Hey BYChicken'ers!
I am glad to have found this forum as it looks like a great resource and a great community, so let me introduce myself.
My name is John and my wife and I have just bought a really great homestead property in north-central PA, outside of Wellsboro. We have a lot to learn about a lot of things, but first things first, and that means chickens!
I am new to chickens, but have wanted to have a flock for a long time, and now I do: the property we closed on just last week came with a flock left by the previous owners.
I hope you don't mind me going into a long description here in the introduction area, but here goes:
The flock I inherited has 17 birds. There is a great little goofy Silkie rooster (I call him Doodle and he cracks me up). There are 14 black star layers (about 1+ yr old), and 2 other hens, one of which the previous owner said was a plymouth rock and the other he didn't know what she was, but we think she might be a silkie too.
The coop is a stall in the barn, about 10x12 or so. It has about 10 nesting boxes, and a dirt floor and opens into a gravel run which also has another small indoor area with 5 or 6 more nesting boxes. There is also an empty stall set up with more nesting boxes and a separate run, which is just covered in weeds right now. But we have lots of room for chickens here, which is pretty great if we want to expand.
I am still getting to know this flock and the setup that the previous owners had, and have already made some changes (that I am not sure the chickens appreciated) but I am trying!
I was initially pretty concerned about the housing setup when I first saw it. It looked like the chickens were mostly roosting on the inside and top of a 3 foot long horizontal open wooden box that was screwed about 6 ft up on of the walls. The box was completely caked with about 3 inches of dried chicken crap on the inside and top. I guess they were just standing on the manure to roost. The rest of the birds were roosting along the horizontal surface of the nesting boxes, which was also caked with a thick dry layer of manure. Also, the floor of the coop was pretty much bare dirt and chicken manure. Granted the chickens free range and spend most of the daylight hours outdoors, but this still didn't seem good and I am sure that the previous owners just kinda let this go cause they knew they were moving out and had a lot to do with that.
In an effort to improve things (but also not really knowing what I am doing, I am just learning!) I put a long horizontal board at a 45 degree angle on top of the nesting boxes so that they could not roost there. I also took down the nasty box and made a ladder out of 2x4's that has 2 34" roosts situated above the nesting boxes (about 4 and 5 ft off the ground). In the other corner of the coop I put in a diagonal 2x4 roost that is about 4 ft long, and about 3 ft off the ground. I also shoveled out the loose chicken manure and put down a couple inches of pine shaving bedding. This was a big change for the chickens and there was a lot of commotion the first night as they figured out where to roost. I felt bad, but they settled down, and it seems like there is less commotion at night now. I realized that I had taken away a lot of horizontal roosting space by putting the board over the nesting boxes. After reading some posts here I think that I need more roosting space, and I was thinking I would take off the 45 degree angled board over the nesting boxes and put dropping boards over them with a long 12' 2x4 roost that goes the whole length of the stall, over the dropping boards. Then they should have plenty of room to roost, without roosting in the nest boxes (which some are doing now) crapping all over the nest boxes, like they were.
Man, this is the longest post I have ever posted! My apologies, cause I am still going!
Also, the previous owners just let the chickens come and go as they pleased. They would throw them a scoop or so layer rations out in the yard in the morning and evenings, and some veggie scraps, but they forage for everything else. I like this idea as it is cheap and low maintenance, but am wondering if they are getting enough nutrition and if it would also be good to keep a feeder out for them all day and night. I am also concerned that the chickens are not locked up from predators. They would leave the little chicken door and the run open to the outside all night, but said they never had a problem even though they admitted seeing foxes on the property. So far we have been shutting up the run at night, but leaving the coop open. I am sure something determined could get in if it wanted to, but I didn't wanna change too much on the flock at once! Also, I have noticed that since we have been shutting the run up at night, there are 2 hens that seem to be roosting outside somewhere all night! They show up in the morning.
Mostly the chickens all seem fine, and I think they are awesome! I am really happy that my wife really likes them too, especially since she has to take care of them a lot when I have to be gone. The laying production has definitely dropped off with all of the confusion of the moving, and we have been getting around 8 or 9 eggs per day. There are about 3 hens that I have major bare skin patches around their vents and undersides, as well as some feather damage on their sides, etc. We have been concerned about them. They were all like this when we got them, but I think they have gotten worse in the last week. I assume that this is from pecking although I have not yet witnessed any aggressive pecking behavior. I asked the previous owners about that though and they said they had seen pecking. We have been considering isolating the pecked birds into their own coop to give them some peace, but not sure if that would really help if that just means other birds will start to get pecked.
And lastly, we appear to have a couple hens that rarely get out of their nest boxes. We assume they have gone broody, although I think they are still laying. Once a day I will pick them up and move them outside and give them some food, they will wander around for a few minutes, and then get back in the nest box as soon as possible. They may occasionally get out of their own accord, but almost every time I have checked on them they are in the nest boxes. At least one of these is one of the hens with a bad bare patch, so they could also be trying to keep from getting beat up.
Anyway, if you you have read this far, you are a better person than me, so thanks! Just thought I would put all of that out there in case anyone has some suggestions. Mostly I just wanna say hi and thanks for this great resource. Things are still crazy for us with moving, and we don't have internet out at the new place yet, so I have very limited access to this forum right now, but I will check in as often as I can!
Thanks,
John
I am glad to have found this forum as it looks like a great resource and a great community, so let me introduce myself.
My name is John and my wife and I have just bought a really great homestead property in north-central PA, outside of Wellsboro. We have a lot to learn about a lot of things, but first things first, and that means chickens!
I am new to chickens, but have wanted to have a flock for a long time, and now I do: the property we closed on just last week came with a flock left by the previous owners.
I hope you don't mind me going into a long description here in the introduction area, but here goes:
The flock I inherited has 17 birds. There is a great little goofy Silkie rooster (I call him Doodle and he cracks me up). There are 14 black star layers (about 1+ yr old), and 2 other hens, one of which the previous owner said was a plymouth rock and the other he didn't know what she was, but we think she might be a silkie too.
The coop is a stall in the barn, about 10x12 or so. It has about 10 nesting boxes, and a dirt floor and opens into a gravel run which also has another small indoor area with 5 or 6 more nesting boxes. There is also an empty stall set up with more nesting boxes and a separate run, which is just covered in weeds right now. But we have lots of room for chickens here, which is pretty great if we want to expand.
I am still getting to know this flock and the setup that the previous owners had, and have already made some changes (that I am not sure the chickens appreciated) but I am trying!
I was initially pretty concerned about the housing setup when I first saw it. It looked like the chickens were mostly roosting on the inside and top of a 3 foot long horizontal open wooden box that was screwed about 6 ft up on of the walls. The box was completely caked with about 3 inches of dried chicken crap on the inside and top. I guess they were just standing on the manure to roost. The rest of the birds were roosting along the horizontal surface of the nesting boxes, which was also caked with a thick dry layer of manure. Also, the floor of the coop was pretty much bare dirt and chicken manure. Granted the chickens free range and spend most of the daylight hours outdoors, but this still didn't seem good and I am sure that the previous owners just kinda let this go cause they knew they were moving out and had a lot to do with that.
In an effort to improve things (but also not really knowing what I am doing, I am just learning!) I put a long horizontal board at a 45 degree angle on top of the nesting boxes so that they could not roost there. I also took down the nasty box and made a ladder out of 2x4's that has 2 34" roosts situated above the nesting boxes (about 4 and 5 ft off the ground). In the other corner of the coop I put in a diagonal 2x4 roost that is about 4 ft long, and about 3 ft off the ground. I also shoveled out the loose chicken manure and put down a couple inches of pine shaving bedding. This was a big change for the chickens and there was a lot of commotion the first night as they figured out where to roost. I felt bad, but they settled down, and it seems like there is less commotion at night now. I realized that I had taken away a lot of horizontal roosting space by putting the board over the nesting boxes. After reading some posts here I think that I need more roosting space, and I was thinking I would take off the 45 degree angled board over the nesting boxes and put dropping boards over them with a long 12' 2x4 roost that goes the whole length of the stall, over the dropping boards. Then they should have plenty of room to roost, without roosting in the nest boxes (which some are doing now) crapping all over the nest boxes, like they were.
Man, this is the longest post I have ever posted! My apologies, cause I am still going!
Also, the previous owners just let the chickens come and go as they pleased. They would throw them a scoop or so layer rations out in the yard in the morning and evenings, and some veggie scraps, but they forage for everything else. I like this idea as it is cheap and low maintenance, but am wondering if they are getting enough nutrition and if it would also be good to keep a feeder out for them all day and night. I am also concerned that the chickens are not locked up from predators. They would leave the little chicken door and the run open to the outside all night, but said they never had a problem even though they admitted seeing foxes on the property. So far we have been shutting up the run at night, but leaving the coop open. I am sure something determined could get in if it wanted to, but I didn't wanna change too much on the flock at once! Also, I have noticed that since we have been shutting the run up at night, there are 2 hens that seem to be roosting outside somewhere all night! They show up in the morning.
Mostly the chickens all seem fine, and I think they are awesome! I am really happy that my wife really likes them too, especially since she has to take care of them a lot when I have to be gone. The laying production has definitely dropped off with all of the confusion of the moving, and we have been getting around 8 or 9 eggs per day. There are about 3 hens that I have major bare skin patches around their vents and undersides, as well as some feather damage on their sides, etc. We have been concerned about them. They were all like this when we got them, but I think they have gotten worse in the last week. I assume that this is from pecking although I have not yet witnessed any aggressive pecking behavior. I asked the previous owners about that though and they said they had seen pecking. We have been considering isolating the pecked birds into their own coop to give them some peace, but not sure if that would really help if that just means other birds will start to get pecked.
And lastly, we appear to have a couple hens that rarely get out of their nest boxes. We assume they have gone broody, although I think they are still laying. Once a day I will pick them up and move them outside and give them some food, they will wander around for a few minutes, and then get back in the nest box as soon as possible. They may occasionally get out of their own accord, but almost every time I have checked on them they are in the nest boxes. At least one of these is one of the hens with a bad bare patch, so they could also be trying to keep from getting beat up.
Anyway, if you you have read this far, you are a better person than me, so thanks! Just thought I would put all of that out there in case anyone has some suggestions. Mostly I just wanna say hi and thanks for this great resource. Things are still crazy for us with moving, and we don't have internet out at the new place yet, so I have very limited access to this forum right now, but I will check in as often as I can!
Thanks,
John
