Kya's Farm Fun

[Kyanite]

OK, time for a little catch up.
There's been a lot of work this spring on infrastructure.

Here's the "lil meaties mobile home" as hubby calls it. We had the 10x10 dog kennel and a lot of scrap material that was left at our property by the previous owners. The only thing we bought were the pressure treated 2x4s, wheels, and uprights for the roof. The coop is made from two hollow core doors with pegboard and plywood.
The meat chicks are living good. There really are 8 Red Rangers in there. It was cold, and they are sissies. We have to move it daily because they are such prolific poopers.

I'm thinking it'll make a decent bachelor pad, or breeding pen with the addition of nest boxes.

 

[theoldchick]

Love the photos!

 

[Kyanite]

Ugh, I'm ready to declare war on Wyandottes. Those big bullies are the meanest to the other chickens in my flock. I love them because they lay so well, handle the cold without missing a step, and look beautiful. But man. I'm pretty sure my feather picker is one, if not two of my four Wyandottes. And they are making new chick integration insanely painful. The Wyandottes team up to chase and corner the chicks to wail on them. Then, at dusk they guard the coop door and won't let the new ones in. I told hubby I'm almost ready for Wyandotte stew. Really, I'm considering throwing them in with the 8 nearly ready to butcher Red Rangers. I do have another pen I could stick them in for a little while, but I'd need to add nest boxes and fortify against predators a tad.

 

[Kyanite]

Oh my, have I ever been busy! It's finally garden planting time. Well, actually I'm a bit late on that, but I'm still earlier than I was last year and I had a pretty nice garden.

Still dealing with the feather picking in the main coop. They're already on an 18% protein feed, so I've been giving high protein treats like meal worms and game bird feed. They like that stuff!

The integration of my 5 older chicks seems to be going better. Last night for the first time they all made their way into the coop before the automatic door shut. We had been going out there and gathering them up and sticking them in the coop at dusk. Night before last one of the Svart Honas had gone in, but no one else. When hubby looked in the coop, he couldn't find the little bugger. Then he saw it perched WAY up high on the cord that hangs the light. For 8ish weeks old, they are amazing flyers!

 

[PennyM]

My feather picker is a Speckled Sussex and sometimes the Silver Wyandot but more the Sussex. I love the Golden Wyandot, she's our sick/depressed or whatever chicken. Our two EEs are 2 weeks younger that the other four and I think they are being kept out of the coop too.

 

[Kyanite]

Two SLW were working as a team to patrol the coop last night. One patrolled the floor, the other patrolled the roosts to kick off the 5 younger chicks no matter where they attempted to roost. Entire lower roosts were empty, but she'd jump down and boot them, then the one on the floor would chase them. I've so had it with the bullies. The chicks have been "integrated" for nearly two weeks, and prior to that they were in a wire crate in the coop for a couple weeks.

 

[PennyM]

We kept the EEs in a crate also in the coop for a week and a half but the Sussex still picks on them. The one EE screams bloody murder when the Sussex gets anywhere close to her.

 

[Kyanite]

Yeah, the new chicks see anyone that's black and white and they just run. They ignore the older hens that are different breeds. Two of my Svarts are cockerels, so I laugh a bit because the SLW are going to regret being bullies once these normally assertive breeds mature.

 

[Kyanite]

So my youngest chicks have two ducklings in with them as you might have seen from the above photos. The ducklings are about three weeks younger and have caught up to the chicks size and zoomed right past. They are HUGE! The two ducklings and 12 chicks are eating about 10-14 lbs of game bird feed every day! Plus we made their coop a tractor which we move regularly, so they can forage. I switched to game bird because I've been told that the Icelandics and SFH seem to do better on higher protein. That and it holds together better with less mash/powder in the crumbles than the chick starter grower which they were sorting through to find the choice bits and wasting everything else. They are still trying to sort, but there has been a lot less waste.

I finally let the big girl flock out to free range for the first time since the integration of the 5 younger chicks. They were soooo happy to be free again. The new chicks poked their heads out and gobbled some grass before deciding that they liked the safety of the coop and run. The Svart Honas took the opportunity to spar without the big girls getting in it. Now there is zero doubt that two of them are little cockerels. They just kept going at it and the little Svart pullet kept trying to stand in the middle. They'd show down on her, she'd back off immediately, and they'd keep sparing. The other three pullets (2 SFH, 1 CCL) wanted nothing to do with it.

 

[lastco]

Love the thread/journal! Great pics and beautiful birds!

Also, thanks for your military service.