- Mar 16, 2013
- 12
- 4
- 26
Hi everyone!
So glad I found you guys! This is my first post, so bear with me
The Coops and Learning Center have been great resources, so I thought it was about time to start contributing as well as lurking...lol! I have had just about every animal there is, except chickens of my own (and goats, we'll be adding them as well), so you have been a lifesaver, because I had no clue beyond the basics (feed them, water them, give them a place to roost and nest, and let mama bird take care of the little ones).
Well, that part of "let mama bird take care of the little ones" didn't work out so well when we brought home our day old chicks (6 of them). Uhhmmm...now what? Thanks to you, they have all survived our first go at this (lol), including their original home in a tub on top of our washer and dryer with a heat lamp over them, our daily petting and cuddling, and the near disaster when the wings got enough feathers on one of them to fly OUT of the tub, luckily landing on the tub edge, rather than missing it and tumbling back behind the washing machine (a laid down baby gate on top of the tub fixed that).
My man and I started this little adventure almost 2 yrs ago...we were orginal high school sweethearts, broke up and lived our lives, married, raised kids...now 28 yrs later, the kids are all grown and we found each other again. Some things never change...it turns out we had it right the first time So we decided to start new, moved to the mountains of Virginia (neutral territory), bought 6 acres with a small house on it and here we are!
Our family consists of five adult children (several of whom have moved in and out with us as their own lives went thru changes), one very large German Shepherd (from when I used to breed, train, and show before my health took a nosedive), five Yorkshire Terriers (which I now breed), five cats (from one stray who decided to live under our house and blessed (?) us with 4 kittens in the process), and now six chickens. The chickens are all pullets (2 yellow, 3 red, 1 buff), and we'll be adding a rooster here soon. The chickens look ridiculous at the moment, as they are going thru that halfway stage of half fuzz, half feathers.
I had to share our first coop, which Rob built using reclaimed materials from pallets and some scrap metal at work. We will be putting white trim on the corners and painting the crossbuck on the door white, so it's our "little barn". When you open the door, the roosts are on the right side and two rows of nesting boxes are on the left. We'll be continuing the railroad tie fence with the chicken wire on the inside all the way around, so right now there are temporary poles on the other sides. I think it turned out great!
What is REALLY hilarious is that we have the heat lamp in there because we still have some cold nights. Under the front overhang it is open for ventilation with hardware cloth across it. So at night, the glow from the heat lamp is very obvious, and it looks like a rotisserie light, glowing from the chicken coop.
-Dava
So glad I found you guys! This is my first post, so bear with me
The Coops and Learning Center have been great resources, so I thought it was about time to start contributing as well as lurking...lol! I have had just about every animal there is, except chickens of my own (and goats, we'll be adding them as well), so you have been a lifesaver, because I had no clue beyond the basics (feed them, water them, give them a place to roost and nest, and let mama bird take care of the little ones).Well, that part of "let mama bird take care of the little ones" didn't work out so well when we brought home our day old chicks (6 of them). Uhhmmm...now what? Thanks to you, they have all survived our first go at this (lol), including their original home in a tub on top of our washer and dryer with a heat lamp over them, our daily petting and cuddling, and the near disaster when the wings got enough feathers on one of them to fly OUT of the tub, luckily landing on the tub edge, rather than missing it and tumbling back behind the washing machine (a laid down baby gate on top of the tub fixed that).
My man and I started this little adventure almost 2 yrs ago...we were orginal high school sweethearts, broke up and lived our lives, married, raised kids...now 28 yrs later, the kids are all grown and we found each other again. Some things never change...it turns out we had it right the first time
So we decided to start new, moved to the mountains of Virginia (neutral territory), bought 6 acres with a small house on it and here we are! Our family consists of five adult children (several of whom have moved in and out with us as their own lives went thru changes), one very large German Shepherd (from when I used to breed, train, and show before my health took a nosedive), five Yorkshire Terriers (which I now breed), five cats (from one stray who decided to live under our house and blessed (?) us with 4 kittens in the process), and now six chickens. The chickens are all pullets (2 yellow, 3 red, 1 buff), and we'll be adding a rooster here soon. The chickens look ridiculous at the moment, as they are going thru that halfway stage of half fuzz, half feathers.
I had to share our first coop, which Rob built using reclaimed materials from pallets and some scrap metal at work. We will be putting white trim on the corners and painting the crossbuck on the door white, so it's our "little barn". When you open the door, the roosts are on the right side and two rows of nesting boxes are on the left. We'll be continuing the railroad tie fence with the chicken wire on the inside all the way around, so right now there are temporary poles on the other sides. I think it turned out great!
What is REALLY hilarious is that we have the heat lamp in there because we still have some cold nights. Under the front overhang it is open for ventilation with hardware cloth across it. So at night, the glow from the heat lamp is very obvious, and it looks like a rotisserie light, glowing from the chicken coop.
-Dava
