Hello from Red Oak Texas

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Beautiful eggs - you may want to keep your birds in the coop a little longer in the morning, hoping to have them lay eggs in the nest box. Try putting a golf ball or two in each box, so maybe they get the idea that is where eggs belong. If they lay eggs while free ranging you may never find them.
 
Thank you, I've tried keeping them inside all day. Now three are laying in the roosting area. Guess when Faith saw that both Hope and Grace were laying up there she needed to do the same. I have a fake ceramic egg in one box and a golf ball in the other nesting box. I have nesting pads, dried grass, herbs etc. Trying to invite them in. They do get in there and knock everything out but they won't lay in there. Silly hens. When they are free ranging they go back in to lay so none outside the coop yet but I know I have 5 more close to laying age so one might try. I think I might have my husband try to build something for them to stand on outside of the box and maybe install some curtains even though they obviously don't care for the privacy factor. I am hoping one figures it out and the others follow suit. They always wait until the roost area is clean so that is a bonus so far. No poop on the eggs yet. ;)
 
We might be moving to Red Oak in a few months from Massachusetts. How do your birds do with the weather? What type of weather do you get in the winter months? Are their any by-laws or ordinances I need to know about with having backyard chickens? We have 7 and I have no idea how we are going to transport them MA to TX. Any good or bad thoughts on Red Oak????
 
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Glad you joined us!
 
mmccoy said:
Just wanted to give a shout out. I've been learning lots and look forward to our chicken adventure this year. Building the coop has been a huge learning experience on its own. We are building a 8 x 12 shed to house our 10 girls. (at least we are hoping they are all girls) I will be posting lots of pictures of our adventure and to try to find out what breed 4 of our girls are. I had a plan but I guess we all know what happens with plans right?! I wanted 4 girls (chicken math), 2 buffs and 2 Ameraucanas. I went to Tractor Supply to check out prices of feeders and once my 5 year old saw the babies he just had to have them. We ended up with 6 because of there limit and the others were not coming in for another 2 weeks and my little one could not wait that long. Once we had the 6 we were happy but I knew I still really wanted buffs and Ameraucanas. Once I saw the buffs I knew we did not have any in our original 6 so we ended up with 10. We have 2 leghorns, 2 buffs, 2 Ameraucanas and 2 possible red stars, and 2 possible New Hampshire's. I will be posting pics of the last 4 to find out what everyone else thinks they are as Tractor Supply could not tell us.
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mmccoy said:
Our chicken adventure has turned out great!!! We are loving having chickens, so much fun! Two of our girls started laying last week. The first egg we go was from one of our Golden Comets named Hope. Was not sure she would ever lay again as she laid the egg on the 4th of July and got quite the surprise afterwards. They just turned 18 weeks. The other one that is laying right now is our Red Star Faith. They are such gorgeous birds. We did end up with our two Ameraucanas (or so we thought, they are really Easter Eggers) turning out to be males. That was sort of a bummer and is still a dilemma as we are only allowed 10 fowl. So now do we keep one, or get rid of both or break the law and get more girls? One of the roosters developed much earlier than the other so it has not been a problem yet. It is actually kid of funny how out of each breed we have a dominate one and a week one. It seems the ones with the darker colored eyes are the dominate ones. My husband did an incredible job on our coop and I could not be happier with it. Although I wish the girls would get their act together and start laying in the nesting boxes. Here are some pictures of them.
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We did move to red oak in August. My husband was just talking to me about chickens. I would love to hear more about your experience. Maybe even meet up sometime. My email is the same as my user name on here either with msn.com or gmail.com. Feel free to contact me. Maybe you can give me some tips and pointers. If you wouldn't mind. The other person who says they may be moving from mass would be great to hear from you also if you move here. Amy
 
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Fancypants1 said:
We might be moving to Red Oak in a few months from Massachusetts.  How do your birds do with the weather?  What type of weather do you get in the winter months?  Are their any by-laws or ordinances I need to know about with having backyard chickens?  We have 7 and I have no idea how we are going to transport them MA to TX.  Any good or bad thoughts on Red Oak????
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Hi. We moved here from MN in aug. If you do move here I would love to hear how your moving your. Hi mens went and how you are doing with them here in red oak. We are talking about getting some. Not quite sure where to start. The move was so much already. We are not completely finished getting all of out stuff from MN yet either. Plus you know all the work that goes into moving I to an older house. Endless things to fix and change up. Never ending list of chores for now. But I need to start getting information to see about getting some chickens soon. I would love to hear from people with experience already. My email is the same as my user name on here. Either with msn.com after it or gmail. Either one works. I would be happy to hear from you if you would want to talk. Amy
 
Fancypants1 & Amy,

Sorry for the delayed response. All my birds have done great over the winter. I've only had the water freeze solid once. They don't seem to mind the cold that much although when it was below freezing the roosters did shiver but they just huddled together. The girls have been using their nesting boxes like good little hens. All but one, Honey still lays in the roost area. She is the only one. The roosters have fought about three times now so I am thinking I need to purchase more hens soon. It only seems to happen after I get back from vacation. They seem to need to reestablish who is in charge. I would like to try to get 4 more hens. Hopefully that will cut down on the need to fight. If not one will have to go. City limit is 10 fowl but we have more than enough room and so far no complaints from the neighbors despite one rooster crowing all hours. (Melody, he never shuts up) Hence the name ;)



They love to free range and the roosters are very vigilant. We've had some hawks and coyotes as of late so they have only been getting supervised time this month. I think one of my buffs is trying to go broody so I put a dog pen and some shavings in the coop today to see if we might be able to hatch some chicks. Not sure it will happen or how it will work but we will see. She has been spending lots of time in the nest box and has been attempting to roll the eggs back under her poor girl. We have made our boxes at an angle to prevent broodiness but now I am rethinking that decision. We have a brooder under the roost area we can put her if she does decide to take on the challenge. Fell free to PM me if you have any more questions. I'll try to answer as best as possible and when I leave I know of a great lady who will watch over your chickens named Karma.

 

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