Gargoyle

[Gargoyle]

We're new to chickens; got our first two baby Columbian Wyandotte chicks in October, then added a young hen a few months later. With the help of heat lamps and a well insulated coop they survived the Chicago area winter, (we're about an hour west of the city) and now we're getting about 12 eggs a week. (each hen takes one day off per week). We're enjoying them a lot, and trying to learn more. I beg veggie scraps at a local grocery store- the vegetable guys are always stripping lots of leaves and scrap from the veggies when they put out on display, and those get thrown out; so I try to get a box every ten days or so.

The rooster is now 7 lbs, the hens about 5 lbs each.

I have lots of good photos of them, once my post count is sufficient I'll share some.

BTW- the reason for my handle- I'm a sculptor, and gargoyles are a specialty of mine. Being a sculptor, I have LOTS of limestone dust and chips, so I've been tossing handfuls around their coop as grit; they seem to like it. It is oolitic, not dolomitic limestone.

 

[Gargoyle]

These are our guys. I built a large studio several years ago, and had a lot of left over materials, including about 60 or 70 square feet of SIPS panels. Those are Structural Insulated Panels, basically a sandwich of two sheets of particle board with 8" of foam in between- lightweight and high insulation value. I built the coop out of that, with windows, ventilation gaps, and a large hinged door. Our property had a dog house/kennel area, 8' x 20' with a 4' high chain link fence. We wrapped it with 2' high metal sheet so the squirrels, foxes, moles, gophers, coyotes, and everyone else around here can't get in, and put screen over the top so the hawks can't swoop down. I let the chicks run around in that area all day, then put them back in the coop at night- it has heat lamps, and it got down to below zero F. here this winter. They did fine. Now that summer is coming I'm wondering if I should just leave the coop open all night instead of closing them in. (The kennel fence will stay closed to keep the bad guys out and keep the good guys from running away).

In this photo you can see a bit of the coop in the left background, and the fence on the right. We have a tarp over it to keep snow and rain off; we had a LOT of snow this winter. They still get lots of sun.

 

[Desert Rooster]

Hello

and

from Hesperia,Ca

 

[Attack Chicken]

from Indiana!!

Don't ya just love the bantam wyandottes?

 

[weimarmama]

&

from Alabama.

 

[ibpboo]

I like your chickens!

 

[Gargoyle]

Quote:
I like them too, and they like me. But the rooster doesn't like my wife.
Maybe because I feed them every day, she just goes there once in a while to clean their coop and rearrange their furniture. But she thinks it's because she's female, and our rooster is a male chauvinist pig.

 

[WriterofWords]

from NM!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Greetings from Tucson and

Great pics! If you have good ventilation, I'd close them in at night. It's safer. You don't want to lose those cuties!

 

[NewHopePoultry]

from Missouri