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

[ATXInstantFlock]

It's instinct to roost high. It's a prime location. Lower ranking birds will be forced to lower locations.

Yep, familiar with that concept, but the funny part is that Carrie, the one roosting by herself, is the one who is usually pecking at every one except the two oldest when they're eating or scratching on the ground floor.

 

[Debbie292d]

Yep, familiar with that concept, but the funny part is that Carrie, the one roosting by herself, is the one who is usually pecking at every one except the two oldest when they're eating or scratching on the ground floor.

Karma?

Never heard of it with chickens, but it sure came to mind.

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

(Tue Jun 4 - Day 47)
Getting dressed to get the oldest kid off to camp around 8AM when I hear a noise. I think it's the dachshund - Chihuahua mix (always crying about something or another, usually food), but it seems faint. Send the kiddo to investigate the chickens (still in the garage while we finish getting the backyard sprinklers sorted) and she says she saw our Roo's mouth open and that noise came out!

I forsee the coop building pace to quicken this week.

Honestly wasn't as loud as I thought it would be, but it absolutely wasn't the tone I expected either. Not much noise after that, so hopefully it's just a wake up call for now. We will continue monitoring the situation.

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

(Wed Jun 12 - Day 55)
El Aquilo, our 9wk old rooster has been crowing a bit more. It's usually quite amusing to us as he often responds when we say, "Hi Chickens!" He's not loud enough to be a legitimate nuisance to neighbors since he's muffled by being in the garage, but we wanted to get ahead of potential problems and try to get him used to a collar.

Yesterday, we had a trial run during the daytime, and Mom was super scared of strangling him to death, by accident. I tried to assure her that if the recommendation is "about a pinky tip of space", I was fairly sure that 3 fingers worth was way too loose. She sat with him and observed him in his own little box while I added some shavings, cleaned and refilled all the feeders; returning him to the group after about an hour. We continued periodic checks during the day and by that time, he seemed to forget he even had one.

This morning, sans collar, Mom got a 5:30AM wake up call.

So today was day 2 of the collar and tonight will be the first time overnight.

We're being super careful so it's definitely not tight enough to reduce his volume at all. Please send us good vibes that he'll sleep in. Some want Mom to send him to freezer camp, just yet.

We assume he isn't fully grown so we'll continue to remove/refit the collar on a daily basis for a while. Wouldn't want him to grow into a choking condition.

We never wanted a roo to begin with, but we're a house of animal lovers so we're trying our best to make things work. After reading about all of the positive benefits a roo can bring to your flock, I would hate to send him away.

 

[DobieLover]

(Wed Jun 12 - Day 55)
El Aquilo, our 9wk old rooster has been crowing a bit more. It's usually quite amusing to us as he often responds when we say, "Hi Chickens!" He's not loud enough to be a legitimate nuisance to neighbors since he's muffled by being in the garage, but we wanted to get ahead of potential problems and try to get him used to a collar.

Yesterday, we had a trial run during the daytime, and Mom was super scared of strangling him to death, by accident. I tried to assure her that if the recommendation is "about a pinky tip of space", I was fairly sure that 3 fingers worth was way too loose. She sat with him and observed him in his own little box while I added some shavings, cleaned and refilled all the feeders; returning him to the group after about an hour. We continued periodic checks during the day and by that time, he seemed to forget he even had one.

This morning, sans collar, Mom got a 5:30AM wake up call.

So today was day 2 of the collar and tonight will be the first time overnight.

We're being super careful so it's definitely not tight enough to reduce his volume at all. Please send us good vibes that he'll sleep in. Some want Mom to send him to freezer camp, just yet.

We assume he isn't fully grown so we'll continue to remove/refit the collar on a daily basis for a while. Wouldn't want him to grow into a choking condition.

We never wanted a roo to begin with, but we're a house of animal lovers so we're trying our best to make things work. After reading about all of the positive benefits a roo can bring to your flock, I would hate to send him away.

Just a fair warning: those collars have killed many cockerels/roosters. I would rehome him so he can have a normal life, which for a male, includes crowing.

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

Just a fair warning: those collars have killed many cockerels/roosters. I would rehome him so he can have a normal life, which for a male, includes crowing.

Appreciate the warning.

I have no expectation that he won't crow, just attempting to see if we can limit his output enough that we don't annoy all the neighbors.

With all due respect, after spending many hours of research on the experiences of others (successes and failures), I'm comfortable with our decision, and we will only try it if we can do it as ethically and responsibly as possible.

Much like responsible owners shouldn't leave dogs outside to howl and bark at all hours of the day, I'm trying to be mindful of the people around me with an animal that lives outside for which it's not really feasible to bring him indoors every night.

As the coop and run get built, their indoor location is about 10' from our bedroom, so his performances are front row experiences. Once he's outside, he will have distance, fences, greenery, and exterior walls to help dampen the reach of his enthusiasm.
We already have rehoming candidates lined up that we trust, but I will send him to freezer camp before we take a chance on just giving him away to complete strangers. We live in TX, and we don't want his fate to end up being a fight to the death.

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

Happy Fathers' Day, y'all! I originally drafted this post a few days ago, but server maintenance happened right when I was about to post. Kinda fitting it now got delayed to Fathers' Day.

(Fri Jun 14 - Day 57)
I wasn't satisfied with the idea of attaching metal roofing/siding to my commercial poultry pen via self tapping screws (making holes) or with pipe clamps (once I brought them home, I decided they weren't strong enough for something structural). As such, my coop progress stalled on the back burner for a few weeks while I ruminated on a better solution.
I recently had the epiphany to use carriage bolts to sandwich the poultry pen frame with two small pieces of wood. While this required yet another trip to the hardware store, I felt relatively confident this would be structurally sound as well as be forgiving of placement mistakes(just loosen nuts and reposition).

Today's summer activities for my little chicken farmer were limited, I roped her into two camps:

• "coop construction camp": She did a great job swinging a hammer for the first time! Got to show her how to use a template to speed up redundant tasks, using clamps to replicate hole drilling, as well as how to work a ratchet.
• "coop maintenance camp": replaced all the litter in the coop, hosed/brushed poop (off of the feeder, waterer, roost bars, litter trays, and support bricks), and refilled litter/food/water when we were done.

I think I've officially got everything I need to feel confident about how to go about coop/run phase 1 in the commercial poultry pen which will give them "indoor"/"outdoor" roosts, a roof over their heads, more ventilation than you could ask for, predator protection via hardware cloth and ~7sq ft of run space per bird (~8-9.5 weeks old ATM). This will at least get them out of the garage and buy me time to construct their run.
As of right now, coop cleanup day is definitely for the birds (pun intended) since I do one tray at a time so they get half the normal space and lose roosting bars until I am done.

(Sun Jun 16 - Day 59)
Best Fathers' Day presents ever!

 

[Debbie292d]

Happy Fathers' Day, y'all! I originally drafted this post a few days ago, but server maintenance happened right when I was about to post. Kinda fitting it now got delayed to Fathers' Day.

(Fri Jun 14 - Day 57)
I wasn't satisfied with the idea of attaching metal roofing/siding to my commercial poultry pen via self tapping screws (making holes) or with pipe clamps (once I brought them home, I decided they weren't strong enough for something structural). As such, my coop progress stalled on the back burner for a few weeks while I ruminated on a better solution.
I recently had the epiphany to use carriage bolts to sandwich the poultry pen frame with two small pieces of wood. While this required yet another trip to the hardware store, I felt relatively confident this would be structurally sound as well as be forgiving of placement mistakes(just loosen nuts and reposition).

Today's summer activities for my little chicken farmer were limited, I roped her into two camps:

• "coop construction camp": She did a great job swinging a hammer for the first time! Got to show her how to use a template to speed up redundant tasks, using clamps to replicate hole drilling, as well as how to work a ratchet.
• "coop maintenance camp": replaced all the litter in the coop, hosed/brushed poop (off of the feeder, waterer, roost bars, litter trays, and support bricks), and refilled litter/food/water when we were done.

I think I've officially got everything I need to feel confident about how to go about coop/run phase 1 in the commercial poultry pen which will give them "indoor"/"outdoor" roosts, a roof over their heads, more ventilation than you could ask for, predator protection via hardware cloth and ~7sq ft of run space per bird (~8-9.5 weeks old ATM). This will at least get them out of the garage and buy me time to construct their run.
As of right now, coop cleanup day is definitely for the birds (pun intended) since I do one tray at a time so they get half the normal space and lose roosting bars until I am done.
View attachment 3864715

(Sun Jun 16 - Day 59)
Best Fathers' Day presents ever!
View attachment 3864711

I love those t-shirts!! They have good taste!

I realize that they're in half the space as you're cleaning, but that's kind of small even if it's the whole space for when they grow into adults.

Also, 7 square feet of run space is shy of what they really should have but it sounds like you're making another run? It's cute for now at their age, but when they're grown, the overcrowding will eventually cause issues with pecking and picking. Chickens can be ruthless when picking on each other, and the two most common causes are overcrowding and too low of protein diet.

You mention you'll be building another coop later. I think you should hurry before you start seeing problems with them. We really want you to be successful here and have happy, healthy chickens.

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

I love those t-shirts!! They have good taste!

Thanks! It was a nice surprise. It wasn't until I opened my gift that I realized chickens have been the primary topic of conversation for weeks now. On sat, my wife actually said, "Is there something you want to talk about that isn't related to chickens?"

I realize that they're in half the space as you're cleaning, but that's kind of small even if it's the whole space for when they grow into adults.

For sure, their current coop is temporary and that 7sq ft per bird I mentioned will basically become their open air coop. I'm hoping to get the roof on the pen tomorrow. Unfortunately had multiple false starts with hog rings and hog rings pliers that were just unsuitable for 1/2" hardware cloth, but I gave in and got metal zip ties, so that should also just be days before that also ready.
Once that's done, I'm going to get to work on the run. That will be about an additional ~12sq ft per bird of run space and I hope to be done with all of that well before they are fully grown.

I wasn't convinced that some of the coop/run plans I've seen floating around were very structurally sound, so I paused to do some more research before doing any more building, but I've already done a bunch of material shopping and hope to be done with that part by the end of the month.

I've seen a few recommendations to ditch the SnapLock coop entirely, but I'm hoping to use at least the nesting boxes or maybe even have it be the night time spot for part of the flock like my rooster since I imagine that will also put a damper on the volume of any early AM crowing.

 

[TexasBlues]

9 weeks sure is early for crowing.
I talked to my neighbors when my cockerels started crowing and they said it didn’t bother them at all and they were eager to get some colorful eggs.
…but I was very paranoid in the beginning that I was upsetting the neighborhood.