Hello, I am Dudleyspinner from Kansas

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dudleyspinner said:
Thanks for the welcome, you have quite a variety of chickens there. Lawrence is one of my favorite cities to visit. Always something interesting happening.
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Yeah, that's what we were going for. We live in the city so we are just learning and seeing how the family likes the experience. We wanted to try a lot of different birds to see what we like in the hopes of getting some property and breeding a few later on.
 
Most of my birds have been Buff Orpingtons, I got a dozen mixed breed eggs to set last spring and had such fun hatching them. Predators took a huge toll, so it is time to start again. Those darn raccoons and coyotes take more than their fair share. I guess I could pen up the chickens, but the insect control is the main reason I have the birds. The grasshopper nymphs are just starting to become a problem. The two birds I have are pretty wiley to have lasted this long. They forage all day long and spend most afternoons resting in the cedar tree windbreak. Smart of them, they can hop up into the tree if danger approaches and the cover protects them from hawks.
 
Thanks for the welcome. I am looking for a design to make a chicken tractor from an old pickup bed trailer I have. This old chicken house I have has a rodent problem. I need to move the feed from the area. Learning a lot here. It seems to have lots of friendly folks and good information.
 
For insect control, have you thought about guinneas? They are excellent at bug control. Bantams as well. Both are great free range and might last longer than heavy layer breeds in a predator situation like that. Just a thought.
 
I did have 15 guinneas last spring, got them fully feathered and put them in the chicken house.I also had 9 chicks that I hatched. The birds disapeared from the locked up building, one by one. It could be rats, I now am down to one guinnea and two hens. I finally convinced my husband that we just need to abandon the current chicken house. It is a very old building, the floor is not in great shape Poison is not really an option as my pup and cats a good ratters and catch them. The area under the building is just infested. . My puppy was a problem for a while too, but she has grown out of the chasing stage thank goodness. Guineas are great bug machines. Noisy, but very effective.
 
thanks, I got another 11 eggs from my friend to fill up the incubator. I think having it more full will help with the temps keeping steady. The other eggs are being shipped this week. I am keeping the humidity low for the first 7 days. We shall see how that works.
 

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