- May 20, 2013
- 4
- 1
- 9
Well I finally gave into my daughters desire of having chickens. Probably more my desire than hers! Living out in the boondocks of South central KS, you have to have chickens, right? This will be our first experience with any 'farm' type animals. I ordered a total of 15 hens, and 2 roosters. I kind of assumed that we would have some that wouldn't make it, so I ordered a few more than I actually wanted. Here we are almost 4 months later, and we've only lost 1.
I ordered 5 rhode island reds, 5 golden campine, 5 easter eggers and 2 white crested polish. Can you tell that I wanted a variety of eggs? lol Unfortunately, about two months ago, I had purchased a small coop from the local farm store that I knew was going to be too small, but I HAD to get them out of my house. I had ran an extension cord out to it for their heat lamp. One night when it got below freezing, we lost power for a couple of hours. When I checked on them in the morning, we found one of the golden campines didn't make it. I'm not sure it was the weather, but that's what I'm blaming.
About a month ago, we finally got a permanent coop built. It's approx. 8 x 4 wide and 6" tall, with 4 nesting and a feeder built onto the side. The feeder is pretty handy in that I don't have to go into the coop to refill it. It will easily hole a 40lb bag of food which is handy. There's plenty of nesting space (so I think), but they don't seem to use it. They all crowd together, is that normal?
I have an approx. 30gal barrel that I have installed 8 chicken nipples in for the waterer. I decided to have the water on the outside of the coop, and I"m glad I did! It would have been a mess in there with all the water that seems to drip from the nipples. I may not have it high enough, or I just have some sloppy drinkers.
I also have a separate feeder on the outside for oyster shell, which I haven't started giving yet. There's also a small (chick) feeder with grit in it.
I do have a big problem though. It seems the hens are pecking the feathers off the roosters heads! At first it was just a small bald spot on one. But now they have both of them almost completely bald. I've separated the roosters back into the smaller coop. They seemed to be doing fine for a while. However, a couple nights ago, we had a pretty nasty wind storm come through, and it blew the small coop over (can you imagine the ride for the roosters!). So until I could get that fixed, I didn't have a choice but to put them back in with the hens. OVERNIGHT, they were worse than before. I got them separated again, but I just don't know what too do. I can't keep them separated for ever. I really don't think that coop is even big enough for the 2 roosters. I tried letting them out to free range (hens are in a run), but they found their way into the run with the hens. Is there anything I can put on them? I've seen at least a few hens pecking at them, so I can't just separate the culprit because I'm not so sure it isn't all of them. Right now, their diet is pretty much the layer crumbles and what ever they can grab in the run. I do throw them some scratch now and then, but just haven't gotten into a schedule with it. Do they need something else added to their diet? I have given them treats in the past (meal worms, green cabbage, red cabbage (that was interesting!), broccoli and the occasional flying insect that I swat into the run), I just haven't done anything lately. Maybe they should make chicken helmets? lol
So much I want to put in here, but I"m afraid I'm already rambling. Any help with the pecking would be greatly appreciated.
I ordered 5 rhode island reds, 5 golden campine, 5 easter eggers and 2 white crested polish. Can you tell that I wanted a variety of eggs? lol Unfortunately, about two months ago, I had purchased a small coop from the local farm store that I knew was going to be too small, but I HAD to get them out of my house. I had ran an extension cord out to it for their heat lamp. One night when it got below freezing, we lost power for a couple of hours. When I checked on them in the morning, we found one of the golden campines didn't make it. I'm not sure it was the weather, but that's what I'm blaming.
About a month ago, we finally got a permanent coop built. It's approx. 8 x 4 wide and 6" tall, with 4 nesting and a feeder built onto the side. The feeder is pretty handy in that I don't have to go into the coop to refill it. It will easily hole a 40lb bag of food which is handy. There's plenty of nesting space (so I think), but they don't seem to use it. They all crowd together, is that normal?
I have an approx. 30gal barrel that I have installed 8 chicken nipples in for the waterer. I decided to have the water on the outside of the coop, and I"m glad I did! It would have been a mess in there with all the water that seems to drip from the nipples. I may not have it high enough, or I just have some sloppy drinkers.
I also have a separate feeder on the outside for oyster shell, which I haven't started giving yet. There's also a small (chick) feeder with grit in it.
I do have a big problem though. It seems the hens are pecking the feathers off the roosters heads! At first it was just a small bald spot on one. But now they have both of them almost completely bald. I've separated the roosters back into the smaller coop. They seemed to be doing fine for a while. However, a couple nights ago, we had a pretty nasty wind storm come through, and it blew the small coop over (can you imagine the ride for the roosters!). So until I could get that fixed, I didn't have a choice but to put them back in with the hens. OVERNIGHT, they were worse than before. I got them separated again, but I just don't know what too do. I can't keep them separated for ever. I really don't think that coop is even big enough for the 2 roosters. I tried letting them out to free range (hens are in a run), but they found their way into the run with the hens. Is there anything I can put on them? I've seen at least a few hens pecking at them, so I can't just separate the culprit because I'm not so sure it isn't all of them. Right now, their diet is pretty much the layer crumbles and what ever they can grab in the run. I do throw them some scratch now and then, but just haven't gotten into a schedule with it. Do they need something else added to their diet? I have given them treats in the past (meal worms, green cabbage, red cabbage (that was interesting!), broccoli and the occasional flying insect that I swat into the run), I just haven't done anything lately. Maybe they should make chicken helmets? lol
So much I want to put in here, but I"m afraid I'm already rambling. Any help with the pecking would be greatly appreciated.
