Chicken Math is real. 0 to 10 in 72 hrs.

[Nomadicus]

(Sun Aug 11th - Day 115)
Moving day!
Into the dog carrier they go for the short ride in my gorilla cart to the backyard.
View attachment 3916125
Family photo time!


Forgot to take a pic of the finishing touches on the one sided ladder used to reach my roosting platforms. Chopped up a felled crepe myrtle branch and attached sections w/ #8x2" screws to a reclaimed picket, spaced 6" apart before turning it on an angle, so actual horizontal distance is roughly 4" apart. Feels plenty stable to me, but the chickens will likely need a bit of adjusting before they take to it.
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I probably put too much stock in all the discussion around having roosts be the same height. Probably should have let them just figure it all out.

Now that I actually put the Snap Lock in there, everything is a lot tighter than I really want it to be. Just the reality of trying to do the best I can with the dimensions we have. Mrs ATXInstantFlock hasn't tried accessing the nesting boxes, but I might have to lop a few inches off those legs if she can't reach the nesting boxes. Same goes for my little chicken farmer.

The dogs will probably have to be supervised for a bit. They were very curious about their new feathered siblings. They jumped on the hardware cloth a couple times and scared the girls into adopting a defensive pack formation. Aquilo did his duty to let out some big roos and stand tall in the face of perceived danger.
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Nice setup you have now. I need six of those for various pet groups I have now. I keep working at it and maybe one day I will have a nice set up like you have here. Less the dog and cat.

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

Nice setup you have now. I need six of those for various pet groups I have now. I keep working at it and maybe one day I will have a nice set up like you have here. Less the dog and cat.

Thanks!
No cats here though. Just my wife's little dachshund/ chihuahua mix. We were told he was a beagle/dachshund mix and got tricked. Now he cries whenever I leave the house.

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

(Sun Aug 11th - Day 115 continued)
Getting everyone in for the night in the coop outside was uneventful except that nobody wanted to go into the coop and stay there. I resorted to locking the front door and putting them in via the SnapLock's roof one by one. I made the mistake of leaving the two most skittish hens for last. Cue scenes from Rocky trying to catch chickens, as well as Karen screaming bloody murder when she realized her flock was gone. I am now more afraid of my hens screaming bloody murder than I am of my roo waking people up in the morning.

(Mon Aug 12th - Day 116)
Everyone came out of the coop when I popped the door around 8AM. Checked all the nesting boxes and there were no eggs to be found, so the wait continues.

I decided to leave a small dog bowl full of crushed egg shells out there when I left them some carrots right before dinner. They made a mess of things in under 15 minutes.

Tonight I wanted to try lighting the inside of the chip on goes off making it more attractive. I've got all the bearing boxes and round panels cracked open for extra airflow, so I just wedged a headlamp in there.

Seemed to do it's job, but I only had one taker who jumped in on her own. I stuck half the flock in through the front door, but one of them kept wanting to walk back out, so I resorted to locking the door and dropping the last 5 in via the roof. Today, I put Carrie and Karen in first. Wasn't making that mistake again!
I never wanted a roo, but I have to say I've been getting a deep appreciation for Aquilo. He never dives in first for treats, making his soft little clicking noises to let the girls know treats have arrived. Tonight he caught me completely by surprise and decided he was going to do his best impression of a falcon by jumping onto my forearm.

It definitely wasn't an act of aggression, I think he just figured that would give him an ever so slightly better vantage point. I half expected to emerge with a bloody forearm when I got back in the light. He was surprisingly gentle. I could certainly feel his claws on my skin and since he caught me completely by surprise, I didn't make the most stable perch, but I have only the most superficial scratches on my arm and no cuts or gouges, per se. Going to make sure I clean my arm very well, just in case, but an interesting encounter for sure.

Same pic, with adjusted exposure:

 

[NagemTX]

I have had to resort to water jet the tree roosting birds untill they learned the command get out of the tree and in the coop. I just say it most the time now and they come running out of the tree and if not I pick up the hose and they do.

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

(Tue Aug 13 - Day 117)
Now that they're outside, I didn't want to leave food out 24/7 or have to so I picked up a treadle feeder.

Thanks to the fine people at Rat Proof Chicken Feeder who provided a quality product with great training videos. After 30s of initial "training", He He and Jigglebutt started on breakfast and they've already taught Angela how to eat from it.

Angela, that's not a roost!

In other news, my little chicken farmer was excited to pop open their door and check for eggs this morning, so hopefully I will have more help moving forward.

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

So, sunset is now, but it's apparently buffet time.

 

[Devyn Nagy]

View attachment 3809658

Can I have this?

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

(Wed Aug 14 - Day 118)
Apologies in advance for the long diary entry without pictures, but I had to share.

I figured today was not going to go well. My chicken farmer's younger sibling woke up in the middle of the night, burning hot. Forehead thermometer temped her with a 104F fever.

As much as we're starting to love our little flock, you gotta take care of the humans, first.
Seems like I was destined for a crap day, right?

Wrong! Turns out... I still had a heck of a day, with just about everything going right on the end.

• The little one's fever broke after a single dose of Tylenol and other than falling asleep at the dinner table, she ended up being fine.
• My little chicken farmer came out with me to the coop this morning to let them out and there were no complaints from the farmer or the chickens! She genuinely thought it was fun and wanted to help. Sprinklers ran last night and did dampen parts of the pen, but it didn't smell overly poopy and it's been hot enough that they were probably happy for the extra moisture. I'll keep an eye on those grass clippings, but so far it looks like the girls have been snacking responsibly and scratching the rest into the mulch, so maybe I'll have a legitimate deep litter composting system going in a few months.
• The Mrs suggested using their old gravity feeders instead of old dog bowls for oyster shells, so I filled one up so they could free feed on it, a la carte. Upon entry, I was absolutely swarmed by the entire flock. They probably thought it was easy access feed, but after realizing it was oyster shells, most turned away to go mess with yesterday's grass clippings or the treadle buffet of crumbles and pellets. After the initial flurry, I didn't see a ton of demand for it, but I did see Angela casually pecking at the dish of egg shells all day, so they'll probably come back to it sooner rather than later. Hopefully this will be less messy than the dog bowl of shells I put out.
• Drove to Lockhart to pick up a Pullet Shut automatic door and met some of the nicest folks that run that business. I'm not usually a "I only buy American" kind of guy. While I love my country, some stuff just doesn't seem worth paying extra money for the same thing or even inferior products. As such, it was a pleasant surprise for me to end up with three of my biggest ticket items coming from the good ole US of A. My investigation into the marketplace convinced me that they sell a quality product at a reasonable price that actually comes with some useful bells and whistles. They talked me into the photo sensor (I was originally just going to use it in timer mode), but other than that, they just seemed like proud inventors wanting to show off their work. Weren't pushy about anything or trying to upsell me. My treadle was made from a hobbyist side business in Oklahoma, my coop is made in Georgia, and now my automatic door came from right here in Texas. I love the idea that all 3 seemed to have come from someone who liked chickens and just saw a need and wasn't just trying to churn out cheap crap.
• Went out at dusk with my little chicken farmer to tuck the flock in. After 2 days of having to manually intervene, every last chicken went in on their own! It took a good 20-25 min after dusk, and Aquilo cock-a-doodle-doo-ing up a storm, but they did it! Karen and Carrie (my two "barred rocks" that aren't barred rocks were clearly kinda scared at the prospect of going into the coop and at one point we're hunkered down on the outside roosting bar cowering behind Aquilo. I did pick them up and place them back on the roosting bar closer to the door, and they eventually did find their way in, but after my rooster.

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

(Sun Aug 18th - Day 122)

I let my little chicken farmer have the first one. It was tiny, but she said it was delicious!

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

I forgot to ask earlier, but now that it's been a few more months, does anyone want to take a stab at guessing the breed of my birds that were mislabelled as Barred Rocks?
My untrained eye says both are single combs, albeit of different sizes. They are both about 4 months old and are noticeably smaller (75% size?) than most of the others(golden sex link, black sex link, RIR, and we think White Leghorn). Did we get sold bantams by mistake?