Icelandic Chickens

[Mahonri]

Bryce!

I am so proud of you!!!

Your flock is so beautiful, compliments of Mary O'Brien, NotAFarm and Kathyinmo. I hatched eggs from all of them....and kept the most beautiful hens.... and the roo is going to be a real looker and his daddy was beautiful.

Boston Bryce has all of their "cousins"... in Heber.

 

[minihorse927]

Anyone have Icelandic eggs for sale that's in Ohio? I'm still looking and everytime I get them shipped from any great distance they are destroyed. Please PM me.

 

[tommysgirl]

Can you post pics of your Icelandic's coops. We are in the middle of building ours and if there is anything you feel we must have I would like to see/hear what it is...Other than high roosts

Also curious to know how many of you try to contain them completely in the coop/run when they aren't free ranging and how many of you don't.

What have you done to encourage them to always return to the coop at night or is that even an issue. We have pea fowl roosting in our oaks every night and I am picturing my Icelandics doing the same sort of thing if given the chance. I sort of would like to avoid that. Thanks!

 

[debs_flock]

Can you post pics of your Icelandic's coops. We are in the middle of building ours and if there is anything you feel we must have I would like to see/hear what it is...Other than high roosts

Also curious to know how many of you try to contain them completely in the coop/run when they aren't free ranging and how many of you don't.

What have you done to encourage them to always return to the coop at night or is that even an issue. We have pea fowl roosting in our oaks every night and I am picturing my Icelandics doing the same sort of thing if given the chance. I sort of would like to avoid that. Thanks!

Mine are all penned. I can't free range multiple breeds together..................they'd all end up a mixed flock of mutts, LOL

 

[tommysgirl]

Thanks Deb...I can't imagine what you would have....hmmm a Shingle Springs landrace???

 

[mlm Mike]

Can you post pics of your Icelandic's coops. We are in the middle of building ours and if there is anything you feel we must have I would like to see/hear what it is...Other than high roosts

Also curious to know how many of you try to contain them completely in the coop/run when they aren't free ranging and how many of you don't.

What have you done to encourage them to always return to the coop at night or is that even an issue. We have pea fowl roosting in our oaks every night and I am picturing my Icelandics doing the same sort of thing if given the chance. I sort of would like to avoid that. Thanks!

My coop is just a regular chicken coop. Currently they are kept to their coops and run, one cockerel flies in and out at will, but my other breed are in covered runs.

 

[Twister-n-Dos]

Our hatch numbers are nothing to brag about, but we did much better this time than we did with shipped eggs. (thank you Michelle!)

Not a great picture, but here are the seven Icelandic chicks from our last hatch. Hopefully some girls in there.

Got the bator all cleaned out and ready for another run with eggs collected from our birds.

 

[mlm Mike]

Our hatch numbers are nothing to brag about, but we did much better this time than we did with shipped eggs. (thank you Michelle!)

Not a great picture, but here are the seven Icelandic chicks from our last hatch. Hopefully some girls in there.

Got the bator all cleaned out and ready for another run with eggs collected from our birds.

Very cute. Keep posting pics as they grow. Good luck with the next hatch!

 

[Twister-n-Dos]

Very cute. Keep posting pics as they grow. Good luck with the next hatch!

Thanks. I will try to post some pics every so often.

 

[NotAFarm]

Can you post pics of your Icelandic's coops. We are in the middle of building ours and if there is anything you feel we must have I would like to see/hear what it is...Other than high roosts

Also curious to know how many of you try to contain them completely in the coop/run when they aren't free ranging and how many of you don't.

What have you done to encourage them to always return to the coop at night or is that even an issue. We have pea fowl roosting in our oaks every night and I am picturing my Icelandics doing the same sort of thing if given the chance. I sort of would like to avoid that. Thanks!

If Icelandics are your only breed, your coops only have to be predator proof. If you have other breeds, all your pens must be Icelandic proof. They have an uncanny ability to find every opening, no matter how miniscule, and will fit themselves through it to get where they want to be. I have German New Hampshires that are kept in an Icelandic proof coop and run. My Icelandics go to the coop "early" (about 2 1/2 hours before dark) and I close them in and let the New Hampshires free range until they go to roost at dark. I have some hens of other breeds in with the Icelandics but all of them lay a brown egg so no chance of mixed chicks being hatched. There have been a few times I've left the Icelandics closed up (weather issues or construction times), they don't like it but they tolerate it well, they just need enough room. I've never had a problem with any of my Icelandics going into their coop at dusk. They seem to know that it is the safe place to be. They roost in the rafters. The coop is 12 feet x 28 feet at the end of a 28 x 45 foot barn/shed. On one 12 ft side of that area are two 6x6 coops, one that has the NHs in it that has a pop-door to their secure run, the other is used as a grow-out/chick/broody/isolation/whatever coop and has a pop-door that opens to the main chicken yard. Each of them has a 2 x 2 sliding outside window with hardware cloth attached on the inside. There is hardware cloth on the top half and a solid wood bottom of the wall dividing the smaller coops from the main coop and solid wood doors on each. There is also a 3x5 area inside the main coop that has no outside access. It is used for raising chicks or broody mommas. ...so they have 249 sq ft of floor and rafter space in the main coop. There is a ridge vent on the barn and the two 3 ft sliding doors in the main coop are not "tight" and allow some airflow even when shut. The chicken coop is "divided" from the rest of the barn by a combination of wooden walls, hardware cloth, ply-wood doors and plastic snow fence used to keep them from going through the rafters. The whole barn is closed up at night.
I have a "vintage" ten hole metal nest box on one wall that the main flock uses. Two wooden nest boxes inside the NH coop. I have had a couple of hens that will go into the other end of the barn to try and "hide" eggs but I haven't had anyone be successful in hiding a nest there. I haven't ever had one lay outside, even though they free range almost all day, every day.
I have a couple of free standing small coops that I use for broody mommas and chicks and a "chicken tractor" for the meat birds I raise a couple of times a year for my freezer.
This is probably TMI........but hope it helps somehow.