Hidden Forest Coop

[Jetpad]

The video of the Raccoon, not as nice. Any trouble with him?

I had pointed the camera in that particular corner of the coop because I'd seen some raccoon droppings out there and then caught them on video a day or two later. Since then I haven't seen any droppings near the coop and haven't had any trouble from the raccoons. There are so many garbage cans in the neighborhood, I don't think the raccoons have gotten hungry enough to try getting to the chickens yet.

 

[ChookRanger]

That is good. Raccoons are mean. I had some a few years ago and they fought with the cats and the dogs, made messes and destroyed a garbage can. They mysteriously went away and I was glad to see them go. I am so glad they are not around to hassle my chickens.

 

[Jetpad]

Went down to the coop this morning and found "Yellow One" in one of the nesting boxes. She's almost camouflaged.


Came back a little later and here is what I found (along with my fake egg).




Here she is (19 weeks and 5 days old). I was thinking that she would be the first layer. Her comb and wattle developed first.


Yea! They're finally starting to pay off the expensive debt they've built up.

 

[aart]

Yayyyy!! Congrats!

 

[ChookRanger]

Grats! Soon you will more eggs from your chooks!

 

[smcgill]

Yayyyy!! Congrats!

Yayyyy!! Congrats!

 

[Jetpad]

Another update: When it got down to about 6F, things froze up again. The tubes going to the nipples and the tank itself weren't insulated and the 50 watt bird bath heater just couldn't keep things thawed. I bought some foil backed foam insulation (I think it's R7) and wrapped the tank with it. I also got some foam insulation for pipes and wrapped the tubes. If I'd known that I'd be fiddling with it this much, I think I would probably have just done a bucket waterer with the bird bath heater in it but I'm happy with how well it is working now.



No more chickens have started laying but my Golden Comet has been consistently laying an egg a day. She started out with eggs in the small size category and they've slowly gotten bigger until today when she laid a 60g egg (that qualified for "large").

 

[Jetpad]

Here's a time-lapse video I recorded of my chickens "sleeping" using the night vision webcam. They are wiggling around all night. I suspect it is because it is so cramped on the roost they've picked and no one wants to move to a different roost or maybe that is just how they normally sleep. They are just about too big to all fit in that one spot.

 

[ChookRanger]

Cool video.

 

[Jetpad]

Egg production has doubled today! My Barred Rock has been visiting the nest box about the same time every day for a few days and finally today she left something behind.
It was a very light brown (almost white) but I'm guessing they'll start to darken up as she starts laying more.

As a side node, the pet turf in the nesting boxes is doing great so far. The chickens don't seem opposed to laying on artificial grass, there is no poop in the nests, no straw tracked into the sand area of the coop and the eggs are perfectly clean.