My coop design and build blog

[Rancid Crbtree]

I went to the local True Value hardware for the new little protein makers. The owner is a chicken person so he selects eggers for sale.

I thought they were very over crowded in the stores brooder so the 24 I hand picked dont know what to do with all the extra room in their new brooder. They now have about 4 times the space they were in.

I got 8 Ameraucana (they lay blue eggs) and hopefully equal numbers of Barred Rock and Black Star (both brown egg layers) but since the two chicks look so much alike, I struggled to tell them apart. All are supposed to be docile so they should be good around the grand kids.

They are about a week and half old. Perhaps eggs by September. We will keep around 8 to 10 over winter. Sell or Eat the rest. They are not going to be big roasters but rather dual purpose birds on the small side. A good first year batch to raise.

 

[Penpal]

Looks good. You might want to get a small open box on its side for them to search in. You know how kids love boxes.

 

[Rancid Crbtree]

Looks good. You might want to get a small open box on its side for them to search in. You know how kids love boxes.

There is a crossword puzzle right at their feet.

 

[Rancid Crbtree]

A sunshine day. The mud is back. But we got more work done around the coop and run today. The chicks enjoyed my homemade roosting bars so much, I made them more for the brooder.

Now some will want to say "You need pine shavings and not newspaper with young chicks in a brooder" I helped raise the first set of chicks on our farm 50 years ago and it was ALWAYS on newspaper. We never had leg problems. Our farm raised 100 birds a year as well as swine, beef, rabbits and pheasants. I know you think you are being helpful but the number of birthday candles on my cake requires a fire permit. Newspaper is fine in the brooder as proven over and over.

 

[Rancid Crbtree]

The most likely day time killer of our chickens will be an Ermine. We have seen them near the coop already. I spent some time today closing holes that vermin would squeeze through. Then I secured the bottom of the sun shade cloth in a manner that wont get damaged by snow plowing along the run.

 

[Ted Brown]

@Rancid Crbtree you have a disturbing handle but...

Your attention to detail, productivity and creativities are quite impressive. Well done!

 

[Rancid Crbtree]

@Rancid Crbtree you have a disturbing handle but...

Your attention to detail, productivity and creativities are quite impressive. Well done!

I misspelled it when I joined and I dont know if I can change it. Its supposed to be "Rancid Crabtree" a character from the Patrick McManus books.

 

[aart]

I misspelled it when I joined and I dont know if I can change it. Its supposed to be "Rancid Crabtree" a character from the Patrick McManus books.

That's how I always read it, despite the missing 'a'.
Ask a moderator, they might be able/willing to fix it.

 

[Rancid Crbtree]

I held off on using wood shaving under the chicks in the brooder but now they are over 2 weeks old so we added wood shavings. Under normal circumstances, this means a feeder and waterer full of pine shavings and a real mess because these little buggers kick and scratch and throw shavings everywhere..

To avoid this I built an elevated mesh platform so no shavings can be scratched or kicked into the food/water. Its been 8 hours and its working as expected.

The water looks orange because of the probiotic and electrolyte packets I mix with their water.

 

[NagemTX]

I held off on using wood shaving under the chicks in the brooder but now they are over 2 weeks old so we added wood shavings. Under normal circumstances, this means a feeder and waterer full of pine shavings and a real mess because these little buggers kick and scratch and throw shavings everywhere..

To avoid this I built an elevated mesh platform so no shavings can be scratched or kicked into the food/water. Its been 8 hours and its working as expected.

The water looks orange because of the probiotic and electrolyte packets I mix with their water.

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Ohhh stealing this idea! That is great!