Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[OffGridMAMA]

THE LIVING ROOM IS THE PERFECT SPOT

Use it to put the flat screen on

We are the best enablers Lol

 

[Bens-Hens]

Quote:

Quote:
The you could watch shows like "Chicken TV...The early days" "Hatch-a-thon" then later in the evening you could watch "Sexing these chickies"

 

[lindz8504]

can we get a pic of your broody hen? Here ya go! I had to include pictures of the fluffies too! LOL
what breed is she? She is a Bantam buff Cochin, and she is TINY! She pancakes herself out to cover all the chicks now!
so far the best broody i have had is a small silkie
i think she could hatch a rock

Just sitting on eggs


The 4 yellow are the b.cochins she hatched, the 3 black are BCM's that I bought hoping she takes them. Hatch dates are the same!


Here she is with her first hatched.

#2 Fluffie and the eggs.

 

[lindz8504]

Ok question. This is my first batch of chicks under a broody hen. I introduced the 3 Maran chicks last night. She pecked them, but I was finally able to slip them under her. This morning I went down and she pecked them again, but then was letting them eat in amongst her and the chicks she hatched. I am going to keep an eye on them today, but I am not sure if she is going to take them. How long should I give them and when should I take them away and put them in the brooder? I don't want her to hurt them or them get chilled because she won't let them under her. I think if I take the 3 away, I will probably just put them all in the brooder and let her keep the one egg that isn't due to hatch til next week.


EDITED: The egg is no longer a factor! She pushed it out and on candling saw a blood ring.

 

[Sweetpea3829]

Well we're moving along with our chicken learning...

Built a nifty gravity feeder which holds a lot of food. So that's helping to cut down on having to fill their feeder every day. Just have to figure out the watering system. Can't remember if I've mentioned it before or not...but our chicken coop is not wired for electricity and as we live in upstate NY, water freezing is an issue.

Anyways, our next task is actually to build nesting boxes. My question...should we build them at ground level (in the coop of course), or higher?

 

[perchie.girl]

Well we're moving along with our chicken learning...

Built a nifty gravity feeder which holds a lot of food. So that's helping to cut down on having to fill their feeder every day. Just have to figure out the watering system. Can't remember if I've mentioned it before or not...but our chicken coop is not wired for electricity and as we live in upstate NY, water freezing is an issue.

Anyways, our next task is actually to build nesting boxes. My question...should we build them at ground level (in the coop of course), or higher?

I use an automatic dog waterers for my chickens. They make heated ones too. You may have to wire your new place up with electricity to keep any water defrosted. Its simple to do to run electricity that is. The grey electrical conduit PVC is easy to run and glue together. Depending on the distance to the coop it can be rather inexpensive to run. The expensive part is the Romex for out doors. You can lay it ontop of the ground or along a fence or best yet rent a ditch witch and dig a trench. We go about eighteen inches but we dont get frost

I would put an electrical outlet on both ends so you dont have to mess with wiring that actually belongs to the house. Then wire a heavy duty electrical cord off the end by the house so you can plug it in to an outlet at the house. Hopefully you have one on the outside of the house...

So essentailly you are making a very very robust extension cord. It would be enough to run a heater for the water and a lightbulb. I wouldnt use it for anything else without having an electrician come and do it.

Wiring outlets is easy they come with instructions.

edited to add

or you could go solar

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Well we're moving along with our chicken learning...

...

Anyways, our next task is actually to build nesting boxes. My question...should we build them at ground level (in the coop of course), or higher?

A few inches above the floor of the coop and below the level of roosts. You dont want your chickens sleeping in the nest boxes.

deb

 

[piglett]

A few inches above the floor of the coop and below the level of roosts. You dont want your chickens sleeping in the nest boxes.

deb

i have the bottom of my nest boxes at the level of the hens heads
i put a scrap of plywood up on top of them at a 45 so they would not roost up on top & fill the nest boxes with poop (yuck)

 

[Sweetpea3829]

My hubby is pretty good with electrical stuff and I think next year he'll run an underground extension cord. It's a pretty good distance to the chicken coop from the house. I'm terrible with estimating distances (like, really bad) but I'd say it's probably about 40 yards or so.

For this year, I *think* I'm going to end up visiting the coop twice a day and alternating your standard 1 gallon waterers. I'd like to get some kind of nipple system in eventually. The coop is pretty far from our hose faucet, but I think I can stretch the hose all the way out there, which would make filling it easier.

Maybe a rain barrel?

I just started adding ACV to the water because I hear that helps cut down on the green slime. All summer, I've needed to scrub the waterer pretty often in order to keep it clean.

Plus I want to get the waterer up off the ground...the chickens are kicking sand into it.

Solar power...lol...that would be fantastic. We have a lot of sun, too. $$$$$$$

Good idea, Pig, on slanting the top of the nest boxes. We don't want poop in our eggs. We slanted the top of our gravity feeder, and raised it slightly, and that has eliminated all poop in the food, as well as food scratched all over the place.

Slowly, but surely, we're getting there!!! We've come a long way since June, when we had 8 newly hatched chicks sitting in a brood box in our living room.

 

[Tomtommom]

The way I see it.. I am going to the coop several times a day anyway (my girls love to lay from 7am til 7pm... you're gathering eggs all darn day). Might as well fill the waterer on one of the trips. I want to get some sort of nipple bucket thing at some point, just because it stays cleaner.

Being in Alabama, I doubt ice will become much of an issue. We'll see! (We started with the little fluffy thangs in February this year)