- Mar 27, 2011
- 3
- 0
- 7
Joined the other day. I'm new to chickens but have done lots of reading on them. We now have 34 chicks in their 2nd week. Two were dead when I got home from picking them up. Never noticed them when we looked in the very crowded box at the farm store. They'll give us a credit. They are all DELAWARES. I got them because they are cold hearty, friendly and lay big brown eggs.
I built a 3'x3' brooder for them. Plans in Robert Plamondon's book, Success with Baby Chicks. It works very well.
I have them in the chicken coop. My coop is 12'x16' with 40' of roosting space and 12 nest boxes. There are 3 windows, only 2 open and close , a screen door and a solid wood door. The nest boxes are presently covered with chicken wire to keep them from roosting on them as they grow. I'll remove the wire at 16 weeks. I'm feeding them a starter/grower mix from Big R. I plan to keep them on it until they are 16 weeks and then go to a layer feed.
The coop is insulated and heated. I keep the coop at 70 degrees and the chicks love running around. Right now the outside temps are in the high 40's and low 50's. I'm using pine shavings to cover the floor. I'll use straw when they are grown. I have outside access to the area under the roosts for easy cleaning. Will use the straw and poop for garden fertilizer.
Since my wife and I are older, late 60's and 71 for me, I splurged and purchased an automatic hatch opener from McMurrary. Pricey but it will keep us from having to get up at dawn to let the chickens out. I'm a night person so getting up that early is not my choice. It hasn't arrived yet so I'll let you know how the installation goes.
We live on 10 acres in Chewelah, WA where it gets VERY COLD!!!!!! Ergo the insulated and heated coop. (It went to -20 for three days last winter and many more days also well below zero!) It's probably over kill but what the heck!!!! Spoiled chickens will join the spoiled goats and spoiled dogs.
We have 3 dogs. One pure Maltese and two Maltese mixes. We have introduced them to the chicks. Ruby, the only female, thinks they are her babies. She loves to visit them and is very gentle with them. They are getting used to her and sometimes ignore her completely. The two males aren't interested in the chicks.
I still have to finish the run, 12'x 20', as soon as it warms up. The coop is built within our barn complex that is surrounded by an 8' fence. The 5 acres behind that is all surrounded by a 4 wire electric fence. We've been here 2+ years and haven't seen or heard of any predators except coyotes, hawks and eagles. The run will have a wire top to it.
So far so good. Will keep you all posted as the chickens and I grow up together.
God bless, Mr C
I built a 3'x3' brooder for them. Plans in Robert Plamondon's book, Success with Baby Chicks. It works very well.
I have them in the chicken coop. My coop is 12'x16' with 40' of roosting space and 12 nest boxes. There are 3 windows, only 2 open and close , a screen door and a solid wood door. The nest boxes are presently covered with chicken wire to keep them from roosting on them as they grow. I'll remove the wire at 16 weeks. I'm feeding them a starter/grower mix from Big R. I plan to keep them on it until they are 16 weeks and then go to a layer feed.
The coop is insulated and heated. I keep the coop at 70 degrees and the chicks love running around. Right now the outside temps are in the high 40's and low 50's. I'm using pine shavings to cover the floor. I'll use straw when they are grown. I have outside access to the area under the roosts for easy cleaning. Will use the straw and poop for garden fertilizer.
Since my wife and I are older, late 60's and 71 for me, I splurged and purchased an automatic hatch opener from McMurrary. Pricey but it will keep us from having to get up at dawn to let the chickens out. I'm a night person so getting up that early is not my choice. It hasn't arrived yet so I'll let you know how the installation goes.
We live on 10 acres in Chewelah, WA where it gets VERY COLD!!!!!! Ergo the insulated and heated coop. (It went to -20 for three days last winter and many more days also well below zero!) It's probably over kill but what the heck!!!! Spoiled chickens will join the spoiled goats and spoiled dogs.
We have 3 dogs. One pure Maltese and two Maltese mixes. We have introduced them to the chicks. Ruby, the only female, thinks they are her babies. She loves to visit them and is very gentle with them. They are getting used to her and sometimes ignore her completely. The two males aren't interested in the chicks.
I still have to finish the run, 12'x 20', as soon as it warms up. The coop is built within our barn complex that is surrounded by an 8' fence. The 5 acres behind that is all surrounded by a 4 wire electric fence. We've been here 2+ years and haven't seen or heard of any predators except coyotes, hawks and eagles. The run will have a wire top to it.
So far so good. Will keep you all posted as the chickens and I grow up together.
God bless, Mr C
...think im gonna move to Spokane and have me an egg farm. lol 
