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jackiedoering

jackiedoering

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5 Years
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Aug 18, 2014
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Hello, MY name is Jackie Doering and I am in Indiana. This is our first experience with chickens. We have decided to raise our own hens for eggs. We have no rosters just all 10 hens of three different breeds. We are excited about receiving our first eggs.

We took an old dog house and converted it to a chicken coop. We took chicken wire and built an outside roaming area. Built the laying boxes with hay and a purching post bar in front of them. Just waiting on them to give us those beautiful brown fresh eggs.

I read up on hens and how they lay and was totally amazed at what information I found. Who knew an animal could have an egg tree in them. Fascinating....
 
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Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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So glad you could join our community! Just be careful when using chicken wire on all external parts of the coop or run. It is very flimsy and can be chewed through, ripped apart and large hawks can dive right through it. So you might want to cover it with some hardware cloth. Predators, especially those night time predators have a lot of time on their hands and will work at something all night long until they get in. Just the other day, I had just opened the door to the coop, having walked right past a hawk that I did not see and was not at all afraid of me, and seconds later he dove right into the side of my run at a 4 month old chick that was along the side of the run. THANKFULLY I have hardware cloth on my run. This hawk was large and very heavy and would have come right through chicken wire. So don't take predator proofing lightly.

Enough about that! :-) But we are so glad you could join our community! If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Welcome to our flock!
 
Welcome to BYC, Jackie! Glad you decided to join our flock. X4 on hardware cloth. It has saved chicken owners a lot of tears. I think you're very wise having all hens. The recommended ratio of roosters to hens is 1 rooster for every 10 hens for good reason. Roosters can be very hard on hens physically; over-breeding them, injuring them with their beaks and spurs, and battering them, and Rhode Island Red roosters in particular can be aggressive. I currently have 25 hens, no roosters, and I get loads of eggs without feeding any non-egg laying mouths, without the aggression, fights, crowing in the middle of the night, injuries, and over-bred and battered hens that frequently goes along with having roosters (especially too many). The only real reason to get a rooster is to fertilize eggs for hatching. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. What kind of hens do you have?
 
1/2 inch hardware cloth is the way to go in any areas you have poultry wire. It does need to be securely fastened to a frame with no gaps for critters to sneak through.
 

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