what happened) So Day 10 I pulled 3 clears and 2 bloodrings and had 8 more that didn't look right. This morning I confirmed that those 8 are dead. So I'm down to 11 out of 24, including 1 cracked egg that probably won't make it

...rant over...Guess I'm spending my lunch hour buying a locking door knob...

Oh no! So sorry to hear that. Glad you still have some that look OK. My then-3-year-old granddaughter got into my birdroom a few years ago and killed one of my mosaic canaries. She was raising chicks with her mate and Sydney wanted to "pet" her. Fortunately the male was able to finish raising the babies alone. I was so upset, but couldn't really get mad at a 3 year old. I now have a lock on that door too..

Quote:

Maybe the Silkie people here can answer. Do silike hens crow. Ive heard other breeds will do this but Neal just called me and he has a small silkie pen with 2 hens and a roo and is getting 2 eggs a day from the pen on occasions. However yesterday one of the hens was crowing in unison with the roo. He was so blown away by this that he was going to call up the University in Maryland where he took his poultry science classes and ask them about this.

For those who do not know Neal he is a retired gentleman who posts occasionally here under @1zooman12 . Being a bit on the older side of the scale his computer monitoring is minimal so if he raises questions to me I come here for answers because as mentioned earlier this is the best thread on BYC.

I had an EE hen that crowed for a while the dominant hen in my flock was incubating eggs. As soon as she had a=hatched chicks and was back with the flock, the wanna-be-rooster stopped crowing.

Quote: Those are gorgeous!

A friend of mine called devestadet over the death his chickens which were killed last night. They were kept in a large coop with chain link, lined with chicken wire. Somehow, Raccoons ripped the chicken wire, reached in through the chain link, and which ever chickens they could reach, tore them apart.
He walked into a blood bath this morning. Some were still alive, but, beyond saving, so he had to end their suffering. Many of his beloved chickens are dead, and he is beyond consoling. My heart goes out to him and his poor, lovely chickens who had a horrible death.
It is breeding time for many predators, and they are on the prowl. Raccoons have no problem ripping the regular chicken wires. I hope this horrific incident doesn't happen again.

Lual

How awful for him! I can't imagine walking out to something like that!

I also just scored a small flatbed trailer I am going to build a mobile coop on top of so my ladies can roam around different parts of our farm - pictures of that project coming soon if anyone is interested in doing something similar!

Thank you so much for your inspiration and fun ideas

That sounds like a great idea! I wish I had the space to need a rolling hen house!

Quote:

I felt so bad, and my heart went out to this tall, big man who was sobbing like a child. He adored his birds. I will relate your message to him about the electric wires. It is an excellent idea to run the wires on the top as well as the bottom. Bottom ones would have never crossed my mind. He moved the remaining birds into his garage for the time being until the coop is secured. Thank you so much for the electric wire information; much appreciated!

Lual


I
A friend of mine up the road ha a bear get into her coop last year. She added the electrified tape to hers too and has not had any repeats...

 

[farmhand]

I have a one year old Cream Legbar over EE cross that is toying with going broody. But every night she is roosting with the others. I'm leaving non-fertal eggs I've marked for her hoping she comes around. I have 14 eggs in a incubator for Easter which I think is more than she could handle. Hoping if she gets serious I could give her some and hopefully give her the other chicks after they hatch in the dark of night. That's my plan. Open to ideas.

 

[sol2go]

That would be great. I am trying to scale back, but I don't have any birds that lay blue eggs and that is just not acceptable. LOL I figure the Ameraucana girls can live with my Orps since the eggs will be easy to tell apart. That is my reasoning anyway. : )

Hi Deann,

I enjoyed the CL type evaluation at your place last spring with Walt. It sounds like you no longer have CL's?

…trying to catch up with the thread, found the note that you sold your flock…glad to have met you while you still had them.

 

[joydix]

Hi..not sure if this is the right place to post...i live in NORTHERN CA! 2 hours north of SF...i have 14 hens various breeds/standard and bantam....i am sure i will have a broody in the next month and looking for bantam barred rock hatching eggs...anyone raising those darlings? i have a source in PA but that is kinda far for shipping....willing to chance it tho if need be.
All my girls are my favorite. Spitzhaubens are a total kick..so curious and adventurous...as are the brabanter of which i have two. Also self blue silkie bantam, white bantam cochin, welsummer, russian orloff, two EEs,porcelain d'uccle, quail d'anver, 2 polish and a black copper maran.....in my opinion NO. CA starts at SF....or in your heart! joy