Easter Egger club!

[Seiryu]

Okay. I'll ask the breeder tomorrow when I get the chicks. But I only have one brooder. I hope they don't have anything wrong with them. They will have to go with my malnourished, depressed hen.

 

[pipAchick]

You may be tempted to immediately put new chicks with her but you do have to quarantine the new birds for 2 or 3 weeks before mixing them together.  I've had new juveniles that have arrived with lice, cocci, worms, CRD, etc, and was glad I took the precautions to quarantine before introducing to my established birds.

Can't agree with quarantine more. Listen to that voice of experience for the sake of your flock!

 

[pipAchick]

If your not willing to take free experience then you better dawn bath EVERY feather blow dry(if it kills lice in people a friend's mom says, then it can work for chickens). Then immediately hot water wash all towels used&dry on high heat&burn whatever bedding&cardboard they arrived in. Least that's what worked for me. And still waited over 2weeks to intergrate.

 

[pipAchick]

You can make a new broader with a $8 heating pad(you must be responsible in this method) most heating pads cut off every hour don't fall asleep or young chickens can freeze during the night.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

You can make a new broader with a $8 heating pad(you must be responsible in this method) most heating pads cut off every hour don't fall asleep or young chickens can freeze during the night.

This is the method I use, it is very easy. Just find a heat pad without the auto shutoff. It takes some looking but you can find them, I believe Walmart still carries a Sunbeam that does not turn off. It works great.

 

[Sylvester017]

If your not willing to take free experience then you better dawn bath EVERY feather blow dry(if it kills lice in people a friend's mom says, then it can work for chickens). Then immediately hot water wash all towels used&dry on high heat&burn whatever bedding&cardboard they arrived in. Least that's what worked for me. And still waited over 2weeks to intergrate.

All good advice and necessary. In addition, I take a fecal sample to vet to get a diagnosis by next morning whether there's any parasites/bacteria that can be easily treated immediately and then still quarantine for a couple or more weeks depending on how clean the tests were. We love having a juvenile in-house to get socialized and we go beyond 2 weeks quarantine so we can enjoy the newest bird/s for longer

.

 

[cabinchicky]

 
Youtube has a lot of videos on attacks on chickens/coops, it can be rough to watch the videos by folks but it is also educational as you can see weaknesses in coops that you may have, also how different animals hunt. Many folks do follow up videos on changes they made to their coops and how that worked out too. Understanding how the various critters hunt helps in developing a defense.

There is one video for instance that shows a hawk landing in the run area and then walking into the coop to kill the hens.

I hadn't thought of that. I will definitely take a look. Thank you.

@cabinchicky
We have been learning from this site since February and started building the coop in April. I am so thankful for all the great info! I have followed many builds. Our birds have been in their coop for a couple weeks and seeing the coyotes already stalking made me want to get opinions and make sure we are taking every measure possible. I forget the square footage of our run, but we are $400 in just on the hardware cloth. I was told it was what we needed and we didn't want to use anything we were unsure of. We also buried it and have cinder blocks around the border. I am definitely going to use the woven wire around the bottom though. Coyotes will do doubt be our biggest issue here. We have fields on all sides and our property has pines between us and the fields for windbreak. We are in the process of cleaning up a lot of it. Lot of overgrowth and downed trees. Plenty of places for predators to hide. You likely have the same predators next door in Ohio. (I used to live there ).

If you are able to hunt any seen predator in your coop area. I love my shotgun!Not any Federal protected ones though, curse them only.

 

[Greenthumb83]

If you are able to hunt any seen predator in your coop area. I love my shotgun!Not any Federal protected ones though, curse them only.

We definitely will be.

We were hoping the dog would help keep them away. He does bark at them sometimes. But last night, DH and our oldest son went out to try and get a shot at them, and the dog was asleep on the patio (10 year old black lab/st bernard mix). The coyotes were right in the yard! You could see them from the front door. We are going to have to do something, not only for the chickens, but for the kids. The little ones are getting scared to go out alone. So the hunt is on. One of the reasons moved out of the city is so we could feel safe, ya know.

We finished the side of the run that wasn't done and started on the door. Had to move a bunch of dirt also. Today we will be finishing the top. It seems this will never be done though. I bet we continue to tweak and change things for a year lol. Chickens seem to turn us all into chicken engineers.

Happy to say that our EE girls enjoyed the run yesterday. All but Oshkosh. She stayed in the coop alone. I hope she goes out today. Eleanor and Holly are getting more curious by the day. I actually got to hold Ellie! She came right up to me. <3 About time lol. Any ideas for helping my poor Oshkosh? She is terrified of her own shadow.

 

[newmarch2014]

Quarantine is soooo important. A breeder will tell you their birds are of course healthy and pristine. Unless you are experienced at detecting lice, cocci, etc at first glance then the bio quarantine is essential. No face to face contact even through a fence. Completely separate and hand and shoe and clothes sani between caring for them to keep from cross contaminating for a minumum of 3 weekd. I have seen people lose entire established flocks or go through weeks of mite infestation just from bringing a new hen or chick in without quarantine only to find out that it was sick or infested.

 

[2crazyflockers]

Okay. I'll ask the breeder tomorrow when I get the chicks. But I only have one brooder. I hope they don't have anything wrong with them. They will have to go with my malnourished, depressed hen.

how's your sad little girl doing today?