4flock
Songster
Hello!
My wife and I got our first flock of chickies this past spring. We started with 3. Brown leghorn, EE, and an australorp. Our little ausie didn’t make it 24hours, and unfortunately I could tell on our way home from TSC. She was singled out in the box. A week later we picked up 2 rainbow EE’s, and our total of four have been very happy and healthy since we have had them.
We live in a suburban area in town with a small property. Our first home. I did a DIY coop/pen due to our location and need for optimizing our space. I have never raised livestock of any kind until this year. It’s been a dream of mine for ten years!
Yesterday our “eldest”(or so we believe) EE laid our flocks first egg!! Cannot contain my excitement. A month earlier than I expected to find any eggs. Rather small but I’ve read the first eggs are that way. Pink with a few darker speckles on it. She laid it beneath the coop. We washed it last night and took a photo out of excitement. I put it in the nest box this morning and intend to leave it for a few days to encourage the girls to use that safe place for eggs. I’d rather not have an Easter egg hunt every morning. If someone has a better/different idea for training hens to use the nest box I’d be happy to listen.
I built our coop tall and skinny as to fit in an unused spot in our yard. We have a bird dog, and I didn’t want to take any yard away from him if I could. We live in FL so we have quite the rainy season here in summer. I wanted to make sure in case of wicked storms the girls would have enough room to not irritate one another, heaven forbid they couldn’t come outside for a day or two. We intended to have them in a pen, however my yard is fenced and I quickly became a sucker for them. They now run my property. Haha. Luckily we had our dog around them from day one and he is very good with them. Fingers crossed. They all seem to share well.
Our coop has a gravity feeder, out of PVC pipes. The first one I built was similar to a mail slot. The humidity penetrated it and molded the feed after a few weeks, had quite the fly swarm. Live and learn. The pvc isn’t working 100% to satisfaction however is working enough to feed them. I intend to adjust it when the opportunity arises. We have a bucket/water cup hanging inside as well that does work 100%. Love it. I built the coop on zero experience and all fantasy ideas. After having my chickens and observing I am less inclined to search for my own ideas and more on practicality. The $15 hanging feeder probably will suffice just fine rather than my $20-$30 second attempt auto feeder. We placed our coop behind our garage so the building itself is shaded 100% of the time where as the yard has sun most of the day depending on height of the sun. The idea was they could peck in the yard, and use the underside of the coop for their dust bathing. They do just that. It’s cool and dry and dusty under there. I’d say over 50% of my uneducated ideas for raising hens have turned out as expected.
On top of their feed, we throw a cup of fun scratch in the yard each morning for a treat. As well as cutting up some fruit. Not too much, hand full of grapes or berries diced up. They go crazy for it.
This adventure has been very fulfilling and informative. I’d like to make some adjustments to their house later on. Little tweaks to improve it.
Anyways, hello! That’s our little story. Thanks for reading and any tips tricks and fun facts anyone can share I am eager to read!
Wish all you BYCer’s a wonderful day
My wife and I got our first flock of chickies this past spring. We started with 3. Brown leghorn, EE, and an australorp. Our little ausie didn’t make it 24hours, and unfortunately I could tell on our way home from TSC. She was singled out in the box. A week later we picked up 2 rainbow EE’s, and our total of four have been very happy and healthy since we have had them.
We live in a suburban area in town with a small property. Our first home. I did a DIY coop/pen due to our location and need for optimizing our space. I have never raised livestock of any kind until this year. It’s been a dream of mine for ten years!
Yesterday our “eldest”(or so we believe) EE laid our flocks first egg!! Cannot contain my excitement. A month earlier than I expected to find any eggs. Rather small but I’ve read the first eggs are that way. Pink with a few darker speckles on it. She laid it beneath the coop. We washed it last night and took a photo out of excitement. I put it in the nest box this morning and intend to leave it for a few days to encourage the girls to use that safe place for eggs. I’d rather not have an Easter egg hunt every morning. If someone has a better/different idea for training hens to use the nest box I’d be happy to listen.
I built our coop tall and skinny as to fit in an unused spot in our yard. We have a bird dog, and I didn’t want to take any yard away from him if I could. We live in FL so we have quite the rainy season here in summer. I wanted to make sure in case of wicked storms the girls would have enough room to not irritate one another, heaven forbid they couldn’t come outside for a day or two. We intended to have them in a pen, however my yard is fenced and I quickly became a sucker for them. They now run my property. Haha. Luckily we had our dog around them from day one and he is very good with them. Fingers crossed. They all seem to share well.
Our coop has a gravity feeder, out of PVC pipes. The first one I built was similar to a mail slot. The humidity penetrated it and molded the feed after a few weeks, had quite the fly swarm. Live and learn. The pvc isn’t working 100% to satisfaction however is working enough to feed them. I intend to adjust it when the opportunity arises. We have a bucket/water cup hanging inside as well that does work 100%. Love it. I built the coop on zero experience and all fantasy ideas. After having my chickens and observing I am less inclined to search for my own ideas and more on practicality. The $15 hanging feeder probably will suffice just fine rather than my $20-$30 second attempt auto feeder. We placed our coop behind our garage so the building itself is shaded 100% of the time where as the yard has sun most of the day depending on height of the sun. The idea was they could peck in the yard, and use the underside of the coop for their dust bathing. They do just that. It’s cool and dry and dusty under there. I’d say over 50% of my uneducated ideas for raising hens have turned out as expected.
On top of their feed, we throw a cup of fun scratch in the yard each morning for a treat. As well as cutting up some fruit. Not too much, hand full of grapes or berries diced up. They go crazy for it.
This adventure has been very fulfilling and informative. I’d like to make some adjustments to their house later on. Little tweaks to improve it.
Anyways, hello! That’s our little story. Thanks for reading and any tips tricks and fun facts anyone can share I am eager to read!
Wish all you BYCer’s a wonderful day
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