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ZerkerChicken

In the Brooder
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Hey all, finally bit the bullet this year and got a flock had 16 and lost 1 chick at day 4ish no idea why but it was an EE and sad we lost it for the egg color variety. Now getting 9-14 eggs a day they are from April hatch and are happy chickens, 14 hens and a roo.

Building the coop was a labor of hate, I live in the mountains and somewhat rocky (boulder) soil area. Getting that hardware cloth down deep was hell by hand and solo took probably like 80 or more hours just to dig out my spot and make it sorta level. Went leanto style 10.5' down to 8' at the backside, metal roof and right now just painted OSB walls will hopefully upgrade the finish in a couple years. Its 8x8 with two roosting bars and 4 boxes for the girls. They get to free range about 5-10 hours a day just depending on day/time of year. Need to try and get some sortof run built in the next month or so, so I can have them get outside time in the winter (mountains where we avg 250 or more inches a year) but life is busy. If not this fall then in the spring, and in the meantime I'll just clear with the snowblower a spot for them to run around in hopefully.

We love the chickens and have fun with them. My daughters love taking care of them and interacting with them! Excited to be in this adventure as a family and learning more.
 
Hiya, and welcome to BYC! :frow

Wow, that sure sounds like a lot of painful work! At least your flock sounds safe. What varmints do you have there? I was figuring mountain lions for sure.

We're glad you're here!
 
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Debbie292d said:
Hiya, and welcome to BYC! :frow

Wow, that sure sounds like a lot of painful work! At least your flock sounds safe. What varmints do you have there? I was figuring mountain lions for sure.

We're glad you're here!
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My neighbor just down the road sent me a video of a Lion in their front yard this past April (200 feet from my house) but bears, skunks, coyotes, ermine, raccoons, raptors and who knows what else haha. plus dogs and cats in the neighborhood, but my direct neighbors' (chickens too) dog as well as mine are fine with their and my chickens we both free range and our dogs play with one another.

Hoping they are safe spent a lot of time making it so haha. The base is sitting on cinder blocks have about a few inches off the ground for ventilation and the hardwarde cloth is attached to the exterior all the way around and buried about 18-30 inches depending on what i could excavate. The rafters are all enclosed in hardware cloth as well. Two small shed windows just cut into the walls and a salvaged metal full size door with glass (tons of condensation in the window but it came with the random shit pile when bought the house).
 
Bsmac said:
Hello! Welcome to BYC! Sorry you lost a chick... Best of luck with your remaining flock! 🙂
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Its okay was expecting to lose one or two was just glad it wasnt more especially being a first timer I was trying to make sure I did the stuff right when doing my brooder setup. But they are thriving these days and my friends and family love the eggs we give them, at about a dozen a day we give away quite a bit. Might try selling next spring when we have extras. The myriad of browns we have is cool and the EE green eggs add a nice contrast.
 

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