New to this.......help

[CarolynF]

Quote:
Hi again,
Before you decide to get only 2 then add more later (which is exactly what I decided) think about this. When you add more to the flock there are a couple ways to do it. One way requires that you quarantine the new birds for 2-4 weeks in totally separate coop and run. The second doesn't but isn't as easy to pull off. Here are more details:

NOT Requiring Quarantine:
1. Your hen lays the eggs, hatches them and raises them.
2. Your hen goes broody and successfully adopts tiny chicks that you put under her in the dead of night, called "grafting".

The tough part with 1 & 2 is that mother nature and your hens are in complete control. Some hens don't go broody for years, others do it often, whenever they feel like it.

3. You purchase tiny chicks and raise them in a brooder (with all that that entails), then when they're bigger house them close to but separate from the older hens so they'll get acquainted but not picked on, then when they're big enough and well acquainted you put them in with the hens.


REQUIRES Quarantine:
1. You get young ones that are out of the brooder, or hens.

I thought I'd be able to just get another hen or two and pop her in the coop. Sadly, it's not that easy. I barely have room for 1 coop and run but definitely not two. Wish I'd known this about 2 months ago. If I had, I'd certainly have gotten at least one more right at the beginning.

So talk to your husband again, and see if this makes a difference. Does he really want to do this the easy way or the hard way???

p.s. Other members with more experience should chime in here if I'd gotten any of this wrong!

 

[ali_moran]

Thanks! I will talk to him tonight. I would really love to start with 4 (they will be about 9 weeks old when we get them).

Otherwise maybe i'll just order them.....

 

[ali_moran]

Okay so I went ahead and ordered 2 more chickens! We will have 4 now. 2 Wyandotte and 2 Ameraucana. So excited!! They will be about 9 weeks old when we get them.

So, after all the reading I have done...I am thinking that we will do a deep litter method, or sand........can't decide which one yet. And in my run area, right now there is grass....should I leave the grass there until they scratch it all up then put sand there or, what kind of stuff needs to be on the ground outside???

 

[CarolynF]

CONGRATS!!!

Keep doing your homework, read, read, read, talk, talk, talk. You'll do fine!

p.s. I vote for sand!

 

[MamiPollo]

I turned my shed into a chicken coop as well. You can see photos of the inside here: http://www.squidoo.com/chicken-shed.

I have sand on half the floor and the other half is a plywood platform. I started to put wood shavings on the plywood, but the big bag I bought had a lot of sawdust in it that made me cough and I thought it would be bad for the chickens. I ended up using that as mulch in a flower bed. I was going to get something else, but decided the plywood was fine for summer, because it is easy to clean. In the winter I will probably put straw or pine wood shavings down. But, I won't buy that big bag again that was full of saw dust!

I really like the sand floor, but my shed is on a concrete slab. I am not sure about putting sand down if you have a wooden floor.

 

[Urban Chaos]

Put in a "poop tray" . They poop a lot when they are perched, so place it under the perch. This will catch the poop and make cleaning much easier. My poop tray is a large plastic Rubbermaid lid. Some folk use a piece of plywood...anything really will work. I think if you use wood you need to cover it with vinyl (not sure). I did do vinyl on my floor and am glad, I think it helps to preserve the coop floor, and is very easy to clean. At this point I am doing pine shavings (very cheap at Tractor Supply - don't know what your local equivalent is). With the pine shavings (deep litter method with 4 girls), I change it out 1 every 3 months - thanks to my poop tray. Really, it sounds like its gross, but it isnt. The inside of the coop is very clean as they spend most of their time outside. I do offer water, it gets so hot here that I have it in and out of the coop.