Colorado

[ChickenRelatedUserName]

I culled both my roosters today, so there is a great chance I'll be contacting one of you for pullets.

 

[matt1978]

What's your method of culling?

 

[ChickenRelatedUserName]

Watch a YouTube video then go to town while my wife and daughter stand around crying and immigrant grandmother helps me out in broken English.

Pretty much I hung up by feet and slit neck, then held firm for a few minutes until all the flapping and twitching is over. I had grand plans of using a cone and grabbing off the roost at night so everything would be nice and calm. In the end, sometimes you just need to act.

The worst part was that both ducks and the second rooster watched the first rooster. When I was trying to catch the first rooster, one of the ducks chased him all over the yard. When I was holding the rooster and waiting, I couldn't get my Pekins to leave me alone. Those ducks hated that rooster.

ETA: Just in case this wasn't clear, these are my first chickens so I'm fumbling through a lot of this learning curve.

 

[matt1978]

Cool, whatever works I guess. I'm pretty sure I don't have a cockeral, but good information otherwise. Too funny with the duck chasing the rooster though.

 

[lomine]

I had a nun come visit my 'farm' yesterday. She volunteers with my mother at the soup kitchen and had bought some of my eggs in the past (even wrote me a thank you note for them). She was a cute 'little old lady' type who grew up on a farm. She wanted to see my chickens; I guess she really missed being around them. She told me she collects rooster figures/things and sometimes she turns one of them on just to hear it crow. My older cockerels have found their voices in the last couple weeks and they gave her a good show. She was amazed at all the different breeds (they only had Leghorns). The lady who drove her (who coincidentally is a friend of my mom but didn't know she was coming to my place) also had chickens growing up. Sometimes I feel like my family is tired of hearing chicken stories so it was a lot of fun just chatting with other chicken lovers. They both want to come back in September to see goat kids.

I plan to butcher my older cockerels Friday but I also put in an order for some CX (along with some Cream Legbars and a Dark Brahma). I'm looking forward to filling the freezer again. This batch with go in the dog run but I'm thinking in the future it would be nice to put them in a mobile coop. Anyone have a coop design that can stand up to our high winds? I've been looking at the A-frame style.

 

[PirateGirl]

I had a nun come visit my 'farm' yesterday. She volunteers with my mother at the soup kitchen and had bought some of my eggs in the past (even wrote me a thank you note for them). She was a cute 'little old lady' type who grew up on a farm. She wanted to see my chickens; I guess she really missed being around them. She told me she collects rooster figures/things and sometimes she turns one of them on just to hear it crow. My older cockerels have found their voices in the last couple weeks and they gave her a good show. She was amazed at all the different breeds (they only had Leghorns). The lady who drove her (who coincidentally is a friend of my mom but didn't know she was coming to my place) also had chickens growing up. Sometimes I feel like my family is tired of hearing chicken stories so it was a lot of fun just chatting with other chicken lovers. They both want to come back in September to see goat kids.

I plan to butcher my older cockerels Friday but I also put in an order for some CX (along with some Cream Legbars and a Dark Brahma). I'm looking forward to filling the freezer again. This batch with go in the dog run but I'm thinking in the future it would be nice to put them in a mobile coop. Anyone have a coop design that can stand up to our high winds? I've been looking at the A-frame style.

I'm on the high plains with the high winds. I made an Aframe for my ducks. The run is a large AFrame I can walk in made of 8ft 2x4s, the house is an attached smaller AFrame made of pallets. It's held up to the wind, but I definitely needed a second person to help construct it because the wind threatened to tear it apart while I was working on it. Much more stable once all together. I can get you photos tomorrow.

 

[ChickenRelatedUserName]

If it's just in the dirt, anchoring with rebar could help I'd think.

 

[PirateGirl]

@lomine here are some photos and things I learned building it. You can make it any size. I hope this gives you a few ideas. It was pretty easy to build.

Photo 1: You obviously will have a top rail and a bottom rail, but adding an additional rail across each side made it much stronger. Also you NEED to build a corner brace at at 45 degree angle from the top rail out to each end. This increases stability exponentially and if you look at pics of things like swing sets they all have it.

Photo 2: You can see there is a cross bar on the ends too, this is where the 45 degree piece attaches. Also you want your end triangles to be equilateral triangles with all sides the same length.

Photo 3: It's easy to frame in a door any size you want on the side, just install an upright to your cross support. My door is just a piece of plywood I found on the side of 285.

Photo 4: I built a smaller AFrame for the duck house. Note the hinges in the middle...

Photo 5: the roof hinges open and I can reach in for eggs, cleaning, etc.

Photo 6: one side just completely hinges open and the wall becomes the ramp for the ducks. On both triangle sides the top bit of the triangle is always open for ventilation.

 

[PirateGirl]

In other news the Weston Pass Fire keeps growing uncontained and we can now see the orange flames/glow from the house making it hard to sleep at night. It's just a few miles away.

 

[lomine]

@lomine here are some photos and things I learned building it. You can make it any size. I hope this gives you a few ideas. It was pretty easy to build.

Photo 1: You obviously will have a top rail and a bottom rail, but adding an additional rail across each side made it much stronger. Also you NEED to build a corner brace at at 45 degree angle from the top rail out to each end. This increases stability exponentially and if you look at pics of things like swing sets they all have it.
View attachment 1454002

Photo 2: You can see there is a cross bar on the ends too, this is where the 45 degree piece attaches. Also you want your end triangles to be equilateral triangles with all sides the same length.
View attachment 1454003

Photo 3: It's easy to frame in a door any size you want on the side, just install an upright to your cross support. My door is just a piece of plywood I found on the side of 285.
View attachment 1454004

Photo 4: I built a smaller AFrame for the duck house. Note the hinges in the middle...
View attachment 1454006

Photo 5: the roof hinges open and I can reach in for eggs, cleaning, etc.
View attachment 1454007

Photo 6: one side just completely hinges open and the wall becomes the ramp for the ducks. On both triangle sides the top bit of the triangle is always open for ventilation.
View attachment 1454008

Thanks for the photos and explainantion. Very nice looking setup. Do you do anything for shade? My place is mostly open field so I would need something, otherwise I think the meat birds would overheat.