Colorado

[Mtn Margie]

Greetings Coloradoans (and others!)- am new member to the site but have been referring to it for anonymously to educate myself on chickens. Thank you for all the advice and tips that I have been pilfering I have three chickens (1 year olds) and will be adding a couple more next year. We live outside of Durango.

Hey everyone!

We live in the foothills west of Denver. We're new to raising chickens and to this site. It's been a wealth of information for us!! I'm glad I happened upon this thread - seems like some great information specific to our beautiful state! I will have to check back often and catch up on the information that's been brought up here on all these pages.....

We adopted 6 hens from a friend about a month ago. We have two Orloffs, two Ideals, an EE and a Red Sex Link. They are all great layers (at least at this time of year). I never realized how much fun raising hens could be!!

We also have two chesapeake bay retrievers - trying to train them that the girls are NOT the birds they are bred to hunt!

Hey you two,

!!!!

 

[Mtn Margie]

so is this your first time raising broilers? I am curious about those as well and might be something we consider down the road, like next year.

No, this would be my forth batch of meaties. Last year I raised my own eggs for meaties and that worked out pretty well, only you have more crowing and fighting amongst the males because they are older when you process them.

Mtn Margie I can't wait to hear the conclusion of the Meaties! What kind of quail are you setting? Do they incubate fewer days than chickens?

Jumbo Coturnix and about 16 days. ( If they are super jumbo, they take longer, 19 days) They are in the incubator...... you know me, I have only been mulling this over for a couple of years and COsteveo from the Colorado Hatching Eggs thread had some available.

 

[ColoradoPeeps]

COLORADO PEEPS.....Check out what happened last night to my neighbor's coop. There were actually some 8 survivors of the 15 birds she had left, how we cannot tell. The old girl of the coop, "Broken Toe", made it. She's 8 years old. Some others must've woken up enough to run outside the coop. The coop floor was ankle deep in feathers. There were piles of feathers outside. It was a rout.

He broke all the roosts

He ripped the inside door apart, that's 1/4" steel mesh...but it was only attached with staples, not poultry/fence staples. It was meant to just separate the birds from their supplies storage, never thinking he would get in through the tuff shed door.

He dismantled the outside door, we can't even TELL how he turned the lever to open the door he ripped 1x3's off of..we can't believe he intended to turn the handle but that must've been what happened.And look at the SIZE of him.

This bear has broken into her coop 3 times int he past 3 weeks. She's down from 25 birds to 8, and we had to take one to the local DVM for dispatch this morning as she had a sucking chest wound (a lung sac was showing), we think her leg was broken, and she was dragging a wing. We gave her a big dose of Metacam, and drove her over to the DVM who promptly dispatched her with some neck move I could never in a million years pull off.
And that door is wedged in the opening, neither of us can dislodge it. He apparently couldn't get in there (there were no chickens in the outside run anyway) so moved on to the tuff (well not so tuff today) shed to the right, where the chickens ARE. He'd already ripped the far side of this fencing July 5 and ate all the birds who were outside-in-the-run roosters. Didn't leave a feather either.

We;re thinking it's time to report him. I've built "Bear Mats" that I saw on Buying Alaska on HGTV and put them around my coop, plus I've added a big wide truck strap that I wrap around the whole coop after we replaced the one latch he broke 3 weeks ago and put up angle aluminum on the opening to which we attached big hefty double jointed around-the-corner hasps; he'll have to dismantle the door to get in IF he can get past the 2-inch tight truck strap (while STANDING on very pokey screws). But it's apparent he CAN dismantle a door. Plus I mounted a big double halogen light motion detector setup we found at Costco so that when he approaches the coop, he gets blinded by the light. We think that's why he stopped at one latch when he attacked my coop July 7. Now he's getting a painful place to stand if he approaches my coop again.

Gosh this is upsetting. I took care of this neighbor's birds during the flood and was quite fond of them.

Marcia in Pinewood Springs

Oh my goodness that is HORRIBLE!!! Thank you for letting me know. The pictures were very helpful in actually "seeing" the damage a bear can do. We are currently in the process of building our coop and this will help us.

I have heard that once a bear gets a chicken (or any livestock) it will always come back. The only thing is to have Animal Control or Dept of Wildlife "handle the situation".

I am so sorry for your friends loss

 

[cluckcluckgirl]

Welcome to BYC and this thread!

 

[Pozees]

I'm sorry for everyone else's losses. It's the hard part of raising animals.
I was just talking with DH about adding more predator proofing to the coop. Right now the run has the wire buried (2x4 welded wire with chicken wire around the bottom also) but I still feel like the back sides of the actual coop are a weak spot. We already had a skunk in the run when it was closed, and it got back out somehow too, so I know we aren't secure enough. We have a lot of foxes in the area so we were talking about burying the expanded metal we so graciously got from Percheron Chick, around the outside of everything.

We were also talking about what we need to do to keep the rain out of the covered area next to the coop. The roof leaks like crazy. It was supposed to be their nice dry area during storms but it ends up worse than the run. I think the wet ground is really starting to take it's toll on the birds. I think that contributed to the loss yesterday then today while spending time with them I noticed our D'Uccle was standing with one foot up. Sure enough she has a sore on the bottom of her foot. Luckily it looks like it just happened, so no swelling or bumblefoot symptoms. I'm going to soak it, clean it, coat it, and wrap it for her today.

Another project once the covered area is rain proofed, is to separate it into a bathing/dry area and a breeding area. Ah the projects!

In the meantime you might consider some Sweet PDZ, shavings, and/or straw in the run - that's what I had to do twice this year when we were deluged with rain and the runs were a stinky, soggy mess. I put down the PDZ, then some shavings, then some straw. Now the waterers load up with straw every day, but the walking surface is nice on their feet and mine

Jumbo Coturnix and about 16 days. ( If they are super jumbo, they take longer, 19 days) They are in the incubator...... you know me, I have only been mulling this over for a couple of years and COsteveo from the Colorado Hatching Eggs thread had some available.

I am happy that you finally got quail eggs and look forward to your hatch report! I've been mulling over trying to hatch some Gambel Quail eggs to release at home and at work, my boss wants me to try and I'm still on the fence about whether they would have a high enough survival rate. They are indigenous but the drought really took its toll, and this year I've seen only one pair at home and one pair at work.

 

[trsturself]

In the meantime you might consider some Sweet PDZ, shavings, and/or straw in the run - that's what I had to do twice this year when we were deluged with rain and the runs were a stinky, soggy mess. I put down the PDZ, then some shavings, then some straw. Now the waterers load up with straw every day, but the walking surface is nice on their feet and mine

I am happy that you finally got quail eggs and look forward to your hatch report! I've been mulling over trying to hatch some Gambel Quail eggs to release at home and at work, my boss wants me to try and I'm still on the fence about whether they would have a high enough survival rate. They are indigenous but the drought really took its toll, and this year I've seen only one pair at home and one pair at work.

I put a thing of shavings in the covered area to help soak up the sludge. They had straw in their run but it needs to be refreshed. I just told DH we need to empty the trailer so I can go get a few bales of straw. I meant to grab PDZ while I was at Murdoch's yesterday but I didn't see it so I forgot. I'll try to grab some tomorrow at Big R. I don't think it will help much in their run, it's too large, but it will definitely help in the enclosed area.
DH is talking about adding more dirt to one end of the run and sloping it so the water will run out instead of pooling.

 

[trsturself]

Heard a great tip on another thread. When you quote pics, double click on the pic and set the width or height to 100. It makes the pics smaller so it helps with the scrolling but everyone can still see what you are replying to. So much nicer!

 

[samsr]

The wife says that it is time to find a new home for the white silkie roo. If anyone is interested, send me a PM. Yup we will be free. He is a good guy. we are just getting to many roos with this new batch of chicks that have just hatched.

 

[Mtn Margie]

I put a thing of shavings in the covered area to help soak up the sludge. They had straw in their run but it needs to be refreshed. I just told DH we need to empty the trailer so I can go get a few bales of straw. I meant to grab PDZ while I was at Murdoch's yesterday but I didn't see it so I forgot. I'll try to grab some tomorrow at Big R. I don't think it will help much in their run, it's too large, but it will definitely help in the enclosed area.
DH is talking about adding more dirt to one end of the run and sloping it so the water will run out instead of pooling.

My runs are on hills, but I was thinking that maybe while fixing the runoff options you could also give them outdoor roosts, like a couple big logs or rocks or some such thing where they could be up out of the mud if they so choose. That way they can dry off their feet and clean up if they want. You could pretty easily make them an elevated play area.

 

[Mtn Margie]

I am happy that you finally got quail eggs and look forward to your hatch report! I've been mulling over trying to hatch some Gambel Quail eggs to release at home and at work, my boss wants me to try and I'm still on the fence about whether they would have a high enough survival rate. They are indigenous but the drought really took its toll, and this year I've seen only one pair at home and one pair at work.

I think that is a wonderful idea! Of course the grass is four feet high around here so there would be lots of cover and seeds for them, but I don't know what it is looking like where you are. Quail are not at our elevation, turkeys are though. Not sure what the CO laws on releasing them would be - I think that is okay to do. At least there are lots of other rodents out there for the predators to eat this year, so maybe it would be a good year for them to go.