Montana

[DillonChix]

Karla, hope all is OK with your Mom. I'm sorry to hear of her struggles. My prayers are with you.

Your coop looks awesome.

I just inherited 9 Dominiques. A client couldn't take them with him when he moved (This is the guy I was talking about that wanted to sell his coop). Anyway, they are now at the ranch. Had to move the chicks and "teenagers" out to general population so the Doms can get acclimated. The roo is amazingly huge with a beautiful plume of butt feathers. These chickens dwarf any of mine. I have a Barred Rock and thought he was wrong about the breed, but of course the rose comb gave them away.

I'm raising some chicks for some folks who don't want to deal with the baby raising. However, at the moment, I now have 59 chickens! Arghhhh.

I want to start planting my garden soon, but the dang chickens LOVE the manure and have their little holes all over the place to play in the soil. Silly creatures. My BF said "Welp, no garden for you, as it is now the chickens "sand box"

 

[LarrysLeghorns]

Greetings from Boulder MT. First time chicken rancher. My huge herd of three pearl legged leghorns.

 

[DuginMT]

Greetings Larry! How old are your Leghorns now and are they out in the coop yet? Both my boys don't have school tomorrow so we have decided to put our 13 7-week old chicks out there in the morning. Looks like chance of showers and about 60 tomorrow, clearing on Sunday here.

We are really looking forward to putting them into their new home!

 

[LarrysLeghorns]

Mine are about 8 weeks old now and will have been in their coop for about a week. I was a bit nervous about that earlier this week but they did just fine.

 

[DuginMT]

Good timing Larry! We just put them into the run permanently this morning! They are having a great time out there. I thought one of the barred rocks had a broken leg as it was laying on its side with one leg sticking way out. Went in there and it jumped right up. Turned out it was just taking its first dust bath! Will lock them into their coop at dark. I'm curious as to whether or not they will go into the coop on their own at dusk. Did yours learn pretty fast? Also do you keep food and water in their coop? I'm planning to keep their food and water outside but might give them a small tray of food in their coop to help keep them warm for the next couple weeks.

 

[montanachicks]

Pictures below of an idea my dad came up with the other day, to keep the pullets from spending the night in the nests instead of on the roosts where they should be. Made from scrap paneling pieces. Works great! I just remove the paneling when I go out there early in the morning before work, so the big girls can get in the nests to start laying their eggs.

 

[LarrysLeghorns]

My chickens had no problem going into their coop. I keep the food and water in the run. i just make sure to give them fresh food and water before i head out to work. I don't even lock them in at night. The run is fairly secure. Besides with the three dogs I have guarding them, I don't worry about predators getting close. So far they have thrived outside. I was glad to get them outside. It's funny you say that about the chicken with "broken leg".We had the same issue with one of ours when they were about 4 weeks. We put a tray of sand in the brooder and one of them appeared to have gone lame in the sand but was only taking a dust bath as well.

 

[montanachicks]

My chickens had no problem going into their coop. I keep the food and water in the run. i just make sure to give them fresh food and water before i head out to work. I don't even lock them in at night. The run is fairly secure. Besides with the three dogs I have guarding them, I don't worry about predators getting close. So far they have thrived outside. I was glad to get them outside. It's funny you say that about the chicken with "broken leg".We had the same issue with one of ours when they were about 4 weeks. We put a tray of sand in the brooder and one of them appeared to have gone lame in the sand but was only taking a dust bath as well.

They love their dust baths & will find the weirdest places to take one!

 

[DuginMT]

My chicks are still in their learning curve. They didn't go into their coop by 7 tonight so we put them in there and locked the coop and got over half of them to stay on their roosts. Went back out there at 9, there were 10 out of the 13 on the roosts, two were huddled in the straw at a bottom corner of the coop, and one Orpington was roosting on the guard for the heat lamp, which is only like a 3/16" bent steel rod! I moved the three up to the roosts and hope they will get the idea - they seemed to huddle together nicely. I do not plan to turn the heat lamp on this spring, it is supposed to stay above 38 as a low for the next week and I figure it will be 5-10 degrees warmer in the coop. It is 57 in the coop right now according to the Acurite indoor/outdoor weather station in my house and only about 49 outside, and lightly raining. Planning to let them out about 7 tomorrow morning for another day of romping!

 

[Azriel]

Raining here this morning. We really need it, but I should be out fencing. I've had Rosie, my heifer and The Renegade my run away yearling steer locked in a smaller pen and feeding hay till I can get the fence good enough to keep the steer home. I'm out of hay, so stopped at TSC and bought 2 small bales from them, $15.00 each

. I get home from work last night and go out to feed and the 2 yearlings had made a jail break and were gone! I took off looking for them in a panic, but they were just out in the big field west of the house grazing peacefully with Bessy the pregnant cow. I don't think Rosie has ever been out on pasture, and she came running over to me looking for pets, and I'm sure some treats. I can see them out grazing from my kitchen window this morning, so I hope they will be happy enough out there that they'll stay in till I can get the fence fixed better tomorrow. It looks like the rain is set to stay for the day. Oh well, now I get to watch the Kentucky Derby this afternoon.