MJ's little flock

[MaryJanet]

This is good thinking. But I rather cut cardboard into the right size. My chickens prefer eating printed paper over cardboard and scratching in paper makes a mess. Cardboard is easy to replace too.

Another good thought.

 

[MaryJanet]

Here's this little lovely.

She's the only one who takes her bath before bed.

 

[MaryJanet]

I'm having quite a weekend

See those two strands of hair clumped together with greeny-brown stuff. Yeh.

That's bird poop.

I got splattered in a fly-by. That's good luck, right?

 

[MaryJanet]

Given MJ’s climate I wonder if we are over engineering the slats problem.

My main concern is chicks toes getting caught and chicks not being able to climb back over the 7cm barrier. And whatever is placed there needs to support the weight of the food and water without stressing the borderline flimsy joinery of the nest box.

For the weather, I love the slats! Very breezy!

 

[BDutch]

I wonder if 7cm deep x 28 wide x 60 long might be too heavy.

I'll try it and find out.

My main concern is chicks toes getting caught and chicks not being able to climb back over the 7cm barrier.

There is no need to level it at all after 3 - 4 days. 7 cm is easy to take for a few days old chick. If you fill it temporary, up to 4 cm with paper/cardboard and an old towel (against slipping) on top its okay. Its a good place to put water and chick feed mash away from the nest/straw.

PS I have a barrier of about 4 cm between the nestbox area and the small coop floor, where I put the water an chick feed.

Hatch in 2023

 

[ManueB]

My chickens prefer eating printed paper

I just had the Washington post for breakfast dear....
Oh nice, but I prefer the Times ..with a cuppa as MJ would say !

 

[MaryJanet]

I just had the Washington post for breakfast dear....
Oh nice, but I prefer the Times ..with a cuppa as MJ would say !

Well, there's nothing like a cuppa to help the news go down

 

[MaryJanet]

Mary was up early today!

I was asleep in bed when the hens kicked off. I thought uh oh, a fox?? And jumped up to go see what it was. Mary wanted out of the maternity ward, which was closed. I shooed the four hens out of the run and let Mary out. It would've been around 7.30.

Now it's 8.35 and she's already eaten, had a good drink and gone back to her eggs. No dust bath today.

 

[MaryJanet]

There is no need to level it at all after 3 - 4 days. 7 cm is easy to take for a few days old chick. If you fill it temporary, up to 4 cm with paper/cardboard and an old towel (against slipping) on top its okay. Its a good place to put water and chick feed mash away from the nest/straw.

PS I have a barrier of about 4 cm between the nestbox area and the small coop floor, where I put the water an chick feed.

Hatch in 2023
View attachment 3968344

I still have the cardboard packaging from the new little coop, so I'll give that a try. I'll try to make it 7cm deep because I don't know how tiny the bantam Orpington chicks will be. If the eggs are any indication, they will be very small. I'll tape the cardboard together, and wrap the whole thing in a towel, which I'll staple into the cardboard to make the whole package sturdy. That way I can reuse it later if I decide to get a clutch of eggs for Ivy in a month or so. That's a big if, but I may as well make something reusable instead of disposable.

Just an aside, back in 2018 I decided to keep around 12 hens and add a few every two years. I realise now 12 is too many, but I have kept to the plan of new pullets every two years. The last batch (Katie, Edie and Lorna) were the summer of 22-23. So the flock is due for a few more pullets, having had 4 deaths since they arrived (Lorna, Joyce, Janet, and Christa).

If no pullets hatch at all, I'll buy three pullets in. They can live in the big coop for quarantine - a big improvement from living in the sleepout, which is where Katie, Edie and Lorna lived and where my profile pic was taken

 

[LozzyR]

She's up!
The eggs look perfectly fine to me. I don't think they need cleaning at all. Not even with a dry cloth.

View attachment 3968275

However I thought the straw was too thin. Mary had compressed it to 2cm which didn't seem to offer much insulation.

So I bulked it up.

With Mary off the nest, I also took the opportunity to measure up the nest box compartment so its slatted floor can be covered up. 28x60cm to accommodate the uprights in the corners. There's also a 7cm barrier between nest compartment and roosting compartment. I'm thinking about what to use in the nest compartment. Lightweight, non-toxic, 7cm thick. I'll pack around the sides with sand. Maybe a piece of foam insulation cut to size and wrapped in two sealed pillowcases?

View attachment 3968284

View attachment 3968285

Last night I didn't notice Mary has some straw stuck to one spur, which opens the possibility she broke the first egg.

Anyway here she is fresh from the nest.

She had plenty to say for herself.