New to chickens and quail, loving it!

[Casastash]

hello!

My family decided in the summer to get a small flock of chickens for our kiddos and we love them! We have 3 Rhode Island Reds
3 black australorps
3 Columbian barred rocks
3 Buff Orpingtons

Our goal is to add in some more colourful hens to the flock in the spring. Hopefully younger birds! Does anyone know the average age of these breeds? Our girls are at least 2 years old and with winter and moulting we are only getting 1 egg a day.

We recently added some coturnix quail which I absolutely adore! I think we have

3 Italians
2 pharaoh
1 Tibetan
1 Tuxedo


We currently house them 30 ft from the chickens in a run in our barn that’s about 3 ft W by 8ft L and 8ft T

Is this enough space???

Sorry for the cluster of questions! I have been creeping the page for a while and am so excited to have finally joined,

Cheers!

 

[drumstick diva]

Welcome to BYC. I think you would enjoy "Canadians, check in here." for advice re: type of coop needed for the weather, breeds that do best, and hopefully find other BYCERS living near you

 

[Teila]

G’Day from down under Casatash Welcome!

Standard rule of thumb for chickens [non bantam] is 4 square foot of coop space, 10 square foot of run and 2 foot of roost each. I am not sure about Quail but the folks on the Quail Forum should be able to assist.

I do hope you enjoy being a BYC member. There are lots of friendly and very helpful folks here so not only is it overflowing with useful information it is also a great place to make friends and have some fun.

Personally, I have found the Topic of the Week articles a great resource and a one stop shop for questions which may have already been discussed within the BYC membership group.

If you would like to share more pictures and stories of your flock, you have come to the right place. BYC’ers never tire of these and do not back away slowly or commence eye rolling when the photo album or home videos come out

 

[Hope Hughes]

Hello​

Welcome to BYC!!
So glad to have you here!!
Thanks for sharing your story!!
There are many people on here that are ready to help in anyway they can!
The learning center also has alot of great information on it as well!
Enjoy!​

 

[blackdust951]

hello and welcome to byc! thank you so much for joining us here

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC and congrats on your birds. This link is an excellent resource, imo re: space requirements for your chickens

http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-much-room-do-chickens-need

 

[sourland]

Welcome to BYC.

 

[Casastash]

Our chickens have a winter “coop” that is a 10x10 box stall they roost on the top of the stalls and have the feed and water there. We open the stall door to let them explore and stretch from 7:30 am to about 4 pm then they go back into the stall. On nice days we chase them
Outside.

We have a modern barn with cement floor that houses our horses (and quail now) but we have been trying to keep them active by throwing scratch down for them.

During the summer they have a 12x12 coop ( a refurbished shed) and free range.

We brought them
In do to temp and water concerns. They are bedded down in pine shavings and get mucked our daily when we do the horse stalls.

Do they *need* outside time everyday? Our winters can get to -30 c.

Right now our set up has been easy and they seem content. Anything I am missing for them?

 

[Casastash]

This is our barn that they roam during the day.

 

[NevilChick]

Our chickens have a winter “coop” that is a 10x10 box stall they roost on the top of the stalls and have the feed and water there. We open the stall door to let them explore and stretch from 7:30 am to about 4 pm then they go back into the stall. On nice days we chase them
Outside.

We have a modern barn with cement floor that houses our horses (and quail now) but we have been trying to keep them active by throwing scratch down for them.

During the summer they have a 12x12 coop ( a refurbished shed) and free range.

We brought them
In do to temp and water concerns. They are bedded down in pine shavings and get mucked our daily when we do the horse stalls.

Do they *need* outside time everyday? Our winters can get to -30 c.

Right now our set up has been easy and they seem content. Anything I am missing for them?

Congratulations on your beautiful flock! It is obvious that you are trying to take good care of them.I never can remember dimensions and always have to look it up. I do think quail are one square foot. The only thing I would recommend is checking out the distance for quail and chickens. Everything I have ever read states that quail can make chickens sick and should not share the same area closely. I'm just not sure how closely. I have 14 quail pens and 14 chicken pens. It is a problem for me at times and I would just want you to play it safe. Good luck with your flock!