Hello everyone. I've been learning allot from this forum and a few others. I've been studying chickens for a couple years and after selling all of my goats and donkey, I decided to build a new coop and take the dive. Love it so far! This site has been very beneficial and I'm sure I'll have lots of questions. I purchased 33 week old pullets from the farm supply store and kept them in my storage barn for the first week under heat lamps. They've started flying out of the kiddie pool and I had to take them to the coop yesterday. They love it. Heat lamps in place and they sleep right under them at night and play all day. I've lost one chick the day after I bought them and the rest have been perfect. 18 Rhode Island Reds and 14 White Leg Horns. Hopefully we'll have a great egg production.
Anyway - we've built a 10x20 coop and we are getting set up for a large, fully caged run. Around 14ft x 30ft. We've got 7 hounds, so the coop and run will have to suffice for these girls. I've got eight milk crates mounted and will have them lined and filled in the next couple of weeks and just got a few more milk crates. We're shooting for 12 nest boxes for the 32 chickens. I've built the roosts and caught about a dozen chicks sitting on the roost today. Two weeks old and they are flying up onto the 18" roost. We're using the deep litter method and I keep a section clear of the pine shavings so they can play in the dirt, and they do! So far so good.
Thanks for a great site with great people and I look forward to spending allot of time on here.
Anyway - we've built a 10x20 coop and we are getting set up for a large, fully caged run. Around 14ft x 30ft. We've got 7 hounds, so the coop and run will have to suffice for these girls. I've got eight milk crates mounted and will have them lined and filled in the next couple of weeks and just got a few more milk crates. We're shooting for 12 nest boxes for the 32 chickens. I've built the roosts and caught about a dozen chicks sitting on the roost today. Two weeks old and they are flying up onto the 18" roost. We're using the deep litter method and I keep a section clear of the pine shavings so they can play in the dirt, and they do! So far so good.
Thanks for a great site with great people and I look forward to spending allot of time on here.
