Hello from The Netherlands

Pics
Date sort Score sort
KarynVA said:
Hello and welcome! My spouse is from the Netherlands and I have visited there a few times; I love it there. Also, I got 3 or 4 chickens for my birthday, too! (Started out with 4 but one sadly died a couple of days after we got the baby chicks).

Your homestead sounds wonderful. Enjoy the forums!
Click to expand...

The Netherlands is wonderful, I've been here coming up for 14 years now and have no intention of leaving :)

DobieLover said:
Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.
I've never had Barnevelders but really want some!
Converting an old building into your coop is a great idea! I did that myself and LOVE it.
Transporting back and forth to the run is madness (sorry)! Can you attach your poultry netting to the new coop?
The dogs will need LOTS of training. Once the chickens are full size, the chickens will easily run off the cats if they are brave enough to take on a flock of chickens.
Click to expand...

I was worried this plan would be madness. Unfortunately the stable is on the other side of the drive than runs through the property to where the run needs to go (next year it could go next to the stable but for the remainder of this year that bit of land is leased to the neighbouring farmer). We may then just have to buy or build a coop to do directly in the run and keep the conversion for next year.

The dogs are whippets so we have no intention of ever letting them loose around the chickens anyway as their prey drive is just too high. In a way its a shame as I'd love fully free range chickens - maybe one day!

KarynVA said:
Regarding your question about cats; we have 3 cats that are outdoor cats and often kill chipmunks etc. We kept the baby chicks out of their sight, but once the chickens got to be around 8 weeks old, we gradually exposed the cats to them under our watchful supervision. We have found that all 3 of our cats are intrigued and very interested in the chickens but have never attempted to pounce on them or otherwise harm them.

In fact, after having been around the chickens for several weeks now, the cats seem almost protective over them. It's sweet.
Click to expand...

That's good to know about the cats! We will probably be getting young birds rather than chicks so hopefully they will gang up on our kitties and show them who's boss! They have been known to kill things but the biggest they ever got was a small rat so fingers crossed!
 
Congratulations on your move to the Netherlands. We traveled there and loved this friendly, clean country.
I remember how exciting it was to get my first little flock of chicks. You have so many adventures ahead of you.
Sounds like you are going to transfer the hens each day so they have chance to range a bit. Have you considered a "tractor" that is moveable? Yes, your hens will need a nest box inside your small pen but that could be a simple box with padding. Do you have predators that can harm the hens? Before you get the hens, please look into this so you know what kind of protections you will need for them.
Just want to know I enjoyed reading your post. You are a good writer. Looking forward to more posts!:frow
 
Backyard Hencam said:
Congratulations on your move to the Netherlands. We traveled there and loved this friendly, clean country.
I remember how exciting it was to get my first little flock of chicks. You have so many adventures ahead of you.
Sounds like you are going to transfer the hens each day so they have chance to range a bit. Have you considered a "tractor" that is moveable? Yes, your hens will need a nest box inside your small pen but that could be a simple box with padding. Do you have predators that can harm the hens? Before you get the hens, please look into this so you know what kind of protections you will need for them.
Just want to know I enjoyed reading your post. You are a good writer. Looking forward to more posts!:frow
Click to expand...

Whenever I go back to the UK I'm thankful for how clean it is here!

I think we are going to look at setting up a coop in the short term in the run and then convert the stable for the longer term coop so we can add more to the flock.

And thank you, I'm going to be writing some blog posts documenting our homesteading adventure :)

TwoCrows said:
Hello there and welcome to BYC! :frow

I have never kept this breed. However here is an article in our Learning Center on this breed... https://www.backyardchickens.com/reviews/barnevelder.10866/

Enjoy the Netherlands!!!
Click to expand...

Great article, thank you.

N F C said:
:welcome

Hello, it's nice to have you here with us!

I've never had Barnevelder's but a few years ago there was a Chicken Breed Focus thread on them that you might like to read: chicken-breed-focus-barnevelder.1092477

Best wishes with all your plans!
Click to expand...

Lovely to see all the pictures of people's Barnies - I shall have to add mine once we have some :)
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom