Father Chicken
Hatching
- Aug 28, 2015
- 8
- 0
- 7
I'm new to the forum. My chicken life began about 3 years ago when some chickens started running the city neighborhood. Yes, city neighborhood. Instead of killing them, my neighbors and I enjoyed watching them.
After seeing how destructive the hens are when scratching to find food, I had enough. I built a trap pen to catch them, and A tarp over my 16' fenced garden through winter worked until they all escaped.
Several months later, a good price on fence wire led me to build a 12 x 3 foot pen which has served its purpose until two months ago. These chickens have reproduced like rabbits coming out of the woodwork. So... The pictures you see on my profile are of the big pen I built a month ago. Little did I know that this perfect coop, so I thought, would not be enough for all the hens running around.
I built an 8' extension to make 16' total. Still didn't quite have the closet style coop just right. They would leave droppings where they would sleep in the hay, and then have nowhere clean for eggs... Just a mess. Tried a bucket attached to the wall for eggs.. Nope they covered it with droppings or should I say drippings.
Finally, yesterday I took some wood that was given to me for free, and built a 6 chicken - egg box. (Pictures coming soon) This coop has gone from awesome to worthless, to awesome to worthless to practical and huge and awesome again. Honestly, if I didn't enjoy watching them so much, I would have trashed everything a long time ago.
Currently I house 7 hens, two young chickens, and an old rooster. There are still 4 roosters, 2 hens, and 3 young chickens running free.
After seeing how destructive the hens are when scratching to find food, I had enough. I built a trap pen to catch them, and A tarp over my 16' fenced garden through winter worked until they all escaped.
Several months later, a good price on fence wire led me to build a 12 x 3 foot pen which has served its purpose until two months ago. These chickens have reproduced like rabbits coming out of the woodwork. So... The pictures you see on my profile are of the big pen I built a month ago. Little did I know that this perfect coop, so I thought, would not be enough for all the hens running around.
I built an 8' extension to make 16' total. Still didn't quite have the closet style coop just right. They would leave droppings where they would sleep in the hay, and then have nowhere clean for eggs... Just a mess. Tried a bucket attached to the wall for eggs.. Nope they covered it with droppings or should I say drippings.
Finally, yesterday I took some wood that was given to me for free, and built a 6 chicken - egg box. (Pictures coming soon) This coop has gone from awesome to worthless, to awesome to worthless to practical and huge and awesome again. Honestly, if I didn't enjoy watching them so much, I would have trashed everything a long time ago.
Currently I house 7 hens, two young chickens, and an old rooster. There are still 4 roosters, 2 hens, and 3 young chickens running free.
