LyleVertigo
In the Brooder
- May 28, 2025
- 5
- 30
- 39
Hello, Everyone! I just started getting into chicken keeping.
My name is Lyle and I'm a retired vet who has been living on a homestead for the past 5 years.
I've tried growing orchards and other fruit bearing plants and have decided to get into chicken keeping.
Did my best to look up on all the info needed to get started, built my chicken run and coops outside and added some predator protection, might add some 16x8" slabs around the sides for added protection, I did bury some under but it was only around 6" deep. Wrapped that hardware cloth in one piece and cut the tops to bend under the nest boxes so nothing can try poking underneath. Those Amazon Runs are very nice and inexpensive but one major flaw, the top has little support, so I bought a light pole and buried it to give strength to the middle, worked out great!
Those prefab coops were pretty cheap but are made out of fir and the wood was extremely soft, so I placed them up on concrete slabs so they won't rot on the ground. I decided to go with sand and gravel for the bedding as I'm close to the water table and typical betting will most likely rot fast and I heard this way is low maintenance. I left a section bare to let grass grow, but if the chickens peck it too much I plan on using a large pallet covered in hardware cloth to allow grass to grow through it and protect the roots.
Reolink had a sale on a wireless camera with a solar panel, works great! I can't let it run 24/7 but it allows me to check on the coop time to time, anywhere I'm at.
Here are my chicks currently.
I have 1 cream legbar that's around 6 weeks old, 13 White Naked Necks (2 died) and one I'm not sure, I think she might be a brown leghorn but it's too early to tell, she has blue legs which is weird.
Sexed to the best of my ability it seems that they are all pullets but two naked necks are cockriels. At this stage 2 of them have their tail feathers straight down and had much shorter wings compared to the others.
I first tried to hatch a dozen cream legbar and Isbar eggs, but I placed too much faith in the incubator's accuracy and all but one died due to shrink wrapping during the final days, it was rough raising her alone as she would wake me up multiple times a night with her alone distress call. Then I tried to hatch out a dozen black australorp eggs but with multiple meters and constant supervision of the temps and humidity. Both were perfect all the way through but turned out that they all were not viable....but one and that one died very early in the shell during development. Luckly I ordered 15 of these naked neck chicks as a contingency in case they didn't work out. One died in the box and a couple of weeks later another died.
I used a heating plate dispite hatchery was pressuring to use a lamp. I read somewhere that shipped chicks don't die from being too cold from inadequite heating but rather from starvation due to not getting access to food in time (which makes them go cold and stop eating). Not once did any show any signs of being too cold and have been very comfortable inside this mesh playpen I kept in the house. Ambient temps I been keeping at 77-80F which is comfortable for me.
I started feeding them organic mash but I saw that 1) it kept being wasted as they scattered it all over the place and 2) it would create a lot of powdered dust that would cover everything in the house and make me sick. I starded adding crumbles and even though they prefer the mash they will eat some of the crumbles. Most of the crumbles are still too big but I'm hoping they will fully transition over as they get larger.
Speaking of which. I found it a huge help in adding a small HEPA filter inside their brooder, I vacuum it every day as I change their bedding. That is the biggest understatement I have had when starting this journey.
Chickens. Are. Filthy!
They poop so much, and that's coming from someone who owned ferrets for over 25 years.
I am lucky that I have a ton of these inconsistancy pads from when I was using them as ferret potty pads, they are great for fast change outs and I just vacuum all the dry stuff that's left. I should have just enough for when they are ready for the coop in a month.
My name is Lyle and I'm a retired vet who has been living on a homestead for the past 5 years.
I've tried growing orchards and other fruit bearing plants and have decided to get into chicken keeping.
Did my best to look up on all the info needed to get started, built my chicken run and coops outside and added some predator protection, might add some 16x8" slabs around the sides for added protection, I did bury some under but it was only around 6" deep. Wrapped that hardware cloth in one piece and cut the tops to bend under the nest boxes so nothing can try poking underneath. Those Amazon Runs are very nice and inexpensive but one major flaw, the top has little support, so I bought a light pole and buried it to give strength to the middle, worked out great!
Those prefab coops were pretty cheap but are made out of fir and the wood was extremely soft, so I placed them up on concrete slabs so they won't rot on the ground. I decided to go with sand and gravel for the bedding as I'm close to the water table and typical betting will most likely rot fast and I heard this way is low maintenance. I left a section bare to let grass grow, but if the chickens peck it too much I plan on using a large pallet covered in hardware cloth to allow grass to grow through it and protect the roots.
Reolink had a sale on a wireless camera with a solar panel, works great! I can't let it run 24/7 but it allows me to check on the coop time to time, anywhere I'm at.
Here are my chicks currently.
I have 1 cream legbar that's around 6 weeks old, 13 White Naked Necks (2 died) and one I'm not sure, I think she might be a brown leghorn but it's too early to tell, she has blue legs which is weird.
Sexed to the best of my ability it seems that they are all pullets but two naked necks are cockriels. At this stage 2 of them have their tail feathers straight down and had much shorter wings compared to the others.
I first tried to hatch a dozen cream legbar and Isbar eggs, but I placed too much faith in the incubator's accuracy and all but one died due to shrink wrapping during the final days, it was rough raising her alone as she would wake me up multiple times a night with her alone distress call. Then I tried to hatch out a dozen black australorp eggs but with multiple meters and constant supervision of the temps and humidity. Both were perfect all the way through but turned out that they all were not viable....but one and that one died very early in the shell during development. Luckly I ordered 15 of these naked neck chicks as a contingency in case they didn't work out. One died in the box and a couple of weeks later another died.
I used a heating plate dispite hatchery was pressuring to use a lamp. I read somewhere that shipped chicks don't die from being too cold from inadequite heating but rather from starvation due to not getting access to food in time (which makes them go cold and stop eating). Not once did any show any signs of being too cold and have been very comfortable inside this mesh playpen I kept in the house. Ambient temps I been keeping at 77-80F which is comfortable for me.
I started feeding them organic mash but I saw that 1) it kept being wasted as they scattered it all over the place and 2) it would create a lot of powdered dust that would cover everything in the house and make me sick. I starded adding crumbles and even though they prefer the mash they will eat some of the crumbles. Most of the crumbles are still too big but I'm hoping they will fully transition over as they get larger.
Speaking of which. I found it a huge help in adding a small HEPA filter inside their brooder, I vacuum it every day as I change their bedding. That is the biggest understatement I have had when starting this journey.
Chickens. Are. Filthy!
They poop so much, and that's coming from someone who owned ferrets for over 25 years.
I am lucky that I have a ton of these inconsistancy pads from when I was using them as ferret potty pads, they are great for fast change outs and I just vacuum all the dry stuff that's left. I should have just enough for when they are ready for the coop in a month.
Glad you joined.
