Moving in day at the Chicken McMansion

[staceyl]

Wow, I think that coop might be nicer than some places I've lived.

 

[Country Heart]

Great thread. Love your coop and all the great ideas.

 

[Chieftain]

Quote:
You and me both! I've been in there and I know it has more room than the bunks I lived in onboard ship...

I've been keeping a close eye on sanitation in there since they moved in and I wanted to make a few comments and observations.

I started out with the whole floor covered with an even three-four inches of pine chip bedding, with timothy hay in the nest boxes. All five birds are feathering up nicely and are getting quite large. I figure about 60% of what they eat stays in the chicken as meat, bone and feathers, and roughly 40% gets expelled along with water. They aren't big enough to make a lot of poop but there is some.

I have been going in daily to replenish water and grub, and I have simply been stirring the litter and fluffing it up. The coop smells like chickens and pine chips, and I think that is just so. I have been actively sniffing out ammonia, and have detected none to date. That tells me that the uric acid they excrete is being successfully absorbed and evaporated out of the bedding, and the passive, permanent ventilation in the coop is doing it's job well. I plan on changing bedding out once they grow big enough to start using the roost 9and the poop board) so we can start out clean at that time.

Every day when I open the door, I greet them with a little pinch of yellow corn meal in my hand. They all gather around and pick it out of my hand and they really like the few grains they get. I put a small container of grit in there with them so if I give them a small treat they can digest it.

Yesterday I did dig a couple of little tiny worms out of the compost pile, and put them in there with the girls. It took them a while to figure out what those little wiggly things were, but one of them snapped both worms up and made short work of them.

All continues smoothly, although the neighbor's cat has taken a sudden interest in sitting on my back fence twitching his tail and trying to figger out what that peeping noise is...

 

[gryeyes]

You can give them the small sized mealworms now. Although I cannot abide holding them in my hand (as I do other treats), your chicks will go wild for 'em and take 'em right out of your hand as they do that corn meal. (If you're not as squeamish as am I.) You've got grit for 'em, which they'll need to handle mealworms of any size.

 

[Country Heart]

Won't be long before they have fun chasing that cat out of your yard.

 

[Chieftain]

I went out this afternoon to change the water, and I opened the door to the run and left it open for a while. I stood there with some corn meal and grit in my hand and enticed all of them out onto the top edge of the ramp, and they were satisfied to go no further. I left the door open and secured the run while I went in to clean the water dispenser, and it aired things out, gave them a nice whiff of fresh Pacifist Northwest breeze, and they didn't seem to mind one bit. they are venturing out of the light now and are all over the inside of the coop.

I got a few good pics, and I know this is probably not the right forum for these, but here are a couple anyway...( I warned 'em when I signed up here that I was like a Japanese Tourist with a digital camera...)

As you can see, there are no obvious signs of roos yet, other than the small buds on the shanks of two that may or may not be the start of spurs. Everyone seems to have very similar plumage developing,(and maybe that means they are all hens, or all roos...) Everyone is developing a single comb, and none of them are red, but are still light pink. They appear to be sorting out their peck order, and there is no sign of early sexual activity yet, just some minor hysterical squabbling now and then...

Onward!

 

[Country Heart]

Love the pictures

 

[rainierlass]

Am closely watching this thread as my brother and I built a very similar coop over Christmas and I am picking up 5 day-olds tomorrow -

- I really would like them to be out of my house and into their own @ 2-3 weeks or so - - seems you are having good luck with doing just that!! I am north of you @ the base of Mt. Rainier and am hoping this mild winter continues to be just that!

I also love your waterer idea - - I am new to chickens so can use all the help I can get!!!

Thanks for all your info - - is a big help for a newbie!

Will post pics when I pick up the chooks tomorrow!

 

[Chieftain]

Quote:
Thanks Maggie, and welcome aboard! Let me know if I can help you in any way. If you have not done so yet, I recommend you get a copy of "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens" by Gail Damerow. It's an outstanding resource and it answered a lot of my questions, and has no doubt contributed a great deal to our success so far.

I just fed the chooks this morning, and I opened the window that is inside the run, and will leave it open until I secure the coop for the night. The light is still on and there is still a warm spot in the litter, but the temps are above fifty today and that's just fine for the stage of feathers that our girls have to date. Fresh air is good for them and a bit cooler temp won't hurt them either.

 

[typercy]

Awesome! We are also in Vancouver and got our chicks yesterday. I forgot to ask how old they were, but I would guess about three days. I also would like to get them outside into their coop at about three weeks old. Very nice thread here!