marcmiller04
In the Brooder
Hello all,
My name is Marc. My wife, son and I moved to CO a few years ago and bought a house on an acre. I had been talking about wanting chickens and ducks and other livestock but the wife was not thrilled with the idea...
I own a small construction/remodel company and was doing work for a woman who had several chickens and chicks she was brooding. By the end of the job we had carried several conversations about the chickens, and she happened to find 3 chickens that were abandoned a few houses away from her. So that's how we got started about 3 months ago.
I started with 3, then got 2 more, but one of the 2 (the super mean one) was killed by our dog when she escaped the coop and got into the dog run. The coop has since been reinforced, as has the dog run. I replaced that one with another from a local farm, and that one lived about a month but then passed in the coop, still don't know how/why.
The chickens we have in our coop are 1 bantam silkie, 1 Ameraucana (easter egger) 1 Plymouth rock and while my wife thinks the other is also a plymouth rock, I think it is a Sussex. We have only had the chickens for a few months, and have had decent egg production, but since we pulled them from being full free range to a coop/run, the egg production has dropped dramatically. Part of the reason we pulled them from full free range was that we were finding eggs everywhere, except in the coop...
Since the chickens we added 2 baby goats (brothers) who are just awesome animals and so much fun to play with and just be around.
Over the weekend we were having a bday party for my wife and I noticed something moving through the dirt patch we call a backyard and realized it was 7 ducklings, mother no where in sight. We kind of cornered them and were able to catch 3. One escaped into the neighbors yard which he caught the next day and gave to a different neighbor who has ducks. We haven't seen/heard from the other 3...
In my naivete I didn't realize how young these ducklings are, I figured them for at least 3 weeks to a month, when in reality I am starting to think they are only 1 week. It has been warm here for the last few weeks, day and night, so I bought a chicken coop for cheap from TSC and set it up for them last night. The night before they were in a box in the house with us. I left them out overnight last night and one passed away. I am assuming because the temps dropped into the low 70s. So this afternoon I started doing a little more hardcore research. Learned that they are younger than I thought and that they need a heat lamp, but also learned that they are Rouen Ducks. I had done a little research before getting the coop and set them up with the correct food and water source, as well as a pie pan like saucer that only holds about an inch of water in the bottom that they have seemed to enjoy for their bath etc...
Right now they are under a 250W heat lamp, in a tupperware container. I am hoping that these 2 survive and become best buds with my 4 year old. I am also considering purchasing a few more ducklings to raise side by side with these. I have no idea on the sex of them, but regardless we will keep them and a few more.
I have a decent sized space that used as lawn before. I think its about 35x20, maybe a little bigger. I was planning on doing a pond there at some point anyways, so now I think that will become a duck and chicken coop/run/pen and I will set them up with a smallish pond and filtration system. Still in the young planning stages of that though.
As for myself, I am a hunter, fisher and like to think avid outdoorsman, although lately haven't gotten much outdoor time. I own my own business and generally work by myself, or with one or two others when I need it. We have 3 dogs, 1 cat, 4 chickens, 2 goats and now 2 ducklings. Eventually I would like to add more goats, more chickens, a few meat pigs and possibly some sheep, or even an alpaca or two.
My wife is a 5th grade teacher and I have gotten her more into the outdoors, she is afraid of the chickens for some reason, not a huge fan of the ducks, likes the goats and keeps telling me "no more animals..." The plan is to accidentally grow the herd, and hope that she comes along with all the animals and eventually loves them, and isn't afraid any more.
Our little homestead is an acre, and we are calling it Austin's Acre (after our son)
Look forward to learning as much as I can about all this fun stuff, and maybe eventually be able to contribute positively to the group.
My name is Marc. My wife, son and I moved to CO a few years ago and bought a house on an acre. I had been talking about wanting chickens and ducks and other livestock but the wife was not thrilled with the idea...
I own a small construction/remodel company and was doing work for a woman who had several chickens and chicks she was brooding. By the end of the job we had carried several conversations about the chickens, and she happened to find 3 chickens that were abandoned a few houses away from her. So that's how we got started about 3 months ago.
I started with 3, then got 2 more, but one of the 2 (the super mean one) was killed by our dog when she escaped the coop and got into the dog run. The coop has since been reinforced, as has the dog run. I replaced that one with another from a local farm, and that one lived about a month but then passed in the coop, still don't know how/why.
The chickens we have in our coop are 1 bantam silkie, 1 Ameraucana (easter egger) 1 Plymouth rock and while my wife thinks the other is also a plymouth rock, I think it is a Sussex. We have only had the chickens for a few months, and have had decent egg production, but since we pulled them from being full free range to a coop/run, the egg production has dropped dramatically. Part of the reason we pulled them from full free range was that we were finding eggs everywhere, except in the coop...
Since the chickens we added 2 baby goats (brothers) who are just awesome animals and so much fun to play with and just be around.
Over the weekend we were having a bday party for my wife and I noticed something moving through the dirt patch we call a backyard and realized it was 7 ducklings, mother no where in sight. We kind of cornered them and were able to catch 3. One escaped into the neighbors yard which he caught the next day and gave to a different neighbor who has ducks. We haven't seen/heard from the other 3...
In my naivete I didn't realize how young these ducklings are, I figured them for at least 3 weeks to a month, when in reality I am starting to think they are only 1 week. It has been warm here for the last few weeks, day and night, so I bought a chicken coop for cheap from TSC and set it up for them last night. The night before they were in a box in the house with us. I left them out overnight last night and one passed away. I am assuming because the temps dropped into the low 70s. So this afternoon I started doing a little more hardcore research. Learned that they are younger than I thought and that they need a heat lamp, but also learned that they are Rouen Ducks. I had done a little research before getting the coop and set them up with the correct food and water source, as well as a pie pan like saucer that only holds about an inch of water in the bottom that they have seemed to enjoy for their bath etc...
Right now they are under a 250W heat lamp, in a tupperware container. I am hoping that these 2 survive and become best buds with my 4 year old. I am also considering purchasing a few more ducklings to raise side by side with these. I have no idea on the sex of them, but regardless we will keep them and a few more.
I have a decent sized space that used as lawn before. I think its about 35x20, maybe a little bigger. I was planning on doing a pond there at some point anyways, so now I think that will become a duck and chicken coop/run/pen and I will set them up with a smallish pond and filtration system. Still in the young planning stages of that though.
As for myself, I am a hunter, fisher and like to think avid outdoorsman, although lately haven't gotten much outdoor time. I own my own business and generally work by myself, or with one or two others when I need it. We have 3 dogs, 1 cat, 4 chickens, 2 goats and now 2 ducklings. Eventually I would like to add more goats, more chickens, a few meat pigs and possibly some sheep, or even an alpaca or two.
My wife is a 5th grade teacher and I have gotten her more into the outdoors, she is afraid of the chickens for some reason, not a huge fan of the ducks, likes the goats and keeps telling me "no more animals..." The plan is to accidentally grow the herd, and hope that she comes along with all the animals and eventually loves them, and isn't afraid any more.
Our little homestead is an acre, and we are calling it Austin's Acre (after our son)
Look forward to learning as much as I can about all this fun stuff, and maybe eventually be able to contribute positively to the group.
Hope you enjoy your time here, and one day I will be in CO. too, at least thats the plan
