- Sep 5, 2014
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Thank you sallyinindiana! We went and bought our first chicks today! 2 rir and 2 white laced wyandotte. We cant wait to get started and start caring for them! Our girls are sooo excited!
INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!
- Thread starter Chaneys Ranch
- Start date
Well, okay, I guess the next option would be to try and build a treadle feeder. I think that's what they're called? The feeders that have a door that opens only when something at least as heavy as a chicken steps on it. The only thing I wonder about is how well my itsy bitsy Sebright bantams will do with it.
Or this thing. It seems to work, at least, and I don't think the sparrows would have an easy time of getting at it.
I could get a sparrow trap, too, I suppose, although the use of that would be limited to the number of times I empty and reset it...
Any other ideas, anyone?
(P.S., no worries about bursting my bubble.It's all good. Glad to hear it now than to have to scramble for a fix mid-winter.
)
It was me, i used the very heavy clear plastic car mats from Wal-Mart. It absolutely worked on the sparrows! I didn't test it on the starlings since I had already managed to block them out of the run. I hope it keeps them out too but at the very least you will LIMIT the wild birds in there.
I also tried the treadle feeders and was not a fan. I had an issue with the wood warping in the humidity and the little hinges the plans had me use kept unscrewing every few days so the treadle wouldn't open the feeder. I would recommend buying something over building something, hopefully a purchased product would have those kinks ironed out. The birds did figure both the treadle feeder and the plastic over the pop door quickly. I still have the plastic up and will continue to use it.
I somehow was expecting a longer list!
Let me know if (when? 
) you get some silver Barnies!! I'd be glad to buy any of either size; chicks, eggs, or adults! 
I will make room for them even if I have to build a coop specifically for them!It always takes me ages to remember all the different breeds I have running around in my flock, and I don't even have that many birds as compared to some of y'all! (Although, considering I have 41 hens and somewhere in the range of 20-25 different breeds, I suppose that gives me some leeway.
)
Oh, thanks! That's good to know!
At the very least, it's worth a shot, right? The only issue I might have is the human door, which I open every day because it's really dark in that section of the coop otherwise. I have a few ideas, at least. 
Yeah, I'm a bit iffy about the treadle feeders anyway, especially since my little Sebrights are so light and I'm not sure if they'd be able to work it. I'll try a few things with the feeder, too, and see what I come up with.
Definitely have to do something about it, though. Cleaning up so much sparrow poop off the walls of the coop gets old fast.
Oddly enough, though, it didn't seem like they went through that much more food than the girls were eating on their own, so at least the feed bill didn't go up too much as a result.
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Just got my auto waterer installer! I just dry fitted all the fittings and surprisingly most of them are not leaking! I just need to glue the water cup fittings together as that is the only place they are leaking. I'll work on getting pictures taken but there are already birds that have taken to them! Tomorrow will be the test on how it handles the heat. I will eventually build an insulated box to out the bucket in and possibly insulate the line feeding each pen. I just don't want the chickens to peck at the insulation. But overall, it works great!
Not sure what you were going to do with your fluffy butt English orps? I think you want to give them to me!!
We really, really, really need to do this!!
I have no clue what her breed is, but she's awful pretty!Anyone ever seen a backwards barred rock?
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Okay, y'all, as is my usual habit anymore, instead of doing some homework today, I did something more interesting and drew up some basic plans for the duck coop. Any duck people want to give me some pointers here as for how I can improve it?
Here is the floor plan. The coop itself will be about 6x4 feet. Dashes through the walls are windows and angled lines are doors. The rectangle at the lower left corner is approximately where the kick board to keep the bedding in will be. I was going to just use shavings like I have with the chicken coop. The rectangle along the right side of it is what I call the duck shelf; basically, it's like a community nest box if the ducks decide to lay in there. I put the windows where I did so that the area underneath the shelf would kind of be dark and enticing for nesting. Not sure if that's what ducks look for, though?
The front wall. That big, nondescript rectangle to the left is the human door. The square at the middle right is a window. I also drew in my idea for the duck shelf. I was thinking a 2x4 flat side up across the coop, about 1-1/2 feet off the floor. The shelf itself I want to be hinged, so I can just lift it up and get the eggs out of there without having to crawl my way underneath. The shelf will be at a slight angle (probably less than is shown) so that if they get up there and poop, it's less inclined to get into the hinges and mess things up. Oh, and that really thin, hard to see line across the top is a rough idea of where the vent opening will be on this side. I don't know yet if the roof will be gable-style or just flat and angled.
The shorter end walls. The one on the left has the pop door, approximately 1-1/2 feet by 1-1/2 feet. No windows because it will probably be facing toward a building anyway. The one on the right has one window and kind of shows the elevation between the front and back of the duck shelf (once again, it probably won't be quite that steep).
The back wall won't have any windows or doors, so I didn't bother to draw it.
Here is kind of how I picture the yard, not to scale. Black lines are walls and gray lines are fences, with the fence along the bottom showing where the chicken yard is. That brown square is a covered area so that I can put their feed outside instead of in the coop. The green circles are where trees are and the blue circle is about where their kiddie pool will be. There are two gates (the angled lines along the fences) because if we don't put that back gate in, there isn't going to be an easy way to get back into the woods beyond there. I don't know the measurements for sure, but I would estimate the yard at around 30 feet by 15 feet. We're going to try to cover it with bird netting to keep the ducks from flying out.
Please, pick it apart. I'm designing this from a 'chicken person with no duck experience' point of view, so I need all the criticism I can get.
Any duck people want to give me some pointers here as for how I can improve it? Here is the floor plan. The coop itself will be about 6x4 feet. Dashes through the walls are windows and angled lines are doors. The rectangle at the lower left corner is approximately where the kick board to keep the bedding in will be. I was going to just use shavings like I have with the chicken coop. The rectangle along the right side of it is what I call the duck shelf; basically, it's like a community nest box if the ducks decide to lay in there. I put the windows where I did so that the area underneath the shelf would kind of be dark and enticing for nesting. Not sure if that's what ducks look for, though?
The front wall. That big, nondescript rectangle to the left is the human door. The square at the middle right is a window. I also drew in my idea for the duck shelf. I was thinking a 2x4 flat side up across the coop, about 1-1/2 feet off the floor. The shelf itself I want to be hinged, so I can just lift it up and get the eggs out of there without having to crawl my way underneath. The shelf will be at a slight angle (probably less than is shown) so that if they get up there and poop, it's less inclined to get into the hinges and mess things up. Oh, and that really thin, hard to see line across the top is a rough idea of where the vent opening will be on this side. I don't know yet if the roof will be gable-style or just flat and angled.
The shorter end walls. The one on the left has the pop door, approximately 1-1/2 feet by 1-1/2 feet. No windows because it will probably be facing toward a building anyway. The one on the right has one window and kind of shows the elevation between the front and back of the duck shelf (once again, it probably won't be quite that steep).
The back wall won't have any windows or doors, so I didn't bother to draw it.
Here is kind of how I picture the yard, not to scale. Black lines are walls and gray lines are fences, with the fence along the bottom showing where the chicken yard is. That brown square is a covered area so that I can put their feed outside instead of in the coop. The green circles are where trees are and the blue circle is about where their kiddie pool will be. There are two gates (the angled lines along the fences) because if we don't put that back gate in, there isn't going to be an easy way to get back into the woods beyond there. I don't know the measurements for sure, but I would estimate the yard at around 30 feet by 15 feet. We're going to try to cover it with bird netting to keep the ducks from flying out.
Please, pick it apart.
I'm designing this from a 'chicken person with no duck experience' point of view, so I need all the criticism I can get.
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Okay, y'all, as is my usual habit anymore, instead of doing some homework today, I did something more interesting and drew up some basic plans for the duck coop.
Here is the floor plan. The coop itself will be about 6x4 feet. Dashes through the walls are windows and angled lines are doors. The rectangle at the lower left corner is approximately where the kick board to keep the bedding in will be. I was going to just use shavings like I have with the chicken coop. The rectangle along the right side of it is what I call the duck shelf; basically, it's like a community nest box if the ducks decide to lay in there. I put the windows where I did so that the area underneath the shelf would kind of be dark and enticing for nesting. Not sure if that's what ducks look for, though?
The front wall. That big, nondescript rectangle to the left is the human door. The square at the middle right is a window. I also drew in my idea for the duck shelf. I was thinking a 2x4 flat side up across the coop, about 1-1/2 feet off the floor. The shelf itself I want to be hinged, so I can just lift it up and get the eggs out of there without having to crawl my way underneath. The shelf will be at a slight angle (probably less than is shown) so that if they get up there and poop, it's less inclined to get into the hinges and mess things up. Oh, and that really thin, hard to see line across the top is a rough idea of where the vent opening will be on this side. I don't know yet if the roof will be gable-style or just flat and angled.
The shorter end walls. The one on the left has the pop door, approximately 1-1/2 feet by 1-1/2 feet. No windows because it will probably be facing toward a building anyway. The one on the right has one window and kind of shows the elevation between the front and back of the duck shelf (once again, it probably won't be quite that steep).
The back wall won't have any windows or doors, so I didn't bother to draw it.
Here is kind of how I picture the yard, not to scale. Black lines are walls and gray lines are fences, with the fence along the bottom showing where the chicken yard is. That brown square is a covered area so that I can put their feed outside instead of in the coop. The green circles are where trees are and the blue circle is about where their kiddie pool will be. There are two gates (the angled lines along the fences) because if we don't put that back gate in, there isn't going to be an easy way to get back into the woods beyond there. I don't know the measurements for sure, but I would estimate the yard at around 30 feet by 15 feet. We're going to try to cover it with bird netting to keep the ducks from flying out.
Please, pick it apart.
Wow!!! Looks Great to me. My ducks do not really have a house right now. They can get in the goat house with the goats and Great Pyrenees but tend to like to sleep outside. I am going to build them an area inside my goat house to put them up at night before Winter hits. My original set up for them was 8'x16' covered run with a 6'x4' custom built insulated dog house in it, it was a good deal on craigslist for a shelter while they were young. They used it as a nest box when they started laying but never really slept in it. I have since moved them out to open up that adjoining area to the chickens.
Well, okay, I guess the next option would be to try and build a treadle feeder. I think that's what they're called? The feeders that have a door that opens only when something at least as heavy as a chicken steps on it. The only thing I wonder about is how well my itsy bitsy Sebright bantams will do with it.
Or this thing. It seems to work, at least, and I don't think the sparrows would have an easy time of getting at it.
I could get a sparrow trap, too, I suppose, although the use of that would be limited to the number of times I empty and reset it...
Any other ideas, anyone?
(P.S., no worries about bursting my bubble.It's all good. Glad to hear it now than to have to scramble for a fix mid-winter.)
My family made me a treadle feeder as a gift last year. (Dad built it while sister & mom did the artwork. Lizard pic b/c I used to raise reptiles.) After a year it still works, but I have to occasionally reassemble the lever arm. If I did not have it, I would be considering a pre-made metal one. I added a pointed peak to keep the chickens from sitting on it.
The other feeders I have work perfectly because there's no moving parts. The hens must put their heads completely inside to eat, so there's less waste.
I fill it up all the way. As the chickens eat the food from the bottom, more from the top & sides fall through.
I hang them so little critters don't climb up into it & so the chickens do not sit on top (& poop). Not sure if little birds would find a way into it or not. I made smaller ones for the chicks, since they're easy & practically free to make.
Below is a smaller chick feeder made from a nut container. I later added a handle to hang it.
I cut the female end off the bottom to make a lip for the front.
PS- Neither of these ideas were originally mine. The treadle plans were found here on Backyard chickens & the feeder was from
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