North Carolina

[Lizabelsherrill]

Hey y'all! Thought I'd pop in and say hello. Just joined BYC this week - still figuring things out. Anywhooo.... Brooding my very first batch of chicks now - they're almost 3 weeks old. Loving it! 2 EE's, 2 Light Brahmas and 2 Delawares.

Got their coop *almost* ready for them - need to revamp the lock on the door to keep my children (the most dangerous of the local predators) out and borrow a masonry bit to put some screen on the window so they have a bit more ventilation during the day - and their only ventilation at night. Should have it all done by sometime tomorrow. Woot!! So excited! Wondering if 3wks old is too young to put them out there overnight without a light? Only drawback to this thing is it doesn't have any electricity to it. We put them out there for the day today - their brooder is getting a tad cramped - and they seemed to do fine. Still haven't really figured out the roost thing yet though. I figure if they get too cold they'll huddle up in one of the nesting boxes or hidey holes I have in there. Right now they pile up in a heap in one corner of their brooder (regardless of brooder temp).

I'm in Randolph County - nighttime temps are so mild right now and the coop is a re-purposed SOLID brick square. I think it used to be a well house? Anyway it's 8'x8' inside (10'x10' outside measurements) with a solid concrete floor. It has one window and a door on one side of the building but the rest is solid brick. All the joints between the ceiling and walls and the floors/walls have already been caulked up. We put a screen door on with an aluminum panel at the bottom to use for ventilation during the day (will cut a chook door in it once we get the run built) but at night we'll be closing the main wooden door and just using the screened up but open window for ventilation. Soon we'll get a vent or more in the roof but for now, this seems to do the trick.

Any advice from "locals" is more than welcome!! New to NC and to raising chickens so will gladly take any advice I can get!

Thanks in advance!

I'm in Rockingham County! It's nice to meet someone else that's a little more "local". atmaclean is from Belews Creek but everyone else seems to be from Fayetteville...whick makes it really hard to get chickens from them.

I just started with chickens this year myself so I don't know how good my advice will be but I'm full of opinions.

Elizabeth

 

[carolbeau]

Hey y'all! Thought I'd pop in and say hello. Just joined BYC this week - still figuring things out. Anywhooo.... Brooding my very first batch of chicks now - they're almost 3 weeks old. Loving it! 2 EE's, 2 Light Brahmas and 2 Delawares.

Got their coop *almost* ready for them - need to revamp the lock on the door to keep my children (the most dangerous of the local predators) out and borrow a masonry bit to put some screen on the window so they have a bit more ventilation during the day - and their only ventilation at night. Should have it all done by sometime tomorrow. Woot!! So excited! Wondering if 3wks old is too young to put them out there overnight without a light? Only drawback to this thing is it doesn't have any electricity to it. We put them out there for the day today - their brooder is getting a tad cramped - and they seemed to do fine. Still haven't really figured out the roost thing yet though. I figure if they get too cold they'll huddle up in one of the nesting boxes or hidey holes I have in there. Right now they pile up in a heap in one corner of their brooder (regardless of brooder temp).

I'm in Randolph County - nighttime temps are so mild right now and the coop is a re-purposed SOLID brick square. I think it used to be a well house? Anyway it's 8'x8' inside (10'x10' outside measurements) with a solid concrete floor. It has one window and a door on one side of the building but the rest is solid brick. All the joints between the ceiling and walls and the floors/walls have already been caulked up. We put a screen door on with an aluminum panel at the bottom to use for ventilation during the day (will cut a chook door in it once we get the run built) but at night we'll be closing the main wooden door and just using the screened up but open window for ventilation. Soon we'll get a vent or more in the roof but for now, this seems to do the trick.

Any advice from "locals" is more than welcome!! New to NC and to raising chickens so will gladly take any advice I can get!

Thanks in advance!

I don't have any advice for you, because I'm new at this too, but I just wanted to say that your coop sounds like it's going to be awesome! I thought I had gone a little over the top with mine. But you have a solid brick home for your chickens? Very cool.

...OK, now that I think about it, here's what I would do for the roost. You could do something similar to what I have. Here's how it would work:

Build a roost with a tray underneath like mine. Here's what mine looks like (the pink part).




Attach a 2x4 horizontally on opposite walls of your coop. You'll have to drill into the brick, but that will be the hardest part. These will become the support for the roost tray. You would just need one board on each side - not the complicated support like I have. Your roost rests on top of this. If your door is big enough, you can remove the whole thing and just dump it for easy cleaning. If your door is too small, then it still keeps the poop off of whatever's underneath and you can clean just that part separately.

Just a thought.

 

[dutchbunny83]

carol-- cute set up!


Advice on turkeys-- do the toms get loud at a certain point? I recently bought a tom that's about 6 months old from a fellow BYC'er and it looks to be about full grown. I got him to make a delicious Thanksgiving feast and my DH fell in love with him, named him Grover, and carries him around the yard when he's out there!!! Needless to say, he told me we will not be eating Grover, he said it reminds him of all the wild turkeys that would come around when he was growing up in upstate NY. In Grover's defense, he is quite the gentlemen. Very calm, not aggressive, and very quiet. Actually I've never heard him make any noise (unlike his hen counterpart that barks all the time). I have never had a tom, but I heard they are VERY loud. Living in the city limits we are allowed toms, but I'm trying to keep quiet (especially since we are technically over the bird limit). Will he suddenly start getting obnoxcious and loud, or is his personality just to be calm and quiet? I wasn't sure if it was an age thing like roosters crowing?

 

[ramirezframing]

Well got 1/3 of the birds dusted for mites, most of the silkies and sumatras. That just leaves the polish and polish projects, the sizzles/mixed pen, the silkie projects, the grow outs, the ones running free in the yard

and the turkeys

OOh and Diablo

Wanna come do him Beth??

 

[Banriona]

I don't have any advice for you, because I'm new at this too, but I just wanted to say that your coop sounds like it's going to be awesome! I thought I had gone a little over the top with mine. But you have a solid brick home for your chickens? Very cool.

...OK, now that I think about it, here's what I would do for the roost. You could do something similar to what I have. Here's how it would work:

Build a roost with a tray underneath like mine. Here's what mine looks like (the pink part).




Attach a 2x4 horizontally on opposite walls of your coop. You'll have to drill into the brick, but that will be the hardest part. These will become the support for the roost tray. You would just need one board on each side - not the complicated support like I have. Your roost rests on top of this. If your door is big enough, you can remove the whole thing and just dump it for easy cleaning. If your door is too small, then it still keeps the poop off of whatever's underneath and you can clean just that part separately.

Just a thought.

That's an awesome setup you have there! The issue I have with attaching anything is the stupid bricks. I don't have a masonry bit for my drill so no real way to attach anything to the walls yet. We went ahead and hacked down a tree and stood it up inside there. Didn't know before I cut it down, but it turned out to be a red cedar. Smells awesome!! Bolted the top of the tree into the rafters of the ceiling. Left about 8 good thick branches about 2-3' long each at varying heights. Cleaning under it will be a bit of a hassle, but it's right in front of the door so I figure I can just rake everything straight out the door. Wanting to do a deep bedding setup in there, but not sure if that would rot out the bottom of that tree. Chicks have no idea what to do with that tree yet. They use the roost I put in their brooder just fine but they just look at the tree quizzically and peck at it.

I'll have to head into Asheboro or Siler City and pick me up a masonry bit soon. I want to put in a pvc pipe feeder/waterer set up too.

I definitely lucked out having that brick house already on the property when we bought it this spring. Heck, it's partly why we picked this property to buy.

They were using it to store junk in but once it was cleaned up it looks great. Best of all it hasn't cost me a dime. Got the screen door we put on it as a hand me down from my dad. Built the nesting boxes out of scrap wood that was laying around the barn on the property. I'll try and post pics today. Rather proud of it if I do say so myself.

 

[carolbeau]

That's an awesome setup you have there! The issue I have with attaching anything is the stupid bricks. I don't have a masonry bit for my drill so no real way to attach anything to the walls yet. We went ahead and hacked down a tree and stood it up inside there. Didn't know before I cut it down, but it turned out to be a red cedar. Smells awesome!! Bolted the top of the tree into the rafters of the ceiling. Left about 8 good thick branches about 2-3' long each at varying heights. Cleaning under it will be a bit of a hassle, but it's right in front of the door so I figure I can just rake everything straight out the door. Wanting to do a deep bedding setup in there, but not sure if that would rot out the bottom of that tree. Chicks have no idea what to do with that tree yet. They use the roost I put in their brooder just fine but they just look at the tree quizzically and peck at it.

I'll have to head into Asheboro or Siler City and pick me up a masonry bit soon. I want to put in a pvc pipe feeder/waterer set up too.

I definitely lucked out having that brick house already on the property when we bought it this spring. Heck, it's partly why we picked this property to buy.

They were using it to store junk in but once it was cleaned up it looks great. Best of all it hasn't cost me a dime. Got the screen door we put on it as a hand me down from my dad. Built the nesting boxes out of scrap wood that was laying around the barn on the property. I'll try and post pics today. Rather proud of it if I do say so myself.

The tree sounds like a great idea. I bet they will get it figured out. Maybe they just need to grow a little to be able to jump up there?? Mine weren't roosting much at all at that age. Once they got bigger and I put them in the coop, it still took them a while to start using the roost in there. Now that they have it figured out, they love it. So, I would just give them lots of time. They'll get there eventually.

That's awesome that you've been able to use so much re-purposed materials on your coop. We spent a lot more than I wanted to on ours. I think it would have been a lot smarter to re-purpose some of this stuff we have laying around and save some money!

I would love to see your pics when you get them.

 

[Banriona]

I'm in Rockingham County! It's nice to meet someone else that's a little more "local". atmaclean is from Belews Creek but everyone else seems to be from Fayetteville...whick makes it really hard to get chickens from them.

I just started with chickens this year myself so I don't know how good my advice will be but I'm full of opinions.

Elizabeth

Yay for more local! Opinions are welcome too. What chickens have you got now? I'm already rethinking my purchase of the EE's. One of them is a total bully to the others and both of them are so shy and cautious it's crazy. But then my Brahmas have been coming to me and flying up to me to be petted pretty much since I brought them home so maybe they just have too high of a bar set for them. My two Dele's seem to be somewhere in between although the shier one seems to be opening up a bit. The EE's sure are pretty though.

 

[chickies in NC]

Hello all you chicken lovers. I'm Lacy, my husband made this account, but I've become addicted so I'm taking over tehehehehehe. Nice to meet you all!

 

[chickies in NC]

Today was a somber day after a long fight my sweet little Penny Popeye past away she fought so hard for so long. She kept her weight up, and continued to remain spunky and full of life, she was getting a good many feathers in and looked just like her sister Poppy. She was always first to my hand in the brooder, always looking for her treats. She loved to be snuggled. But today she past over the rainbow bridge to live a happy life with no deformities.

O no soo sorry for your loss ((hugs))

 

[lindz8504]

Hello all you chicken lovers. I'm Lacy, my husband made this account, but I've become addicted so I'm taking over tehehehehehe. Nice to meet you all!

Welcome! Where are you from? I think we are all a little addicted!