- Apr 14, 2011
- 52
- 0
- 39
Well my new chickens went out side yesterday. They are just one day short of being 7 weeks old and out grew the 100 gallen water tank I was keeping them in on my kitchen table.
My goodness what a night my wonderful wife had me up untill 2am running from one wall mart to another looking for two red heat lights because the temp. in the coop was at 48 and she new the temperature. was going to drop to 34 . So about 2am we had the two red heat lights up ant the temperature gauge next to our bed so we could see what the temp was every hour on the hour. The temperature stayed at about 55 all night and I got up at 7 am and opened the door now they are outside and it is 39 with plenty of sun.
Our eggs if we get any someday will have cost us the us defictate by the time all is done.
How I got into the chicken thing goes back about 20 year or better. You see I was a Greyhound bus driver for 30 year and the DOT had every drive take a physical every two years. One year I was sitting in a doctor office waiting my turn. I picked up a home and garden mag because they were talking about the top ten gardens in our country and low and behold one person in Idaho had won the title more then once and he talked about how he had a moveable chicken coop and every year he would move his coop from one side of his garden to the other. I love to plant a garden every year ,and thought to my self WoW what a great idea. This person claimed the chickens did many things for his garden,, 1st they picked all the bugs,weed, roots out and lastly they left very rich organic fertilizer behind.
Well it has taken me over twenty years to do this. I have been buying my brown eggs from a women now for about one year and I saw her very large garden and told her what I had read some 20 years ago. Low and behold this last winter when I went to buy my 5 dozen eggs she had a 6 x 8 x 8 dog pen and had some of her 160 chickens running around her garden doing their job . I was jealous trust me I came home went on craiglist and began looking for a dog pen and chicken coops and chickens. I found a 4x 8x8 dog pen for about 20 bucks and told my great old farm girl wife."trust me young men out their looking for wife find a young farm girl for a wife they are the greatest". What my plan was showed her the chicken coops that I found on craigslist and the cost of the chickens. She told me she was going to build her own chicken coop her way. She thought she could do in much cheaper her self."NOT". At any rated the coop is about done . Just need to caulk and seal everything so they can not get wet just in case it might rain in western Washington. I stopped by a farm store here and low and behold they had just recieved their first shipment of baby chicks. Six chicks later a 7 weeks here I am.
A few things I have done wrong to date first the dog pen is only 4 feet high so after I coved it you must be four feet or shorter to get to the chickens if you need to. 2nd their is only one way in and once you put the chicken coop in place so the chickens can walk dow the ramp you can not go into the pen at all. Looking to change this.
The one thing I find about the chickens and my sons is I have Four rough and tough sons wrestlers,football,players, concrete workers tough on dogs cats, and most everything. When I brought home the chickens they would come over take a chick from the water tank and set on the couch for hours petting the chicken the had in their hand. Just love it mysons all have a soft spot for chickens.
Now looking to go 100% organic, not that I am a tree hugger far far from it . I have locate a women in Bellingham wa that makes her own 100% chicken feed and although she has a few people that sell her feed close buy I like to go to the soars.
I am still looking to find other back yarder to have coffee with in Western Washington just to shoot the chicken sh-t with about once a month.
My goodness what a night my wonderful wife had me up untill 2am running from one wall mart to another looking for two red heat lights because the temp. in the coop was at 48 and she new the temperature. was going to drop to 34 . So about 2am we had the two red heat lights up ant the temperature gauge next to our bed so we could see what the temp was every hour on the hour. The temperature stayed at about 55 all night and I got up at 7 am and opened the door now they are outside and it is 39 with plenty of sun.
Our eggs if we get any someday will have cost us the us defictate by the time all is done.
How I got into the chicken thing goes back about 20 year or better. You see I was a Greyhound bus driver for 30 year and the DOT had every drive take a physical every two years. One year I was sitting in a doctor office waiting my turn. I picked up a home and garden mag because they were talking about the top ten gardens in our country and low and behold one person in Idaho had won the title more then once and he talked about how he had a moveable chicken coop and every year he would move his coop from one side of his garden to the other. I love to plant a garden every year ,and thought to my self WoW what a great idea. This person claimed the chickens did many things for his garden,, 1st they picked all the bugs,weed, roots out and lastly they left very rich organic fertilizer behind.
Well it has taken me over twenty years to do this. I have been buying my brown eggs from a women now for about one year and I saw her very large garden and told her what I had read some 20 years ago. Low and behold this last winter when I went to buy my 5 dozen eggs she had a 6 x 8 x 8 dog pen and had some of her 160 chickens running around her garden doing their job . I was jealous trust me I came home went on craiglist and began looking for a dog pen and chicken coops and chickens. I found a 4x 8x8 dog pen for about 20 bucks and told my great old farm girl wife."trust me young men out their looking for wife find a young farm girl for a wife they are the greatest". What my plan was showed her the chicken coops that I found on craigslist and the cost of the chickens. She told me she was going to build her own chicken coop her way. She thought she could do in much cheaper her self."NOT". At any rated the coop is about done . Just need to caulk and seal everything so they can not get wet just in case it might rain in western Washington. I stopped by a farm store here and low and behold they had just recieved their first shipment of baby chicks. Six chicks later a 7 weeks here I am.
A few things I have done wrong to date first the dog pen is only 4 feet high so after I coved it you must be four feet or shorter to get to the chickens if you need to. 2nd their is only one way in and once you put the chicken coop in place so the chickens can walk dow the ramp you can not go into the pen at all. Looking to change this.
The one thing I find about the chickens and my sons is I have Four rough and tough sons wrestlers,football,players, concrete workers tough on dogs cats, and most everything. When I brought home the chickens they would come over take a chick from the water tank and set on the couch for hours petting the chicken the had in their hand. Just love it mysons all have a soft spot for chickens.
Now looking to go 100% organic, not that I am a tree hugger far far from it . I have locate a women in Bellingham wa that makes her own 100% chicken feed and although she has a few people that sell her feed close buy I like to go to the soars.
I am still looking to find other back yarder to have coffee with in Western Washington just to shoot the chicken sh-t with about once a month.
