Hey everyone. Before yesterday I had never touched a chicken in my life. I've wanted chickens for about 6 years now and I finally got some on Sunday.
I have been trolling the forums here and looking at coop designs for a few weeks now and finally settled on one from Purina because it had pretty good detail on their plans:
http://poultry.purinamills.com/NUTRITIONMANAGEMENT/HenHouseHutchDesign/default.aspx
Saw a posting on Craigslist for someone 20 minutes from my house who was selling "Black Orps" for $10 a piece on Saturday, so ran to Lowes and bought the materials and started the build. By Sunday I (thought) I had enough done to go ahead and pick up the chickens.
Swung by Tractor Supply and got some Layer Pellets, a feed thing and a watering thing and some pine(?) shavings.
Went to the guy's house and got two black orpington hens around 1.5 years old that were very pretty. Wanted each chicken to be a different color, so I also got a brown one (can't remember what breed) and a white one that he threw in for free (again, who knows what breed). The brown and the white were... 6 or 7 months old?
I didn't end up having time to finish the coop (sun goes down earlier than I realized) but I threw a board on the front and the top for the night to keep them safe. I could NOT catch the black one (the white one all but put herself into my hands to be let into the coop, and the other two were already asleep in the boxes I brought them home in) because she hid in my woodshed, so, she stayed out all night.
Last night I was able to catch all of them (had to chase them all over the back yard)!!!
In all of the Youtube videos I watched, the chickens would more or less stand still for the people to pick them up, so, I'm hoping that if I pick them up every single day that I can get them trained to do that. I know I'm going to need to inspect them for mites etc and will need to be able to pick them up and handle them easily, so, I'll be working on this.
I'll be finishing the coop completely tonight (just have to throw the nest boxes and front-door on) and then I'll be all set.
I'm having a blast. It's more fun than I thought it would be.
We have about .3 acres in the back completely surrounded by a privacy fence that they just wander around all day. Probably only a matter of time before they find a way out, but I couldn't find any holes or anything they could get through, so, short of flying out I think they're pretty well contained.
Good to meet everyone. Anyone else in Homeplace/Carmel/North-side of Indianapolis?
Now, here's a bunch of pictures of the coop build and the chickens, enjoy!
Rosetta hiding in the whoodshed
View of the coop from my back door (I hung a shop light out for effect for the pic)
WIP on the coop (this was immediately before going to pick up the chickens)
Virginia (the white) and Beyonce (the brown, and yes, the name is in honor of the Bloggess)
Coop in place immediately before putting on the side walls
Mitzy (my 3yo's, he came up with the name himself)
I somehow don't have a pic of the finished coop other than that far away one after dark. Will try and post one soon...
I have been trolling the forums here and looking at coop designs for a few weeks now and finally settled on one from Purina because it had pretty good detail on their plans:
http://poultry.purinamills.com/NUTRITIONMANAGEMENT/HenHouseHutchDesign/default.aspx
Saw a posting on Craigslist for someone 20 minutes from my house who was selling "Black Orps" for $10 a piece on Saturday, so ran to Lowes and bought the materials and started the build. By Sunday I (thought) I had enough done to go ahead and pick up the chickens.
Swung by Tractor Supply and got some Layer Pellets, a feed thing and a watering thing and some pine(?) shavings.
Went to the guy's house and got two black orpington hens around 1.5 years old that were very pretty. Wanted each chicken to be a different color, so I also got a brown one (can't remember what breed) and a white one that he threw in for free (again, who knows what breed). The brown and the white were... 6 or 7 months old?
I didn't end up having time to finish the coop (sun goes down earlier than I realized) but I threw a board on the front and the top for the night to keep them safe. I could NOT catch the black one (the white one all but put herself into my hands to be let into the coop, and the other two were already asleep in the boxes I brought them home in) because she hid in my woodshed, so, she stayed out all night.
Last night I was able to catch all of them (had to chase them all over the back yard)!!!
In all of the Youtube videos I watched, the chickens would more or less stand still for the people to pick them up, so, I'm hoping that if I pick them up every single day that I can get them trained to do that. I know I'm going to need to inspect them for mites etc and will need to be able to pick them up and handle them easily, so, I'll be working on this.
I'll be finishing the coop completely tonight (just have to throw the nest boxes and front-door on) and then I'll be all set.
I'm having a blast. It's more fun than I thought it would be.
We have about .3 acres in the back completely surrounded by a privacy fence that they just wander around all day. Probably only a matter of time before they find a way out, but I couldn't find any holes or anything they could get through, so, short of flying out I think they're pretty well contained.
Good to meet everyone. Anyone else in Homeplace/Carmel/North-side of Indianapolis?
Now, here's a bunch of pictures of the coop build and the chickens, enjoy!
Rosetta hiding in the whoodshed
View of the coop from my back door (I hung a shop light out for effect for the pic)
WIP on the coop (this was immediately before going to pick up the chickens)
Virginia (the white) and Beyonce (the brown, and yes, the name is in honor of the Bloggess)
Coop in place immediately before putting on the side walls
Mitzy (my 3yo's, he came up with the name himself)
I somehow don't have a pic of the finished coop other than that far away one after dark. Will try and post one soon...
from Ohio. So glad to have you aboard. 
