JustALittleFlighty
In the Brooder
- Jun 30, 2020
- 9
- 44
- 28
Hey, y'all! I'm Cody, and I'm sort of new to the whole bird-having venture, and this seemed like the place to go!
I've browsed around on here for years, as I've always wanted birds, but except for a false start with guineas that all disappeared several years ago, I've never made the jump.
We have, currently, 4 chickens, 8 ducks (2 Pekin, 2 mallard (we think) and 4 khaki Campbells), and 1 Guinea. Sadly, as all I was able to get was a straight on the ducks, we find ourselves with 5 males, and 3 females. Not exactly the best ratio.
We decided to go ahead and order some more birds, and try and round out our numbers to get a decent M-F ratio, as we really did not want to cull any of our birds (my dad in particular is extremely attached to the ducks).
We found a hatchery online that got some good reviews, and placed an order.
... Aaaaand, I may or may not have gotten a little excited and ordered a few extra birdies...
We have coming to us:
15 khaki Campbell female ducklings
15 silkies, straight run
15 guineas straight run
And 15 Easter eggers females.
Obviously, my current coop and run just aren't gonna cut it!
On the back of my property I have a small storage shed (10x15ish) and an old smoke house (15x20ish)
I was hoping if I told y'all my plan (complete with a nifty little floor plan!), Y'all could tell me if you saw any glaring errors in it, so I could hopefully keep from making a mistake that could harm the birds.
My plan was to bisect the smoke house, and keep guineas in one third, ducks in the other 2/3rds, with the guinea's being free ranging, and the ducks using a run that is shared with the chickens (the Easter eggers), who would be using the storage building as their coop, in which I have a 5x5 section closed off that I'm using a brooder for the babies.
The silkies I was planning on putting in the smaller coop and run I currently have on the front side of the property. The birds I have now I was planning on moving into the larger new layout.
I really need advice on this part, as I'm worried about the older birds picking on the younger ones!
I don't have a ton of money, so I can't afford to use hardware cloth/welded wire to make the run, and will have to use standard chicken wire (unless y'all have any other suggestions?), and it will have plastic chicken netting over the top of it. Run will be ≈7 foot tall, so that we can comfortably walk into it to collect any duck eggs that may be in there.
I'll attach a picture I did of it in a floor plan app.
I really appreciate y'all taking the time to read this, and any feedback we get.
Thank you
I've browsed around on here for years, as I've always wanted birds, but except for a false start with guineas that all disappeared several years ago, I've never made the jump.
We have, currently, 4 chickens, 8 ducks (2 Pekin, 2 mallard (we think) and 4 khaki Campbells), and 1 Guinea. Sadly, as all I was able to get was a straight on the ducks, we find ourselves with 5 males, and 3 females. Not exactly the best ratio.
We decided to go ahead and order some more birds, and try and round out our numbers to get a decent M-F ratio, as we really did not want to cull any of our birds (my dad in particular is extremely attached to the ducks).
We found a hatchery online that got some good reviews, and placed an order.
... Aaaaand, I may or may not have gotten a little excited and ordered a few extra birdies...
We have coming to us:
15 khaki Campbell female ducklings
15 silkies, straight run
15 guineas straight run
And 15 Easter eggers females.
Obviously, my current coop and run just aren't gonna cut it!
On the back of my property I have a small storage shed (10x15ish) and an old smoke house (15x20ish)
I was hoping if I told y'all my plan (complete with a nifty little floor plan!), Y'all could tell me if you saw any glaring errors in it, so I could hopefully keep from making a mistake that could harm the birds.
My plan was to bisect the smoke house, and keep guineas in one third, ducks in the other 2/3rds, with the guinea's being free ranging, and the ducks using a run that is shared with the chickens (the Easter eggers), who would be using the storage building as their coop, in which I have a 5x5 section closed off that I'm using a brooder for the babies.
The silkies I was planning on putting in the smaller coop and run I currently have on the front side of the property. The birds I have now I was planning on moving into the larger new layout.
I really need advice on this part, as I'm worried about the older birds picking on the younger ones!
I don't have a ton of money, so I can't afford to use hardware cloth/welded wire to make the run, and will have to use standard chicken wire (unless y'all have any other suggestions?), and it will have plastic chicken netting over the top of it. Run will be ≈7 foot tall, so that we can comfortably walk into it to collect any duck eggs that may be in there.
I'll attach a picture I did of it in a floor plan app.
I really appreciate y'all taking the time to read this, and any feedback we get.
Thank you
So glad you decided to join! 
