Randalloren
Chirping
- Apr 24, 2019
- 9
- 76
- 54
I have been reading through these forums for the past 6 months or so, and I’m very excited to join in on the conversations! I’ll just jump right in with the chicken story. My wife decided to adopt a small flock of 5 hens last year while I was away at training and in the middle of us building our new home. At first, I was annoyed that she would do such a thing while I was away and not able to help (I was gone for 8 months), and I was also a little worried about the chickens. You see, neither one of us has had chickens before, but it was something we discussed briefly when we knew we were going to have a few acres of land to play with.
When I came home for a visit, I met the new hens, who were living in a dog run and laying eggs in a dog house. We had a small coop, but it was occupied by two young barn kittens, Copper and Penny, and then by two other kittens, Sky and Blue. Picture of Copper and Penny playing in the house while it was under construction is attached, and Blue and Sky in the coop.
By the time we got the coop back for our chickens, summer had set in, and it was a hot one. The day I moved the ladies from the dog run to the coop, the temperatures reached and probably exceeded 110 degrees. Due to lack of knowledge and inexperience, sadly we lost three hens to overheating. I believe they were just trying to explore their new coop and possibly find a new place to lay. My wife was devastated, and felt personally responsible for the loss of our new feathered friends. The rest of the summer she placed a frozen gallon of water in the coop, along with a fan and one of those compact air conditioners that you add water to. Thelma and Louise, our two barred rocks, survived the rest of the hot summer and their inexperienced owners.
I returned from training late last year, and when I got back, one of my first new responsibilities was to take care of the chickens. Again, I was annoyed, and a little nervous, but I accepted my new duty and the adventure began.
I started to enjoy seeing the girls every day. They would greet me in their own way, and I would give them a small treat while I refilled their water and feed and collected the eggs. I began to look forward to my time with them. Peaceful simplicity. I started noticing the differences in their personalities, Thelma is the smaller, docile one, and Louise is the dominant alpha hen. I loved how excited they were to get fresh water and a few slices of cold cantaloupe, and how nutty they get when they hear the sound of the meal worm bag crinkle. I was beginning to see why people thought of these animals as pets.
It wasn’t long before I started thinking that it would be nice to add few more chickens to the flock, so the girls would have some company. So I purchased 4 laying hens from a friend of mine that runs a small homestead. Bovans Brown, a high production brown egg layer. I google researched how to introduce new hens to the flock, and also took the advise of my homesteader friend and waited to introduce them at night. I detached the run from the small coop and put the new chickens in there next to the dog run, which I placed over the the coop. When the sun went down, I snuck the new girls into the coop with Thelma and Louise.
Once the girls got settled and the molt was over, we were getting 6 eggs a day everything seemed fine, until one of the new girls was bleeding from her exposed tail. I didn’t know what had caused the bleeding until I saw Louise chasing Baby Spice around and pecking at her wound! I started googling again, and found this website, which helped me to solve the issue before it turned into a disaster. I went to TSC and picked up a bottle of no peck and started to apply it to her tail twice a day. It worked like magic, the first time Louise went to peck at the wound, she started shaking her head rubbing her beak on the ground like a dog trying to rub his face in something nasty. I laughed at her because nobody likes a bully, and I determined that I needed to separate Baby Spice for a few days to allow her to heal. A week later, everyone was back in the coop and run together, and no more pecking issues, and Louise still runs the show. I’ll add a picture of their setup at this point. Once I expanded their space a bit, and gave them a few boredom busters, everything was copacetic.
Taking care of these birds brings me so much joy and satisfaction. It warms my heart to see them happy and thriving together. I love the little squat they do when I reach down to ruffle their feathers(I know what this means). I enjoy these chickens so much, that I decided to expand the flock even more, and to build them a new coop.
I have spent a lot of time looking at coop designs and diy ideas for inspiration, and this website has provided an endless supply. I decided to build the coop from mostly reclaimed materials and I also decided to design it after one of my favorite types of buildings, a barn. So I’ve attached a few progress pictures. I hope you like it, I have spent a lot of time and energy on the design and construction. I’ll have to put together a design and photo story when it’s complete, but this is what it looks like so far. I need to build and predator-proof the run, which will be 12x20 once complete. The coop is 10x12. I’m calling it ‘The Egg Barn’ until I think of something more clever.
The new coop will house 22 chickens, 18 of which are just 6 weeks old and are now living outside in the old coop(I barely slept their first night outside). I’ve added a few pictures of the new babies, and one of Mary Kate Orpington, she’s my favorite. The new girls are from Ideal Hatchery, and are EEs, Cuckoo Marans, Buff Orps, Black Austrolorps, Jersey Giants, and Silver Laced Wyandottes. The flock is growing, and I absolutely love it. Might be some ducks soon... I’m so thankful for the content on this website and the support from this community.
When I came home for a visit, I met the new hens, who were living in a dog run and laying eggs in a dog house. We had a small coop, but it was occupied by two young barn kittens, Copper and Penny, and then by two other kittens, Sky and Blue. Picture of Copper and Penny playing in the house while it was under construction is attached, and Blue and Sky in the coop.
By the time we got the coop back for our chickens, summer had set in, and it was a hot one. The day I moved the ladies from the dog run to the coop, the temperatures reached and probably exceeded 110 degrees. Due to lack of knowledge and inexperience, sadly we lost three hens to overheating. I believe they were just trying to explore their new coop and possibly find a new place to lay. My wife was devastated, and felt personally responsible for the loss of our new feathered friends. The rest of the summer she placed a frozen gallon of water in the coop, along with a fan and one of those compact air conditioners that you add water to. Thelma and Louise, our two barred rocks, survived the rest of the hot summer and their inexperienced owners.
I returned from training late last year, and when I got back, one of my first new responsibilities was to take care of the chickens. Again, I was annoyed, and a little nervous, but I accepted my new duty and the adventure began.
I started to enjoy seeing the girls every day. They would greet me in their own way, and I would give them a small treat while I refilled their water and feed and collected the eggs. I began to look forward to my time with them. Peaceful simplicity. I started noticing the differences in their personalities, Thelma is the smaller, docile one, and Louise is the dominant alpha hen. I loved how excited they were to get fresh water and a few slices of cold cantaloupe, and how nutty they get when they hear the sound of the meal worm bag crinkle. I was beginning to see why people thought of these animals as pets.
It wasn’t long before I started thinking that it would be nice to add few more chickens to the flock, so the girls would have some company. So I purchased 4 laying hens from a friend of mine that runs a small homestead. Bovans Brown, a high production brown egg layer. I google researched how to introduce new hens to the flock, and also took the advise of my homesteader friend and waited to introduce them at night. I detached the run from the small coop and put the new chickens in there next to the dog run, which I placed over the the coop. When the sun went down, I snuck the new girls into the coop with Thelma and Louise.
Once the girls got settled and the molt was over, we were getting 6 eggs a day everything seemed fine, until one of the new girls was bleeding from her exposed tail. I didn’t know what had caused the bleeding until I saw Louise chasing Baby Spice around and pecking at her wound! I started googling again, and found this website, which helped me to solve the issue before it turned into a disaster. I went to TSC and picked up a bottle of no peck and started to apply it to her tail twice a day. It worked like magic, the first time Louise went to peck at the wound, she started shaking her head rubbing her beak on the ground like a dog trying to rub his face in something nasty. I laughed at her because nobody likes a bully, and I determined that I needed to separate Baby Spice for a few days to allow her to heal. A week later, everyone was back in the coop and run together, and no more pecking issues, and Louise still runs the show. I’ll add a picture of their setup at this point. Once I expanded their space a bit, and gave them a few boredom busters, everything was copacetic.
Taking care of these birds brings me so much joy and satisfaction. It warms my heart to see them happy and thriving together. I love the little squat they do when I reach down to ruffle their feathers(I know what this means). I enjoy these chickens so much, that I decided to expand the flock even more, and to build them a new coop.
I have spent a lot of time looking at coop designs and diy ideas for inspiration, and this website has provided an endless supply. I decided to build the coop from mostly reclaimed materials and I also decided to design it after one of my favorite types of buildings, a barn. So I’ve attached a few progress pictures. I hope you like it, I have spent a lot of time and energy on the design and construction. I’ll have to put together a design and photo story when it’s complete, but this is what it looks like so far. I need to build and predator-proof the run, which will be 12x20 once complete. The coop is 10x12. I’m calling it ‘The Egg Barn’ until I think of something more clever.
The new coop will house 22 chickens, 18 of which are just 6 weeks old and are now living outside in the old coop(I barely slept their first night outside). I’ve added a few pictures of the new babies, and one of Mary Kate Orpington, she’s my favorite. The new girls are from Ideal Hatchery, and are EEs, Cuckoo Marans, Buff Orps, Black Austrolorps, Jersey Giants, and Silver Laced Wyandottes. The flock is growing, and I absolutely love it. Might be some ducks soon... I’m so thankful for the content on this website and the support from this community.
Attachments
-
A41E3388-2A0A-4EBC-ABB7-6FD485DA7659.jpeg -
534D67DA-575A-4561-8699-FABC93EDE94F.jpeg -
AAA39DB5-1200-4155-821B-4B51B379DA8A.jpeg -
4014DB0C-1C64-4EFE-AD91-8AAAB1758AB6.jpeg -
E2F2BFAF-F7B5-4538-B181-3372F935ED1C.jpeg -
5EC41C7D-10E6-4361-93D2-86544FCEB952.jpeg -
AB6AFF77-C1C7-4A39-9CD3-97B85654FBB4.jpeg -
2DBCD87F-9953-476B-A86B-ADC88F09CB41.jpeg -
B91F31EF-843F-47EB-A2B0-4E98BCA442EB.jpeg -
D1007091-C200-46C3-A9FA-B02DB14D2928.jpeg -
5D06A51C-4537-48EB-917E-8EC3C1884618.jpeg -
E927A6E3-EFF3-47C5-BE49-B5172B0EB3F9.jpeg -
51C65E9B-F854-465E-8764-B892ED460F4E.jpeg -
AF95C7D2-ED1D-4FD7-BCA8-682A5FAA3D21.jpeg
If you ever have any questions this is the place to be, there's always somebody more than happy to help. And 'chicken math' gets to us all. 
