Colorado

[coloradogal]

Ok. This is embarrasing...
Chicken math before I even get chickens.
Here's my thought. Ive been wavering between 4 or 5 chickens. Been leaning toward 4...until tonight. Haveing second thoughts now... I hate to get 4 tomorrow and then in 6 months decide I want a fifth and have to integrate a chick into an established flock (not to mention I don't have the space to raise hens AND achick).
So I guess it boils down to space. I'm just on the cusp of ha ing room for five. I have 16 ftsq of coop space and 48ftsq of run. I plan to "free range" them in the yard for a few hours each evening. If they would be happy in this enviorment I'd prefer to go with 5.
I invite all to chime in as I figure the more opinions the better.
And oh yeah...I have till 2:00 pm tomorrow to decide : )
and no, I haven't been drinking!
Mo

Here's the best write up that I've seen for chickens and space.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chickens-and-space-the-in-your-face-answers

I have found that you have to plan for the worse weather days and not the best. Here, that tends to be during blizzards where they can't free range. 4 large chickens is really close to you max for the space that you have when you factor in food/water. When the wind is blowing, the coop doors will not be open because of blowing snow. Even then, so often snow has a way of getting into you coop but this can be mitigated with a tarp somewhat thrown around it.

But.... 4 chickens may not be enough to keep them warm in the winter. A standard chicken generates 15w of heat so that is about 60w of heat. I also know from experience that when the temps get subzero and the snow is blowing, the guilt is tremendous. I found myself getting up every hour in the blizzards and just making sure the tarps held. I used a cheap 8X8 tent last winter and filled it with 4 bales of straw and put woodchips down for them during the worse of the days. They would go in there and stay all day with the wind blowing. The tent never blew away, even though my greenhouse did. I suspect me going out and brushing off the snow continuously helped as did the bales of hay that kept it in place.

So I'm not sure what to tell you. Just make the best decision that you can do at time and work with what you end up with. You'll figure out the best way for your situation.

mayah

 

[Minchi]

Quote:
I would love to use sand but my husband absolutely hates the stuff. I grouted the bathroom because it had sand in it so sand is a no go.

 

[coloradogal]

So today was productive. I took the week off, as i will be doing the revolutionary War encampment at Rock Ledge Ranch over the 4th, so today was a "free" day. Tomorrow is the get ready and set up day at rock Ledge. So i got up early (5:00AM) to see which cockerels were crowing. All of the show Dominique cockerels were crowing, though their attempts were pretty lame, two of the EE cockerels, and two of the hatchery Doms were crowing., or at least attempting to. Very entertaining.
I turned the compost, added dirt to the barrel potatoes, Cleaned the waterers, added feed and toped of the water for both pens; and then started working on the hen house. Here is how it looks now:



Here are a couple of Narragansett turkey shots as well. Everybody is growing and doing great.

Told you guys that Wendell was an incredible carpenter.

 

[Minchi]

Anyone here buy there feed from ranch way feed in Foco? What are your thoughts on it/them?

 

[wsmith]

Told you guys that Wendell was an incredible carpenter.

Good thing you're not looking too close.... , but thanks!

 

[wsmith]

That is looking so good.

Thanks! I still have to place and cut out the windows, then build the roof trusses and install the roofing. That should be interesting.

Then build the nest boxes inside and build the roosts and the dood. Oh ya, and cut out the chicken door! I don't want anything supported b y the dirt floor, I want it to stay clear. After all that I will need to paint it. I wonder what colors there are at the county hazmat drop off site.....

 

[ONSTAD1]

Well, I posted this on 4 threads and the answers were across the board. Pretty much a 50/50 split between 4 or 5 chicks. Thanks for all your input. Think I'm just going to drive up to Loveland and see how the mood takes me...guessing with 16 little chicks peeping at me and crawling in my hand, 5 get a new home... but who knows. The universe will provide ; )

mo

 

[coloradochick]

Yeah Mo, who are you trying to kid, 4 or 5 HA!!! Chicken math will prevail and commone sense will go out the window SWOOSH!!

 

[kmatt87]

Yeah Mo, who are you trying to kid, 4 or 5 HA!!! Chicken math will prevail and commone sense will go out the window SWOOSH!!

i think you'll end up with 6

its a nice even number and with chicken math......... lol

 

[kmatt87]

ok. I need some help. My run STINKS!!! Its in dirt and the chicken spend most of their days in their since my Shepard mix wants to chase them. I'm planning on raking it out today and getting rid of the top layer of stuff (poo, leaves, sticks, leftover grass clippings from 3 wks ago, etc etc). I was thinking of tossing a bag of sand in there and mix it with some sweet pdz. But I've put straight pdz in there and it didn't help much.

Anyone else have this problem?? Its driving me nuts. The coop i can clean every 3 wks without a problem (sweet pdz poo area and shavings in another). There is a noticeable chicken smell but its not a bad one.