MJ's little flock

[RoyalChick]

It's a big run at present with only five hens, but it'll feel smaller next year if pullets hatch.

There's more garden than I can cope with and once a secure front fence is in place, the hens will be helping with all the weeding in the front garden that I can't make time for. They've been extremely good at weeding so far. The weeds used to be higher than my head where the run is and they've done a great job eating them up while nourishing the soil and laying eggs. They've been brilliant.

Mine are really not great at weeding. They seem to like the undergrowth.

 

[MaryJanet]

Mine are really not great at weeding. They seem to like the undergrowth.
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The only weeds not eaten at my place are stinging nettles, reeds (but they love the reed seeds), flatweeds, and another one that looks like they'd enjoy it but they don't.

I've been reducing the stinging nettles and flat weeds season by season, but the reeds don't get a chance to drop seeds and they'll be under concrete when the new garage goes up. The other odd one I'll have to start doing something about or they'll be everywhere.

 

[BY Bob]

I've been raking out the chickens' run again and this time, all the clumpy stuff that got in the way of the big magnet has gone in the green bin.

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Unfortunately when I moved the little coop out of the way, it started to come apart in my hands.

It was a cheap coop. It lasted 6 years. Not bad.

I'll put it out for rubbish collection.

But where to hatch eggs? To prevent Peggy claiming another tiny victim, I want to fence off a brooding section. This corner would be best.

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I can either put one of the existing nest boxes on the ground or I can get a fresh little coop.

I'm thinking a fresh little coop would be best.

Any thoughts?

I love a little coop. Hattie house gets lots of use.

If you do get another coop I highly recommend painting it. They last a lot longer if you paint them.

 

[BY Bob]

I've not tried them, and as a relatively easy to clean plastic type, they are probably better than another little wooden one. But they regularly pop up on resale sites here as nearly new because some people don't get on with them. I would read the reviews carefully before deciding which of the various designs suits your purposes best.

@ChicoryBlue has one I believe. Perhaps she can provide some guidance.

 

[BY Bob]

Today the magnet found three nails and a washer, and the usual handful of metallic shards in the chicken run. I'll have to keep going with it for a while yet.

But it's very effective! Bob and RC were right

Glad to be of help.

 

[RoyalChick]

I love a little coop. Hattie house gets lots of use.

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If you do get another coop I highly recommend painting it. They last a lot longer if you paint them.

And are also pretty!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

@ChicoryBlue has one I believe. Perhaps she can provide some guidance.

I like @ManueB 's idea of a cage which you add privacy screens and a roof but lets you see them easily during the day. A Go would be fine for brooding if you remove the roost platform for them and fill the tray with chips or chopped hemp or straw. Or completely cover the roost platform. When I had chicks inside I put that up in their brooder pen as a high shelf to get on to, completely covered (the slats were covered) with that grippy, lacy rubber shelf liner taped to it.

My Omlet report - I have the Omlet Mk2 Cube, not the Go. I've liked how secure it is in case anyone gets through my predator fencing and netting & welded wire at night. It will withstand / hold off black bear, and large trees falling on it. It is very easy to clean. I don't know anything about the plastic's type, safety or environmental impact, sorry. It is double-walled, which is different from some other plastic coops, and that makes a difference for slowing heat changes and relative insulation.

The ventilation with the Cube is fine for five hens in winter in Upstate New York USA; air moves through as designed and I've never had any frostbite on feet or combs, and we have had both very wet and very cold winters. (The 3 Orpingtons have some comb, the 2 Buckeyes have pea combs.)

But for the very hot summer nights we've been getting this year I've made changes for more air exchange to more quickly cool off at night. Some people don't close the pop door, and even take the back off, but for predator reasons I want it closed up. I have shade cloths above the run and coop, set at different levels / angles to let heat rise up and out. I bought a second poop tray and cut out the middle and zip-tied hardware cloth on it. I put an 8" rechargeable fan on low under it, pointed up, and I've got two small 5" rechargeable fans clipped inside pointing out the vents. That has worked very, very well here with hot nights.

The roosting bars are not a problem for grown pullets and work very well with most poo falling down between the slats. There is a learning curve with them, but nobody has gotten injured that I can tell. I do like that the platform arrangement allows them to find lots ways to roost together - side by side or pointed different ways, and they can snuggle and face their friend and snooze together, or not.

One remote and rare danger with the Cube and the roost bars: the auto-door - which works horizontally - has caused two (separate) injuries reported of toes/one leg caught between the slot that the door moves into and the roosting bars platform edge when it opens. Both that I have heard of were with roosters, inexplicably. I and others solved that potential problem by placing a barrier, making a wall, in front of that area.

I will also mention that from what I've heard the new Cube "Smart" auto door (with wifi and an app) has glitchy problems reported and I don't recommend it. I would ask for the older style auto-door, with just the programmable timers & light-sensor. I use the timers and it has worked very well for me, I replace the batteries once a year. There is one other company that makes a compatible Cube auto-door, but note it does NOT fit the Eglu Go.

@Perris I tend to believe that lots of people sell their Cubes and Go's because they end up with more chickens than they're made to hold. The Cube holds 5 Standard chickens, 6 at most. Omlet now sells a big Cube "Pro" for 10 chickens to address this market I think. Some people remove the nest box divider in the Cube and put nestboxes elsewhere and that does make more room. Depending on the social dynamics and the climate, a whole lot of chickens can and will cram themselves into one Cube (12-14, with some bantams, but yikes!). People get two Cubes to accommodate that and the whole group still wants and needs to be all together at night, which makes sense to me. But it all depends on your chickens - I've seen online others that have several Cubes in a large enclosure with different "tribes" that work well. Each with a rooster and some hens, or a special pair of hens that want to roost away from everyone else, or little groups of bonded hens sleeping together.

 

[BDutch]

I love a little coop. Hattie house gets lots of use.

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If you do get another coop I highly recommend painting it. They last a lot longer if you paint them.

My coop model is/was like this one. New roof, extension, painted …. And this spring it got a new lid on the nestboxes.

photo 2023

 

[MaryJanet]

It's great to see everyone's little coops and to read about Eglus! So interesting.

I'm going to try a ground nest, by which I mean nothing between the eggs and the soil but a nest of straw. I wrote about the Peggy issue a few times in recent days, so I won't cover that again, but I like @ManueB 's idea of being able to see what's going on in case intervention is called for.

So, imagine a nest on the ground, covered by an existing next box trio. One of the trios has a double berth on one side and a single on the other. The double berth has enough space for nest, water and feed.

Both of the nest box trios have hessian sacks hanging over the openings for darkness. I think lifting the sack will provide enough visibility to see if everything is OK, but just in case more visibility is needed, I can adapt the trio so that the lid itself is hinged and can be lifted along with the sack. So the view into the double berth nest would be from one long side and above.

The nest trio will be under a table. So the hen will be in double shade. On very hot days, I can add further shade by putting up a cloth.

I also plan to get some potted bushes for screening beyond the immediate vicinity - mainly to support the hen in feeling isolated and safe. So that if she pokes her head out, she can see a further layer of screening.

Ivy came back on the lay a few weeks ago and in that time both of the nest box trios were up on sawhorses under the roosting box. Last weekend, I put one of the nest trios down on the ground and she took it immediately.

I imagine the other hens will prefer a lower nest too, so this coming weekend, I'll put the other trio down on the ground to allow some choice for the other hens when the time comes to enclose the hatch.

All of this will seem excessive to many of you, but this is the 3rd attempt at hatching at my place, and so far only one chick tried to hatch and was that one was killed by Peggy before it even got out of its shell.

The previous eggs were from the rooster up the street and it's possible they were never fertile, just as it's possible the incubation conditions were inadequate. This time I'm buying 'fertile' eggs from a breeder and doing all I can to provide a 'natural' incubation within the safe chicken run.

If this clutch doesn't work, I'm out. I'll be buying in pullets for life, and it'll be no hardship!

 

[MaryJanet]

I haven't forgotten my own enjoyment of the hatch! The plan to watch for a broody 2-3 weeks before I start annual leave. That way there's time for the hatch while I'm on leave and also time to get a few pullets if the hatch isn't successful.