I kept them on STARTER crumbles until 18 weeks using the DUMOR brand of feed. I ended up starting the LAYER crumbles at 18 weeks because the FINISHER crumbles that are supposed to be used between 10 - 18 weeks were not available locally. My chickens have been free ranging from morning until evening for a long time now as well, so I suspect they get what they need since I have 30 acres for them to find it if they want it! My relatives who have been here to visit and lived on farms as children, have told me that they are the healthiest looking chickens they have ever seen, so I think I must be doing it right!
My chickens (black sex link, Cornish hen and Isa browns) are really friendly, and follow people around when we have visitors, and usually come when called - although a yellow treat ball filled with meal worms is a sure thing when they are being resistant if I am trying to get them in the coop a little earlier than usual. By 9 pm they are all in the coop on their own pretty religiously!
I've had a problem with a predator trying to dig under my coop to get in, but I have 1 x 4" wire on the bottom of the coop and that has been successful in preventing their entry into the coop...and I don't have a problem with that anymore (at least for now) ever since I caught a very large raccoon in a live trap and transported him to a new forest home....about 6 miles away! I wpre leather gloves when I moved the cage, and threw a blanket over the cage... and lined the back of my car with plastic and cardboard for his trip to his new home! I hope he is as happy there as I am here now!
I built a coop "tractor" that I move every couple of days for cleanliness, and that has worked well. My coop has a tray that I can pull out to clean in the roosting area, and that is a great idea!! It makes cleaning so much easier as the vast majority of poop accumulates when they roost! BUT if I had it to do over again, I would have made the tray a couple of inches deep so I could slide it out easier without the poop falling off into the coop below...as chickens get bigger, the poop pile increases exponentially....I empty it every day but clearly I should have made the tray deeper. My current tray is only about an inch deep, and that was NOT deep enough! When I pull the tray out I find that the poop is log-jamming and dumps into the area below....which is where I put the feed to keep it sheltered on 3 sides. A deeper tray would have prevented that from happening. I move the tractor every couple of days, so the rest of the coop floor area stays clean. I still need to clean the nesting boxes of course.
Since I have had to travel quite a bit this summer, I am going to build a fully enclosed fixed pen (i.e., top, bottom and sides) that the tractor coop can attach to that is big enough for them to run around fly a bit, and free range in, so that when I do have to be gone I don't have to keep having someone stop by twice every day to let them in and out. They will still need fresh food and water daily, but it will eliminate the second trip to my house to get them back in the coop in the evening as they will have free access to the pen and coop area if they want. I'm planning to have an access opening that will fit the door they come out of on the fixed pen into the enclosed free range area for those times when I can't be here. I also want to use it to see if they are laying eggs somewhere other than the coop! They are 18 weeks old now, and still no eggs....it's probably just too early still, but I'd like to do a test and see if that's it...or if they are laying elsewhere! (...yes, I do have a doctorate, and an inquisitive mind...so of course I can't help myself....and feel the need to study this "lack of eggs event!")
I'm thinking about winter in Michigan coming soon! I would love some advice about ideas to be prepared for winter, and heating the coop. I have a warming light that I can rig up, but since my roosting area is small, and my chickens are big, there really isn't room for a light in that coop. And I really think I need two warming lights, in case one malfunctions or simply burns out. So I think part of the fenced in area is also going to need a bigger coop that could have room for the warming light.
RE WINTER: Since we get several inches to several of feet of snow in the winter, I am going to elevate the coop, so they can walk down a ramp and be able to get out....but what do you do in the winter? Do you have to shovel the snow so they can walk around inside the fenced in area? If that's the case, it needs to be plenty tall for me with a shovel as it must be fully enclosed where I live to keep the predators out! They really won't be free ranging through deep snow, right? So maybe a portion of the fixed pen should also have a roof with no walls, so they can run around under that when the snow is deep? I welcome any suggestions for winter weather and chickens! I'd like to know what has worked and what DIDN'T work! I'm not keen on an electronically shutting door for the coop, as I feel it could easily malfunction (freeze, snow prevents it from closing, etc.) So, instead, I was thinking of doing a tunnel with a turn to into the coop to keep the winds out, and preserve heat inside the coop. Any thoughts on this topic?
And lastly, I would just love it if there was a section in back yard chickens that posted photos of male and female chickens of various varieties so all of us novices would have an idea of what they look like at various ages. I think that would really help beginners like myself. Although I still don't really know what sex they are! I'm looking at the combs, and wattles to determine sex and it has occurred to me that maybe that's not where you are supposed to look? Perhaps I'm looking a the wrong end?!! I bought a few books on chickens....have had time to read ONE of them, and it didn't help. So maybe Backyard chickens could devote an area to male and female chickens at various ages and IDENTIFY the photos with breed and age AND SEX of the chickens???!
My chickens (black sex link, Cornish hen and Isa browns) are really friendly, and follow people around when we have visitors, and usually come when called - although a yellow treat ball filled with meal worms is a sure thing when they are being resistant if I am trying to get them in the coop a little earlier than usual. By 9 pm they are all in the coop on their own pretty religiously!
I've had a problem with a predator trying to dig under my coop to get in, but I have 1 x 4" wire on the bottom of the coop and that has been successful in preventing their entry into the coop...and I don't have a problem with that anymore (at least for now) ever since I caught a very large raccoon in a live trap and transported him to a new forest home....about 6 miles away! I wpre leather gloves when I moved the cage, and threw a blanket over the cage... and lined the back of my car with plastic and cardboard for his trip to his new home! I hope he is as happy there as I am here now!
I built a coop "tractor" that I move every couple of days for cleanliness, and that has worked well. My coop has a tray that I can pull out to clean in the roosting area, and that is a great idea!! It makes cleaning so much easier as the vast majority of poop accumulates when they roost! BUT if I had it to do over again, I would have made the tray a couple of inches deep so I could slide it out easier without the poop falling off into the coop below...as chickens get bigger, the poop pile increases exponentially....I empty it every day but clearly I should have made the tray deeper. My current tray is only about an inch deep, and that was NOT deep enough! When I pull the tray out I find that the poop is log-jamming and dumps into the area below....which is where I put the feed to keep it sheltered on 3 sides. A deeper tray would have prevented that from happening. I move the tractor every couple of days, so the rest of the coop floor area stays clean. I still need to clean the nesting boxes of course.
Since I have had to travel quite a bit this summer, I am going to build a fully enclosed fixed pen (i.e., top, bottom and sides) that the tractor coop can attach to that is big enough for them to run around fly a bit, and free range in, so that when I do have to be gone I don't have to keep having someone stop by twice every day to let them in and out. They will still need fresh food and water daily, but it will eliminate the second trip to my house to get them back in the coop in the evening as they will have free access to the pen and coop area if they want. I'm planning to have an access opening that will fit the door they come out of on the fixed pen into the enclosed free range area for those times when I can't be here. I also want to use it to see if they are laying eggs somewhere other than the coop! They are 18 weeks old now, and still no eggs....it's probably just too early still, but I'd like to do a test and see if that's it...or if they are laying elsewhere! (...yes, I do have a doctorate, and an inquisitive mind...so of course I can't help myself....and feel the need to study this "lack of eggs event!")
I'm thinking about winter in Michigan coming soon! I would love some advice about ideas to be prepared for winter, and heating the coop. I have a warming light that I can rig up, but since my roosting area is small, and my chickens are big, there really isn't room for a light in that coop. And I really think I need two warming lights, in case one malfunctions or simply burns out. So I think part of the fenced in area is also going to need a bigger coop that could have room for the warming light.
RE WINTER: Since we get several inches to several of feet of snow in the winter, I am going to elevate the coop, so they can walk down a ramp and be able to get out....but what do you do in the winter? Do you have to shovel the snow so they can walk around inside the fenced in area? If that's the case, it needs to be plenty tall for me with a shovel as it must be fully enclosed where I live to keep the predators out! They really won't be free ranging through deep snow, right? So maybe a portion of the fixed pen should also have a roof with no walls, so they can run around under that when the snow is deep? I welcome any suggestions for winter weather and chickens! I'd like to know what has worked and what DIDN'T work! I'm not keen on an electronically shutting door for the coop, as I feel it could easily malfunction (freeze, snow prevents it from closing, etc.) So, instead, I was thinking of doing a tunnel with a turn to into the coop to keep the winds out, and preserve heat inside the coop. Any thoughts on this topic?
And lastly, I would just love it if there was a section in back yard chickens that posted photos of male and female chickens of various varieties so all of us novices would have an idea of what they look like at various ages. I think that would really help beginners like myself. Although I still don't really know what sex they are! I'm looking at the combs, and wattles to determine sex and it has occurred to me that maybe that's not where you are supposed to look? Perhaps I'm looking a the wrong end?!! I bought a few books on chickens....have had time to read ONE of them, and it didn't help. So maybe Backyard chickens could devote an area to male and female chickens at various ages and IDENTIFY the photos with breed and age AND SEX of the chickens???!
