Chat N Chicknfun Thread

[chicknfun]

Quote:

TY Chirp,

Quote: OK, I agree!!!!! Hope it works!!!!!!

Poor chicknfun!

Ucky luck you have been having.

I think the drenching rain is cool.....mostly because we never have that kind of rain here. We never have warm rain either

we have rain that is almost always soft gentle mist like rain. The kind of rain where you have to look out the window awhile to see if it is raining or not.

I don't mind the drenching rain in short bursts. We have lots of sand under the top soil, and it soaks in fast. But I don't have vegetables growing either, that is frustrating to have your plants beat up as per Chirp's comments on re-tying up veggie plants!!!

OK....I am going slightly mental.

So..... Ever since I first got back into chickens..maybe four years back....I am always loosing some. Just one or two at a time, so traumatic, but I moved on.

I kept trying to improve the run, or fix the reason that I lost one. Kept trying different things trying to improve my setup.

This past winter, a dog broke into my coop. It was the first time I had ever lost a chicken because of a coop break in. It was the first time I ever had a coop break in. That dog smushed itself through a little chicken pop door that was mostly wedged closed. I didn't have it latched closed because an ice **** was in the way.

That dog killed every since chicken I had. Had over thirty. ( the dog was taken to the pound, the dog owner gave me some money for the loss)

So.....I got chicks this spring, and they are now out in a chicken tractor, so I can spend all summer working on my chicken runs, and making them totally raptor and dog proof.

But, I am SO scared that those little chicks will all get eaten. There are still dogs in the neighborhood, and I think I hear a #%^* eagle pair nesting somewhere close to my house. I keep going out and checking on them...totally paranoid.

I have started upgrading the chicken coop..... But I am stuck on the run.

I really need to trench around the entire fence, and put in some below ground fence ( for the dog, but there are also some erosion spots where I could loose a chicken). I probably need to put a second layer or different wire on top of the wire that is already there, to make the fence more dog proof. I also need to fence the entire top of my run (because of the raptors, and so no chickens can fly out). But I need to set it up so that the roof frame on the run is very steep, built very strong, almost like a real roof (because of my heavy snow load) but I was thinking of using chicken wire on the top ( for the raptors...they have dived through net before, and past flapping white sheets). And that run roof frame, needs to be built strong enough to withstand the heavy snow loads. I want to use chicken wire on it, instead of real roof because chicken wire is way cheaper.

So.....right now I am stalling.......

I could toss something together, half assed, but then I can see the entire thing collapsing under the first snow fall, and maybe even damaging my coop. I hate the idea of spending the time and the money to do something that isn't going to last even a year. But the amount of money to do it well...... Is staggering.

I could go cheap, and use stuff from my junk piles.....but I look at my garden fence, where tree trunks over a foot in diameter were used as posts...and they are rotting. Royal pain to pull those out and replace them....I don't want to do that for the run.

Anyway.....I just thought I would vent a bit.

Honey- you vent all you want, that's part of the reason for our thread!!
Here you go, you can use these too, if you want- copy and paste away!!

 

[chicknfun]

Does anyone know the breeds of these ducks?

Hi Kenny08

Welcome to our little chat thread,

and

! ! !

I don't know what kind of ducks they are, but they sure are cute!!
Good Luck with them, how old are they?
Someone will come along that will know, but the best place to post that question is in the Duck thread.

 

[chirpingcricket]

TY Chirp,

OK, I agree!!!!! Hope it works!!!!!!
I don't mind the drenching rain in short bursts. We have lots of sand under the top soil, and it soaks in fast. But I don't have vegetables growing either, that is frustrating to have your plants beat up as per Chirp's comments on re-tying up veggie plants!!!
Honey- you vent all you want, that's part of the reason for our thread!!
Here you go, you can use these too, if you want- copy and paste away!!

Geez Alaskan, and I thought we had problems with critters. I can just imagine Eagles.

Really not much help here 'cause we mostly used securedly wired open air pens. We tend to go with tin roofing, or those further north of us use wood/shingles, etc. From where you are setting up shop, I would try to find someway to build that wooded chicken house with angled wood roof due to snow....,do you have access to concrete blocks? Build walls of that and wood/tin roof?

1. Then the run could be the chicken wire around the top/and sides (works only to keep chickens in....)
and then re-inforce sides/bottoms with hardware cloth wire about 18" to 2 feet high (to keep predators out)
...$$$ The hardware cloth is hard to work with but very strong. The roof could be a combo of sturdy wood/plywood and roofing tin. I would avoid just covering it with chicken wire only, though, as you know, wouldn't hold up to snow or predators. This could be tarped on the sides to extend outdoor time for the ladies.

2. Another thought on the scrap metal roofing tin, with respect to the run, instead of the 2 foot high gaurd around the bottom of hardware cloth wire, you could use the roofing tin and tack on it's side horizontally, kinda like framing the bottom with tin vs wood, to frame/reinforce that portion. Gives the chicks a way to "duck" from predator paws reaching through the chicken wire.

3. The roofing tin could also be buried partially underground, again on its side/edge horizontally to make a "wall" about 1 foot underneath all around the parameter. I know that's $$ too.
This could also be done using chicken wire buried about 1 foot deep/trenched, in hopes a critter gets tangled in it if it burrows under.

4. Another way tin roofing is used....is to place in flat on the ground, around the permiter of the coop or run or tractor.
Build or place your run or tractor on top of it. Put in so there is about 6 inches extending into the inside on the chicken pen, etc. (so chicks can't scratch out) underneath their pen, and the remainder of it flat extending at ground level on the other side of the frame chicken pen/run/tractor. Cover with dirt/rocks, so critters can't dig in underneath the edge of the pen.

You will still need to place about 2 feet of protection along the lower walls of the pen/run etc., using hardware cloth or add'l roofing tin to keep predator paws from reaching in and grabbing the birds. I have noticed they get caught while sun bathing, sleeping near the edges of the pen, or the predators will chase them around and around, trying to get them all in one corner or area, and reaching in or diggin under to grab a neck, claw or wing.

Hope this wasn't too confusing and that it gives you a few ideas.....

 

[Bama1]

Hey yall. I try to make my pen and coop so secure that a bear couldnt get in, so since that is unlikely here in town, any dogs or racoons shouldnt be able to. My eggs are starting to hatch! I have one white silkie out and one blue silkie pipped. Plenty more to go plus cream legbars and sulmtalers. in-laws got here around noon and got to see the silkie hatch. So cool!

 

[Alaskan]

Yeah! New chickies are always a treat!

 

[chickadoodles]

Hey yall. I try to make my pen and coop so secure that a bear couldnt get in, so since that is unlikely here in town, any dogs or racoons shouldnt be able to. My eggs are starting to hatch! I have one white silkie out and one blue silkie pipped. Plenty more to go plus cream legbars and sulmtalers.

in-laws got here around noon and got to see the silkie hatch. So cool!

Congrats on your new chickies!

 

[chirpingcricket]

Hey yall. I try to make my pen and coop so secure that a bear couldnt get in, so since that is unlikely here in town, any dogs or racoons shouldnt be able to. My eggs are starting to hatch! I have one white silkie out and one blue silkie pipped. Plenty more to go plus cream legbars and sulmtalers.

in-laws got here around noon and got to see the silkie hatch. So cool!

All right!!!!

 

[Alaskan]

OK....what was I thinking????

A few months back, in a fit of something, I ordered two turkey poults. The feed store called me today saying they had showed up, and could I come get them. After a"huh?" "Turkeys? For me?" "oh! Right! Turkeys!" I went and got my first ever baby turkeys.

WOW!! TURKEYS! The poults peep when they are hungry, so you can go over to their brooder and peck in their feed dish, and then they eat.

 

[chicknfun]

Good Morning All !!!

YAY, Rain is gone!!!!!!!

Yesterday was crazy, weather wise!! I got all the young chickens in cages and back in the house,
It rained a little, then lots of wind through the night.........now it's just gone!!!!!! Not a breeze, not a rain drop, just gone!!

Thank God that storm was a fast mover!!

OK Guys and Dolls, I did talk with our Silver, she is ok, and in the throes of getting ready to make her journey. Saturday is the moving day, yep, you guessed it, Tomorrow!! So, I am guessing It is going to be a few days to maybe a week before she will be joining us again regularly.
Let's all wish her a great trip and send lots of good vibes her way!!!!!! She is a great girl and presently has an awful lot on her plate.

You GO Girl,

So, my kids are out of school as of yesterday, so you know what that means......YAY, I have help to finish the pens!!!!

After getting all the brooders out. Then Peepers going broody again, and me having to bring her in and all the young chickens.....then this week my double ordered d'uccles came in , in the wrong color, I now have more birds in the house than I did before I got them all out!
There's a tower of chicks next to my front door 5 ft tall!!!!!

Question: Roos have a higher body temp in general, right? So I have one little Mille Fleur D'uccle that is panting constantly. The others are doing fine.......could that be an indication that one is a roo and the others hens? OMG, they are soooooo cute!! There's 5 in all, the 6th one didn't make the journey well. I guess I have not educated FSG well enough, because they were supposed to be Porcelains, not Mille's, but i am not going to complain, they're just too cute!!

I candled last night, my broody's eggs. Out of 8 total, 2 were inferts and the rest look good, far as I can tell. The blue eggs are dang hard to see into. so now I have going- 2 ee muts, another Pogo muttand 3 Peepers eggs, could be mutts, could end up being all silkie, or a combination of the two.........Let's hope for all silkie out of those 3!!!!!!!
DH found the candling interesting, but after the first 2 eggs, he was un-eggcited again.
Yesterday was day 10.

OK y'all, have a great day!!!!

&

Chick

 

[chicknfun]

OK....what was I thinking????

A few months back, in a fit of something, I ordered two turkey poults. The feed store called me today saying they had showed up, and could I come get them. After a"huh?" "Turkeys? For me?" "oh! Right! Turkeys!" I went and got my first ever baby turkeys.

WOW!! TURKEYS! The poults peep when they are hungry, so you can go over to their brooder and peck in their feed dish, and then they eat.

YAY, Alaskan!!!! New Turkey babes!!!!! Good Luck with them!!!!