Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[MamaShell]

Hey, y'all, I forgot to get these pictures posted over here yesterday! My Meyer babies are already 10 weeks old! They are getting so big, which I mostly only notice when they all try to get on my lap at the same time!

Elda the cuddly Silver Gray Dorking:

Cuddles!

Kit the talkative SGD:

Georgette the clumsy Black Copper Marans:

Louise the dainty BCM:

Mabey Mabel the Welsummer:

And my other babies, who are not from Meyer and about 11 weeks old now. Poppy the pretty Legbar:

Violet the voracious Bielefelder:

Your girls are maturing nicely!!

 

[NanaLynn]

So we've come to a decision to keep the chickens in the run for awhile until we figure out a better free ranging setup. They are wreaking havoc on our grassy areas and poopy on our patio and sidewalks. They're also tearing up the gardens. I never realized how much damage 21 chickens could do. They are free 4 to 6 hours a day, half of that in the morning and half in the evening.

I have already fenced off my vegetable garden, netted my herb garden and my husband has been fencing off some of the grassy areas so he can reseed those areas. We keep putting protective covering everywhere and they keep finding another place to dig up. I guess 21 chickens can do some damage.

So we have ideas to extend the run and possibly making a pop door to give them access to a small fenced in portion of the yard now and then. Right now we need to lock them up and regroup.

During this time I will clean up all the poop and wood shavings and finally take down all the netting and fencing. I put up so much fencing and netting around my garden that even I have trouble getting in.

I read something on another thread that someone said, something like if you have a garden and chickens you have to either fence in the garden or the chickens. We tried fencing in the garden, but there are just too many areas in the yard for them to tear up. This is really hard, I love seeing them all over the place, but I hate the mess that they make.

Oh well, clean up starts tomorrow and no more free ranging after today...my poor little chickens...I have to keep reminding myself that they are just chickens...but they look so pretty in the grass and so happy.

 

[NotableNancy]

So we've come to a decision to keep the chickens in the run for awhile until we figure out a better free ranging setup. They are wreaking havoc on our grassy areas and poopy on our patio and sidewalks. They're also tearing up the gardens. I never realized how much damage 21 chickens could do. They are free 4 to 6 hours a day, half of that in the morning and half in the evening.

I have already fenced off my vegetable garden, netted my herb garden and my husband has been fencing off some of the grassy areas so he can reseed those areas. We keep putting protective covering everywhere and they keep finding another place to dig up. I guess 21 chickens can do some damage.

So we have ideas to extend the run and possibly making a pop door to give them access to a small fenced in portion of the yard now and then. Right now we need to lock them up and regroup.

During this time I will clean up all the poop and wood shavings and finally take down all the netting and fencing. I put up so much fencing and netting around my garden that even I have trouble getting in.

I read something on another thread that someone said, something like if you have a garden and chickens you have to either fence in the garden or the chickens. We tried fencing in the garden, but there are just too many areas in the yard for them to tear up. This is really hard, I love seeing them all over the place, but I hate the mess that they make.

Oh well, clean up starts tomorrow and no more free ranging after today...my poor little chickens...I have to keep reminding myself that they are just chickens...but they look so pretty in the grass and so happy.

After regrouping and fixing everything maybe just have them free range an hour or two before bedtime? That's what I do. But (sadly, cause I would like some) I don't have a single blade of grass on our 1 acre property. It's all paths with mulch or stone and tons of ground cover; mostly pachysandra and periwinkle. We back up to the woods so they scratch through the leaves right on the edge of the woods that we raked there and let decompose. Tons of weeds in the area to eat too. They dig up tons of worms so they seem pretty happy. But with only an hour out there they don't do to much damage. But I know what you mean, I love seeing pics of chickens in the grass. How big is the grassy area do they free range on?

 

[birdlady79]

Does Myers have a limit on ordering? I'm only needing 2 chicks...

 

[MamaShell]

Does Myers have a limit on ordering? I'm only needing 2 chicks...

I believe the minimum is 3 chicks. But you could do 2 started pullets, which are more money and more expensive to ship. Can you find someone else in your area who only wants 1 or 2 chicks that you can split an order with?

 

[birdlady79]

I believe the minimum is 3 chicks. But you could do 2 started pullets, which are more money and more expensive to ship. Can you find someone else in your area who only wants 1 or 2 chicks that you can split an order with?

I could order 3 and give 1 to my friend who just got chicks.. .. I'd love to get a started pullet but I'm having trouble finding a BO..... I don't want to go through the whole chick stage again but I will in order to get the breed I want...

 

[MamaShell]

So we've come to a decision to keep the chickens in the run for awhile until we figure out a better free ranging setup. They are wreaking havoc on our grassy areas and poopy on our patio and sidewalks. They're also tearing up the gardens. I never realized how much damage 21 chickens could do. They are free 4 to 6 hours a day, half of that in the morning and half in the evening. 

I have already fenced off my vegetable garden, netted my herb garden and my husband has been fencing off some of the grassy areas so he can reseed those areas. We keep putting protective covering everywhere and they keep finding another place to dig up. I guess 21 chickens can do some damage.

So we have ideas to extend the run and possibly making a pop door to give them access to a small fenced in portion of the yard now and then. Right now we need to lock them up and regroup.

During this time I will clean up all the poop and wood shavings and finally take down all the netting and fencing. I put up so much fencing and netting around my garden that even I have trouble getting in.

I read something on another thread that someone said, something like if you have  a garden and chickens you have to either fence in the garden or the chickens. We tried fencing in the garden, but there are just too many areas in the yard for them to tear up. This is really hard, I love seeing them all over the place, but I hate the mess that they make.

Oh well, clean up starts tomorrow and no more free ranging after today...my poor little chickens...I have to keep reminding myself that they are just chickens...but they look so pretty in the grass and so happy.   

You had asked me earlier about the set up of our run. As I said, it is just under 600 sq. ft (which for 23 hens is a little over 25 sq. ft. per hen). That includes the area under the coop which is where they spend a great deal of their time! I wish that I could let them free range but I have way too many predators in my area, plus 3 dogs who licked their lips too much when exposed to the baby chicks, and my husband and I did not want the wear and tear on our lawn. So, we gave them as large of an enclosure as we could. It would have been about 80-100 square feet larger but we hit too much rock digging the post holes and we ended up with an odd shaped ell in the pen. Here is a photo from the back side of the run. In the foreground is the temporary coop and run that I used for Boo and Belle for the first few weeks before their integration into the big coop! There was about 3 feet between the two runs.

From this photo of the roost that I built, you can see a little of the ell.

Of course, when I posted photos of my flock in the run for the first time, someone remarked that they hadn't seen grass in a run in some time. Most of our grass is gone, now, especially after all the rain we got in the last week. I used some raised beds that I had (from my former attempts of a veggie garden) and planted some perennial ryegrass in them so that the girls would always have some green. The beds (4x4 and 4x8) are covered with hardware cloth to keep them from scratching or pulling the grass out by the roots. They seem to like them.

My husband and I are going to try to partition off a part of the run so that we can regrow some of the grass for the girls and then once it is established, let the girls in that section while we regrow some grass in another section. Hopefully, that will work along with the planters to keep some green available to them as much as possible! Obviously, it is not the same as free ranging, but, I think it is better than being caged or having a concrete floor in the run.

How big is your existing run? If you add onto your existing run, are you panning on making two areas and trying to rotate them so that they don't get too worn out? I think that I might try to do that if I can.

 

[MamaShell]

I believe the minimum is 3 chicks. But you could do 2 started pullets, which are more money and more expensive to ship. Can you find someone else in your area who only wants 1 or 2 chicks that you can split an order with?

I could order 3 and give 1 to my friend who just got chicks.. .. I'd love to get a started pullet but I'm having trouble finding a BO..... I don't want to go through the whole chick stage again but I will in order to get the breed I want...

If you can give a chick away, I think that solves your ordering dilemma! If there is going to be a big age difference between your friend's older chicks and the new one, I think I would encourage her to get 2 if she has room for them. She might have to keep them separate from her others for a while and I couldn't bear to think of one chick without at least one friend! Good luck to you! I hope you post pictures of your BOs when you get them!

 

[NanaLynn]

After regrouping and fixing everything maybe just have them free range an hour or two before bedtime? That's what I do. But (sadly, cause I would like some) I don't have a single blade of grass on our 1 acre property. It's all paths with mulch or stone and tons of ground cover; mostly pachysandra and periwinkle. We back up to the woods so they scratch through the leaves right on the edge of the woods that we raked there and let decompose. Tons of weeds in the area to eat too. They dig up tons of worms so they seem pretty happy. But with only an hour out there they don't do to much damage. But I know what you mean, I love seeing pics of chickens in the grass. How big is the grassy area do they free range on?

That's a good idea. I'll still need to run temporary fencing so they go to the back yard and side yard and stay away from the concrete sidewalk and patio. They really love to dig up the worms and grubs in my husbands rose and gardenia garden which he was really fine with, they would dig really deep under the wood shavings that we put there. The bushes there are well established so they didn't do much damage, but they kept throwing the wood shavings all over the drive way and of course adding a little poop here and there. If they'd just stay in the grassy area in the back near their coop and run that'd be great but they have made craters along the grass in the walking area to our patio. I'll have to take some pics to show you the mess. They do have a big grassy area to range on that we are fine with them digging up, but I guess they like to be near us and the house. I'll run out later after getting some office work done to snap some pics of our setup.

You had asked me earlier about the set up of our run. As I said, it is just under 600 sq. ft (which for 23 hens is a little over 25 sq. ft. per hen). That includes the area under the coop which is where they spend a great deal of their time! I wish that I could let them free range but I have way too many predators in my area, plus 3 dogs who licked their lips too much when exposed to the baby chicks, and my husband and I did not want the wear and tear on our lawn. So, we gave them as large of an enclosure as we could. It would have been about 80-100 square feet larger but we hit too much rock digging the post holes and we ended up with an odd shaped ell in the pen. Here is a photo from the back side of the run. In the foreground is the temporary coop and run that I used for Boo and Belle for the first few weeks before their integration into the big coop! There was about 3 feet between the two runs.



From this photo of the roost that I built, you can see a little of the ell.



Of course, when I posted photos of my flock in the run for the first time, someone remarked that they hadn't seen grass in a run in some time. Most of our grass is gone, now, especially after all the rain we got in the last week. I used some raised beds that I had (from my former attempts of a veggie garden) and planted some perennial ryegrass in them so that the girls would always have some green. The beds (4x4 and 4x8) are covered with hardware cloth to keep them from scratching or pulling the grass out by the roots. They seem to like them.




My husband and I are going to try to partition off a part of the run so that we can regrow some of the grass for the girls and then once it is established, let the girls in that section while we regrow some grass in another section. Hopefully, that will work along with the planters to keep some green available to them as much as possible! Obviously, it is not the same as free ranging, but, I think it is better than being caged or having a concrete floor in the run.

How big is your existing run? If you add onto your existing run, are you panning on making two areas and trying to rotate them so that they don't get too worn out? I think that I might try to do that if I can.

Thank you for the pictures. I really love your setup. If we can get the added on sections built, it should be pretty simple to block off sections at a time to let grass and other vegetation grow. We're probably going to build on to the back of the run and the side. We do have a backyard that is fully fenced in and our one dog is not aggressive enough to run through temporary fencing, so we may still be able to do a little free ranging within the temporary fencing we put up, but it'll be very controlled. I want to still be able to let them in my vegetable garden to work the soil before Fall and Summer plantings too.

I probably make no sense but you've both given me some great ideas. Thanks for your help!!

 

[COChix]

Hey, y'all, I forgot to get these pictures posted over here yesterday! My Meyer babies are already 10 weeks old....

Pretty girls, thanks for sharing. Your Welsummer looks a bit like our toe from Meyer. Ours are 16 weeks.

- Nutmeg, I think, she is harder to get pics of than Saffron

-

- Saffron, she knows she is pretty already!

So we've come to a decision to keep the chickens in the run for awhile until we figure out a better free ranging setup. They are wreaking havoc on our grassy areas and poopy on our patio and sidewalks. They're also tearing up the gardens. I never realized how much damage 21 chickens could do...

a lot?! We decided early with 28 there is no way they will be allowed in the garden area. Maybe a few at a time, but more than likely the veggie area will be blocked from them. Sorry your having a hard time,I know what you mean about reminding yourself they are chickens. I worry about ours like they are our children!

...

You had asked me earlier about the set up of our run. As I said, it is just under 600 sq. ft (which for 23 hens is a little over 25 sq. ft. per hen). That includes the area under the coop which is where they spend a great deal of their time! I wish that I could let them free range but I have way too many predators in my area, plus 3 dogs who licked their lips too much when exposed to the baby chicks, and my husband and I did not want the wear and tear on our lawn. So, we gave them as large of an enclosure as we could. It would have been about 80-100 square feet larger but we hit too much rock digging the post holes and we ended up with an odd shaped ell in the pen. Here is a photo from the back side of the run. In the foreground is the temporary coop and run that I used for Boo and Belle for the first few weeks before their integration into the big coop! There was about 3 feet between the two runs. /quote]

Mama love your setup and especially the beds where you are growing rye. Maybe next year we can do something similar during the summer months. Thanks for sharing.