Minnesota!

[Coffee 1st]

Well, so now that I am up to six birds again, and they are adapting well (kept them apart all day) but the point is: I have this cute 3 x 4 coop with the nest boxes off the side. One of those cute little kits since I had to do this on my own - no DH (contractor) would help. I even put a little 4 x 3 run on the front. I was told it was big enough for six. No Way would I leave six chickens in that small a space. But I intended to free-range them. So this would work out fine. Til the Eagles got my Australops. You can't have eggs without chickens . . . . . I began scheming how to build a run large enough to restrict the birds free-ranging days. I dug out the ground (again) and lined it with cement block along with all the buried fencing. Well, my DH didn't want it to look 'getto' (and it was as I was pounding metal stakes in the ground, wondering how this was going to hold up) so he built a run that is 6' high x 5' wide and 9' long off the back of the present run and it is over the coop. Then HE decided it needed a metal roof and not just plywould with tar paper (which is what I would have done.) Then it needed a shed roof off the front to dress it up so he built that on. Then I stained it and wired it (hardware wire) and then I wrapped it in plastic (getting ready for winter). Where do the chickens like to roost? On top of the slanted roof coop. So I found a board and leveled across the top of the coop and fixed it up with a nest box. They love it and that is where all six birds are tonight. Roosting. If only
I had known last Spring when I started this adventure.

sounds like allot of work BUT it sounds great,,, now we must see pics... you should know the rules...

 

[SleepyOwl]

I have a new granddaughter! mom, dad, and baby are doing fine, but me, I'm exhausted!

Congratulations!

 

[scandiafowl]

I have a new granddaughter!  mom, dad, and baby are doing fine, but me, I'm exhausted!


came home to chickens hiding under the coop and two hawks in the pines in the run.  Got the chickens in the coop, I'll set up the fencing tomorrow before letting them out to keep them in the "safe" area.


those lemon roos are gorgeous!


off to bed. 

ps:where the heck did that wind come from?

Congratulations! Very happy for you!

 

[Minniechickmama]

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/dak/grd/5274113148.html
This is where I found them. If anyone else is interested don't worry about stepping on my toes. I picked up the barred rocks last night. I still have room in the run and wonder if these are a must purchase - hyperventilating because I think they are cool. But that would give me two roosters so one would probably have to go bye-bye,
I think.

Beeeeeee careful if you think you are going to breed them. Me thinks they are something like my neighbor got when she cross bred her White Rock with Buff Orpington. I don't know how the barring got in them, but they looked like yellow barred birds, JUST like these ones.

 

[Minniechickmama]

I have a new granddaughter! mom, dad, and baby are doing fine, but me, I'm exhausted!


came home to chickens hiding under the coop and two hawks in the pines in the run. Got the chickens in the coop, I'll set up the fencing tomorrow before letting them out to keep them in the "safe" area.


those lemon roos are gorgeous!


off to bed.

ps:where the heck did that wind come from?

FINALLY That baby has hatched!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!

 

[KlopKlop]

When i get home i noticed that one of my rainbow hens seems to have some of her under fluff poking through the top feathers. What do you guys think? what can cause this? picking? just from the windy day?

 

[scandiafowl]

I'm having a fried rice thing with leftovers and potstickers..

Yummmmmmm. Potstickers

 

[scandiafowl]

When i get home i noticed that one of my rainbow hens seems to have some of her under fluff poking through the top feathers. What do you guys think? what can cause this? picking? just from the windy day?

We all have bad feather days ;-)

 

[Minniechickmama]

Humidity /Temperature fluctuations are damaging on a sliding scale. The more humidity that is in the air...like a rainy day. Just 30 degrees has potential to frostbite skin. So actually this rainy weather and then a wet bird put away in a coop with temps falling fast is actually not a great scenario. Luckily for us that is just a short time of year. And up here in Northern Minnesota we generally have a dry cold. So it depends on Relative humidity outside on whether you'll get frostbites. I also am a firm believer that extended periods of below zero weather is hard on combs and wattles. Cold is cold. So that's why I do have a supplemental flat panel heater for those long stretches. Last winter wasn't so bad ...but the two winters before were very very cold and long. 6 solid months in the coop and run and hardly a week's worth of days started above zero. Mostly -20's if I recall to start the day. woooook. Gives me the shivers just to think of it.

roosters usually get the most damage. Hens will tuck their heads under their wings on those really cold nights.

Ya. It hurts them. They are sensitive there. They just dont express pain because they are prey animals. Frozen combs and wattles can be messy business. Get infected and potentiall kill a bird. Just the swelling in the wattles from the freezing can inhibit them from eating and drinking. No good. I've dealt with it on our Single Comb New Hampshire.

That was a fun first winter. Not.



Nathan: they do. Broken toes or feet are susceptible...So lower the roosts. Feet with bad bumble foot. Swollen and comprimised blood circulation. Feet that are in wet soupy messes all the time. Feet that do not have good wide roosts to wrap feathers around to rewarm.


Reason #462 to lose weight.

So your not the cause of the funeral parlor going up into a blubbery hot fire.

Minnie: sorry about the insurance hassle. Is it progressive? They offer lower rates but our Auto Body guy says they haggle over every little plastic bolt or screw.

Not Progressive, State Farm. They are looking at it again, so we will see what happens. I won't know until next week most likely.

She thinks they are both roosters now. Either that or I am too wishy washy and she wants to get rid of me. LOL. Thats okay. I just got the two barred rocks but there is still more room in the run. Next Spring. I really want hens anyway. Eggs. Thanks for listening to me guys and if you want them - go for it. A chick is $25. on the internet.

It looks like probably a pair, the one on the left is a cockerel with that much comb and wattles at 7-weeks, and is feathered like a cockerel. The other is feathered like a pullet and not much for comb and wattle.

 

[scandiafowl]

In this case, I'm just being facetious haha my company is in the commercial insurance business, not personal auto or home. We pay out claims when some idiot decides to run a metal mill without safety glasses or when a shop tech is backing a customers car out of the shop and scrapes its mirror down a whole row of brand new Mercedes....

True stories both....

I can deal with a funeral home, but even coming close to scratching a Mercedes brings tears to my eyes.

My formative driving years were spent behind the wheel of a 1967 Mercedes 200. Am sentimental beyond words..