Heartbroken !!!!!

[Egghead_Jr]

You don't need hardware cloth on pen roof. Any netting will keep hawks from diving in.

 

[Roark]

Cost... seriously?

We had talked about getting some birds, but being the OCD type, for me that meant we still had months, if not a year of research and prepping before actually getting any birds. Then one fateful day this Spring we wandered into Tractor Supply when they had baby chicks and ducklings on the floor, and as soon as my wife caught sight of them (I tried in vain to steer her away) it was all over but for my crying (she sees cute, and all I see is work for me). Being a well trained hubby, broken of mind and spirit, I stand like a simpering idiot nodding my head up and down - repeating the mantra that has been the cornerstone of our marriage's success for almost three decades... "yes dear... whatever you want".
We left with "only" 6 chicks and 3 ducklings, a me thinking I'd gotten off easy.

The evolution has been steady, but by no means am I tempted to calculated the costs to date. Conservatively, when eggs hit about $30 a dozen, we should break even... about three years later.

First there was the brooder, so of course we needed heat lamps and waterers and feeders and bedding. The chicks were no real trouble at all and soon graduated to a garden cart/coop that was just some vinyl covered wire fencing that I had laying around and tied into a 2'x4' giant bird cage for them. As their feathers grew and the weather improved, they could easily be pulled out of our sun room and onto the patio to get some sun, and later leave to start roaming the fenced yard. The ducks moved from a galvanized tub to a an unused 75 gallon aquarium, but their acclimation to the outdoors was a lot faster. We started with a big shallow bowl of water on the kitchen floor, and very quickly they had jumped to invading my wife's koi ponds. Today they all free range the fenced yard next to the run, but the Mallards have decided that they prefer the solitude of my neighbor's yard - with his three cats - to the cacophony of the chickens, so any time they get the urge (usually when I'm on the roof, up a ladder, or otherwise indisposed, they like to show off and fly over the 4' fence.

This of course results in an immediate and frenzied call from my neighbor to wife, wife to duck herder (yours truly) whereupon whatever progress was being made on "The List" must be abandoned to retrieve the wayward stooges. ( I call this proof that duck pooh can and does roll down hill.)

So after cornering the birds and tossing them back over the fence a couple of times - between shooing chickens out of my peas, and then the beans, and then whatever the heck else they can possibly get into, I am reminded that the duck ponds need to be emptied and refilled. (I could have sworn there was a wife and kids around here somewhere, but I'll be dashed if I can see them...). Not possessing Nostradamian foresight, I neglected to build my backyard shop so that I might actually get work done there whilst keeping one eye on Hogan's Heroes and the fence line, one eye on the sky for winged predators that see a lot better and move a lot quicker than me, one eye on the marauding chicken horde, and one eye on the power tool (stuff like saws - big saws and bigger saws) that my hands are being fed into. What could be expected of me, I'm just a stupid husband.

I had already built some raised beds for our expanding veggie gardens, but had also already ordered about 40 fruit trees that we were going to adapt to a micro orchard in some more raised beds. Somewhere in the midst of all of this it was decided that everything should be put under one roof so to speak (we have deer, hawks, eagles, coons, fox, feral cats, possum... pretty much a game preserve). This has now grown into a 1300 sq.ft. pen surrounded by a 7' varmint proof fence (with 18" buried into the calliginous cement we call soil here) and an electric fence surrounding that. Today I get to string the cabling that will support the wire "roof"... between trying to finish the chicken tractor, complete the permanent attached coop, replace the duck's original large pond (yeah they only have two... so far) with a larger one, and oops - almost forgot - cut the grass, edge the yard, mulch the beds, fix the hot tub, paint the pergola, build another 700' of fence for the dogs, and finish planting and putting in transplants. I've been up since 4 am and the love of my life is still sleeping. I hope I live long enough to see the first egg.

My suggestion would be to take a page from my owner's manual (which I've never seen, but I'm pretty sure the woman who owns me got one).
First - keep him busy enough that he never has time to think, complain, or pull out his calculator.
Second - sex is a very strong motivator, as is not having to bunk with the dogs... so you've also got that workin' for ya.
Don't mention all of the wonderful "free" eggs and fertilizer that will soon appear I'm already workin' on my third new compost bin and the mere thought of eggs just makes me wanna join a monastery and go Vegan.

 

[Roark]

You don't need hardware cloth on pen roof. Any netting will keep hawks from diving in.

Not trying to spread my pain, but I have to disagree with ya. My doc, who was somewhat inspirational in our first contemplating a life with fowl, has the same Red Tail Hawks that we have to deal with, and he has actually had one attack the chicken wire cover of his run while he was in it.

There are a lot of things that enhance or detract from the likelihood of hawk privation; availability of food, time of year, nest location and whether or not there are babies in it... especially this time of year. We've been lucky in that we have several crows nesting in the tops of some of our surrounding forest. They keep a sentinel on watch that is usually the first warning we get that the hawks are about,. From there the crows usually gang up and drive the hawk(s) away for a time. They usually return later, but typically at a much higher altitude that the crows are not as alert to, but they catch on pretty quick and the scene is repeated.

Birds of prey are a lot faster than you or me on foot or armed, and I'm not convinced that the talons that rip open rabbits on our front lawn are going to be deterred by plastic bird netting. It hasn't worked to keep my chickens off of my blueberries, so I wouldn't be too hopeful of it stopping a hungry hawk with a brood to feed..

 

[Jakoda]

Roark, you crack me up LOL,,you sound like my husband sort of

I also started out small, thinking oh, to convert my shed, add a small run, get 8 baby chicks, how much could it cost?? not much ,,well of course the husband is involved he has to do alot of the manual 'work' while I supervise

So, HE starts saying oh it should be this way, this will look better, we HAVE to have mesh, (I agree I want no snakes!), and things just SNOWBALLED from there!

, Renovating my 12 x 30 shed with a small (4 x12) chicken area, (and gotta have poop boards !)
getting all the set ups for day old chicks, (gotta have that brinsea heat lamp I am fire paranoid!),,plus meds and other necessities on hand, AND the chicks can't free range, (to many predators!) so they HAVE to have a good size run (12 x 20) AND that needs a PITCHED covered roof! Well I'm embarrassed to say, my 'snowball' has now become an avalanche, and we're probably into it for about 1500$..

Then of course a friend comes over and says "what will you do when they stop laying in two years?" OMG that sent the hubby over a cliff He said it would be cheaper to buy eggs for the rest of his life LOL

Oh well, I'm sure we'll get lots of enjoyment out of watching our million dollar chicks

 

[Andee8302]

Awwww you guys are all wonderful !!! I needed a good laugh !! I am determinded to make this work. I have a birthday coming up and any money he would spend on me I am going to tell it to put it towards the coop. Thats my present !!! I am going to hunt down all the ads I can find and yard sales. He doesn't like it, I will build it myself and he can sleep out in it with the chickens. LOL


Thanks Everyone !!!!

 

[7 Biddies]

RE: "I feel like I should find them a home."

You're almost right. You should've said, "I feel like I should find *him* a home."

Been there, done that. Take the word of an older woman (and psychologist), if he's this grumpy at this age about spending extra time and money over keeping some helpless baby chicks safe, a future with him doesn't look promising. Especially since I'm assuming some of this money is yours, too. Unfortunately, curmudgeons do NOT improve with age. It also sounds like he might be narcissistic (my absolute favorite!)

As they say, the best way to find out if a person is worth spending a lifetime with, is to see how they react in a crisis situation. This isn't even a crisis and he's acting badly. Some things are best found out early.

He's not the only man on the planet. Find one that's more sympathetic to helpless animals (like all the guys on this site), and you'll have found a good man with a kind heart. One worth spending a lifetime with.

 

[ChickTracy]

If you or any friends of yours have any building materials just lying around then that will cut down on cost. We built our entire chicken tractor on "scraps" we found except for some extra hardware wire that we had to buy. We spent a total of $40 on our whole chicken tractor! You'll be amazed what you can do with the stuff you find. It may not be the best (or most even) tractor out there, but the chickens don't complain...and we don't either! Plus it's so light that I can move it around by myself, and I don't lift much at all. Good luck with your new babies and their new home! I just got some new babies myself. Someone gave us a few chickens that they didn't need to begin with...and then I was hooked! Here's a couple of pics of our tractor.

 

[Ehirning]

I built my coop out of pallets and it cost me $0.00! He can also check construction sites for scrap. It can be done.

 

[Iridian]

First - keep him busy enough that he never has time to think, complain, or pull out his calculator.
Second - sex is a very strong motivator, as is not having to bunk with the dogs... so you've also got that workin' for ya.
Don't mention all of the wonderful "free" eggs and fertilizer that will soon appear I'm already workin' on my third new compost bin and the mere thought of eggs just makes me wanna join a monastery and go Vegan.

Omg Roark, I got a good laugh at this. You are wise to our ways

gonna have to come up with some new material now!
-Iri

 

[SarniaTricia]

Roark
I have that book

I am a girl that swings a hammer, so he's gotta keep up with me ....

Andee
As a woman who has picked up her crap and got outa there..... make sure you make your coop a tractor, so you can haul it outa there when you are ready. He should want you to be happy. trust me, chickens make you happy.
GOod luck