Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[NanaLynn]

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!
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!

Saffron is so beautiful! One of these days I'll have a Welsummer!

Yeah, I imagine 28 could do even more damage. We're going to try to let a few out at a time in the garden when I need a clean up crew in there since they do a great job preparing the soil for the next planting. It'll be the ones I get easily catch. It is so hard to not feel guilty and to not treat them like my kids, but I am going to be tough. At least I hope I can be. We may be getting rid of half the flock almost so at least the damage won't be so much when they do go out. Plus limit them time out, build a bigger run, and fence in areas for them.

We need to coexist with these chickens, they've been taking over lately!

 

[autumnhearth]

- Saffron, she knows she is pretty already!

Love the names Nutmeg and Saffron! And of course love the Wellies! She is very pretty indeed.

Our girls are 16 weeks now too.


Amelia the Golden Buff (sex-link)


She came up on my lap today of her own free will, I was so happy. Baby Buff made a call to the other girls to chick out something on the bottom of my shoe and the all gathered around my lap and Amelia hopped up on my leg the slowly made her way up. She was mostly investigating my phone. I didn't want to scare her so no snuggles. She's so skittish lately, she used to be the boldest chick.


Elizabeth the Buff Orpington aka Baby Buff hug!


Selfie


Victoria the Silver Grey Dorking


Victoria also settled down on my lap, she likes to be pet


Morgaine the Black Copper Marans. Look at the color of her comb! It often looks purple, the blending on pink and a black skin, but here its quite pink!


Green sheen

I didn't get a good one of Clara the EE this afternoon. I really want to get a nice shot of her head and the red feathers around her temples.

 

[NanaLynn]

Here's the girls doing there dig a hole to China thing that they do.


Where they are digging is right by the sidewalk on both sides. This used to look like plush grass up against the sidewalk. Not anymore, we tried to block them off and it did work but we keep having to block off areas.


This is in front of the run by the human door. All that wood mulch should be all the way to the right under the rose bushes and the walkway in front of the door was clear at one time. There used to be grass in the front there too now it is kind of covered in mulch.


We've been putting barriers to stop the digging by laying fencing down.


Here is my husbands garden with his flower bushes. They've spread the mulch into the driveway. It should be behind that red concrete barrier.


We also had some nice landscaping with mulch between the fence and side walk areas.

This is the entrance door for company and they've spread the mulch all over the sidewalks.


I've had to block off my herb garden with netting to keep them out.


I've also added fencing and bird netting to keep them out of the veggie garden.


They have a huge grassy area to roam but they want to be in our area. So some changes are needed. This is one side where they can free range and they do at times.


Here is the back where they can free range.

They do have quite a big area but we have to figure out a way to keep them in it.


Sorry for all the complaining and so many pictures!

 

[christine9]

Here's the girls doing there dig a hole to China thing that they do. Where they are digging is right by the sidewalk on both sides. This used to look like plush grass up against the sidewalk. Not anymore, we tried to block them off and it did work but we keep having to block off areas. This is in front of the run by the human door. All that wood mulch should be all the way to the right under the rose bushes and the walkway in front of the door was clear at one time. There used to be grass in the front there too now it is kind of covered in mulch. We've been putting barriers to stop the digging by laying fencing down. Here is my husbands garden with his flower bushes. They've spread the mulch into the driveway. It should be behind that red concrete barrier. We also had some nice landscaping with mulch between the fence and side walk areas. This is the entrance door for company and they've spread the mulch all over the sidewalks. I've had to block off my herb garden with netting to keep them out. I've also added fencing and bird netting to keep them out of the veggie garden. They have a huge grassy area to roam but they want to be in our area. So some changes are needed. This is one side where they can free range and they do at times. Here is the back where they can free range. They do have quite a big area but we have to figure out a way to keep them in it. Sorry for all the complaining and so many pictures!

Hmm...I guess this is what I'll be facing when the new ones get bigger. I might have to expand the run even more.

 

[trsturself]

@trsturself
So I've heard a lot of people use azure for chicken feed. I love this idea, however the whole thing is really overwhelming for me. I guess I don't know where to start.
What do you get and how do you mix it? I'm terrified I will not feed them the right stuff.

There are a lot of sites online that give recipes for homemade food. I started there. I have made a few changes but I just calculate how much protein is in the batch before I buy the ingredients and make sure it's 16-18%. I have to say the girls did not like the peas and lentils dry or fermented. I now sprout those two things and they seem to go a lot better. I also added flax seed oil this last batch to replace the corn I took out.
I guess it isn't a stretch for me since I made dog food for years and still make my cat's food.

Here's the girls doing there dig a hole to China thing that they do.


Where they are digging is right by the sidewalk on both sides. This used to look like plush grass up against the sidewalk. Not anymore, we tried to block them off and it did work but we keep having to block off areas.


This is in front of the run by the human door. All that wood mulch should be all the way to the right under the rose bushes and the walkway in front of the door was clear at one time. There used to be grass in the front there too now it is kind of covered in mulch.


We've been putting barriers to stop the digging by laying fencing down.


Here is my husbands garden with his flower bushes. They've spread the mulch into the driveway. It should be behind that red concrete barrier.


We also had some nice landscaping with mulch between the fence and side walk areas.

This is the entrance door for company and they've spread the mulch all over the sidewalks.


I've had to block off my herb garden with netting to keep them out.


I've also added fencing and bird netting to keep them out of the veggie garden.


They have a huge grassy area to roam but they want to be in our area. So some changes are needed. This is one side where they can free range and they do at times.


Here is the back where they can free range.

They do have quite a big area but we have to figure out a way to keep them in it.


Sorry for all the complaining and so many pictures!

Sounds like the chicken wire is a good idea. They sure are good at spreading stuff around! Our old house had gravel and rocks around and it ended up everywhere but where it was supposed to be.

 

[christine9]

There are a lot of sites online that give recipes for homemade food. I started there. I have made a few changes but I just calculate how much protein is in the batch before I buy the ingredients and make sure it's 16-18%. I have to say the girls did not like the peas and lentils dry or fermented. I now sprout those two things and they seem to go a lot better. I also added flax seed oil this last batch to replace the corn I took out. 
I guess it isn't a stretch for me since I made dog food for years and still make my cat's food. 

I am so impressed! If I could save money on cat and dog food, I could probably afford a vacation home.

 

[trsturself]

I am so impressed! If I could save money on cat and dog food, I could probably afford a vacation home.

It doesn't save money if you are buying the cheap stuff but if you compare to the "good" stuff it can be cheaper. I will never feed a cat store bought food again. I learned too much about their digestive systems and can't believe it has ever been accepted to feed an obligate carnivore anything other than meat. Would you throw a celery stick to an eagle, tiger, dolphin? Then why feed a cat food with grains, veggies, etc. Their system is not setup to handle it. That's why their poop stinks to high heaven! I just made a batch of food for the cat by grinding up some pork. He loves it. Depending on the meat I get it can be pricey or cheap. I always look for bulk meat on sale. If you do just store bought meat make sure you add calcium since they aren't eating bones. Our cat is a farm cat and hunter so I don't worry about the calcium. DD said she saw him eat a mouse this morning.
If we had a costco near us it would probably help, and I'd probably go back to making dog food too. But alas, our grocery store does not have cheap enough meat to make dog food worth it (one dog is allergic to beef so it's harder to reliably find cheap meat). I just buy grain free stuff for them. They don't do as well on it as the homemade stuff but for now it's good enough. I've toyed with the idea of raising some animals for meat for them but haven't figured out what that would be yet. I think rabbits would be great for both cat and dogs but I just can't bring myself to kill them, they are too cute. I have also thought about meat goats but they are such PIAs that I can't justify it. lol

 

[NotableNancy]

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.

Such a nice set up!!!! HUGE and grass growing in it... that's awesome!

Here's the girls doing there dig a hole to China thing that they do.


Where they are digging is right by the sidewalk on both sides. This used to look like plush grass up against the sidewalk. Not anymore, we tried to block them off and it did work but we keep having to block off areas.


This is in front of the run by the human door. All that wood mulch should be all the way to the right under the rose bushes and the walkway in front of the door was clear at one time. There used to be grass in the front there too now it is kind of covered in mulch.




Here is my husbands garden with his flower bushes. They've spread the mulch into the driveway. It should be behind that red concrete barrier.


We also had some nice landscaping with mulch between the fence and side walk areas.

This is the entrance door for company and they've spread the mulch all over the sidewalks.



Here is the back where they can free range.

They do have quite a big area but we have to figure out a way to keep them in it.


Sorry for all the complaining and so many pictures!

Wow, that would make me nuts too. I would be out there every day sweeping up after them. And they have such a nice area to free range. I'm sure if you can find a way to direct them to the area you want them to go they will be thrilled to be out there an hour or 2 a day.
You mentioned you will be getting rid of 1/2 your flock.. is that to make way for new ones or do you want to keep the numbers down?

 

[COChix]

If you guys wanna see my coop&run set up and their free range areas at the moment. Click here,figured this I wouldn't bog the thread down with a bunch of shots. I think I have too many!!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/g/a/6799748/coop/

 

[christine9]

I'm trying to wrap my head around the whole thing. It's overwhelming. I have a feeling this will take a lot of researching. If homemade feed works for chickens, I could try it for the dogs next. It's pretty unlikely that I could end up feeding them something worse than some of the cheap commercial stuff that's out there, right?