- Mar 26, 2011
- 18
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Just getting started, looking around and getting some good advice. No chickens yet and I have to go get permission from the city to have them. I'll be doing that at the beginning of the week so wish me luck. I shouldn't have any problems as I have about a half acre of property and back into a large patch of wooded area that's off limits to building. I'm planning on keeping my girls in a coop with a totally fenced area as I have a number of possible predictors that include hawks, fox and coyotes. I'm looking at having no more than 8 ladies no roasters as they would not only drive my neighbors nuts they'll drive me nuts. The last roaster I had as a kid use to perch itself on my window at 3 in the morning and start crowing. To this day I can't figure out where he was seeing light. I think he just liked me.
I haven't had chickens for quite a while but now that I've retired I'd love to have them again. Ultimately I would like to totally fence in my back yard and let them range a little each day. They'd have a blast in my bug city lawn during the summer. I also have a dog and 3 cats that will be inside most of the time so they shouldn't have any contact with the chicks. I'm also a woodworker and have a full woodworking shop in my garage so I plan on building the coop myself. I normally build furniture so this would be a little bit of a departure for me. While I'm on the subject I plan on doing a deep litter in the coop and I was wondering if anyone out there has had any experience with dry hardwood sawdust as litter? This sawdust is very dry and I normally use it as mulch around my flower beds but I thought since I usually have a bunch of it hanging around I could use it for litter with a little DTE. I have oak and maple sawdust in most cases.
I plan to purchase some peeps late in May. Probably Rhode Island Reds and Araucanas so I'm in the process of building a small brooding pen for them now. Any suggestions would be helpful on that but it seems to be pretty straight forward.
I'll keep you posted.
Wayne
I haven't had chickens for quite a while but now that I've retired I'd love to have them again. Ultimately I would like to totally fence in my back yard and let them range a little each day. They'd have a blast in my bug city lawn during the summer. I also have a dog and 3 cats that will be inside most of the time so they shouldn't have any contact with the chicks. I'm also a woodworker and have a full woodworking shop in my garage so I plan on building the coop myself. I normally build furniture so this would be a little bit of a departure for me. While I'm on the subject I plan on doing a deep litter in the coop and I was wondering if anyone out there has had any experience with dry hardwood sawdust as litter? This sawdust is very dry and I normally use it as mulch around my flower beds but I thought since I usually have a bunch of it hanging around I could use it for litter with a little DTE. I have oak and maple sawdust in most cases.
I plan to purchase some peeps late in May. Probably Rhode Island Reds and Araucanas so I'm in the process of building a small brooding pen for them now. Any suggestions would be helpful on that but it seems to be pretty straight forward.
I'll keep you posted.
Wayne
