MaDeare

Madeare

In the Brooder
5 Years
Joined
Mar 18, 2014
Messages
16
Reaction score
2
Points
26
Greetings from South Louisiana;
My Grand Darlings call me MaDeare. I live in the suburbs near New Orleans and enjoy gardening. Last Summer, I was complaining to my older brother about the bugs eating my tomato and zucchini plants. He told me that he knew exactly what I needed and would bring it to town on Saturday. Imagine my surprise when I opened the box and there were two sweet little Bantam chicks inside. One look and I was hooked.

The red one turned out to be a sweet rooster and was finally named RooRoo since youngest Grand Darlin says that is how he sounds when he crows. I asked for another chick so that there are 2 hens. We named her Tiger as we had been watching a program about Tigers when my brother brought in the little chick. The grey one died suddenly the week before Thanksgiving. So RooRoo only had his little girl friend. I asked for another hen last month and she is also grey. I decided to name her Lucy

I found a nice fake glass egg at a shop in Denver and put it in the milk crate that I had been using for a nest. The next day, Lucy surprised us with an egg.

Today I changed the milk crate out for a larger Rubbermaid black box with a lid and a drop down clear door. I let the chicks out to the garden and began working on the cage which is a dog pen 5 ft tall, 2ft wide x 6 ft long. We added extra chicken wire on the top and all the way around to protect them from cats and raccoons. We have had to cover it with a tarp this winter and they seemed to be warm enough.

I have learned so much from this site and thank you for the opportunity to join. I started putting in the base for the new coop that my favorite son in love is building for me. It is real hard work for an old gal. I will try to post a picture of the nest box. Included is Sophie the best cat chaser ever.
smile.png


MaDeare

 
Sophie is a papillon dog. Six pounds of love.
 
Sophie is beautiful. Chicken wire however only keeps chickens IN, it does not keep predators OUT.

It's best to use 1/2" hardware cloth securely attached to frame, so it doesn't sag and won't pull out when preds try to pry it off.

Hope Sophie likes chicks more than cats.
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! Congratulations on your first egg!
 
The chicken wire was placed over the doggy pen so that the chicks could not escape while they were small. It is very strong and had chicken wire and plywood on the top so that no animals can get in. The chickens raised a big ruckuss when a cat was brave enough to sneak into the yard and was laying next to the cage and drooling.
D.gif

Madeare
 
Almost finished the base for the new coop. I purchased 18 solid cement blocks that are 4" thick and 8" x 16". I also needed 4, 60# bags of sand and 1 bag of rocks plus my level. It measures out to be 47" deep x 110 " long on the outside edge. The coop house will be raised about 30" off the ground and will be about 46" x48" The whole 110 inches will be under one roof and screened with hardwire cloth. The people door will be next to the corner stud of the coop house. The whole thing is butted up next to the out building. I will be filling more sand in the cement base. I will post a picture.

I really am not sure of the correct names of things but at 69, I am still learning by research on the www.
caf.gif


 
Two years after Hurricane Katrina my GrandSon came to visit and He suggested that I get a dog. We went to look at puppies and Sophie was the only girl in the litter. He was right in that I needed a dog. She stayed right by my side through Chemo in 2012. She is still right by me in everything I do.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom