NY chicken lover!!!!

[Cass]

Thank you so so much Cass! I'm going to PM her. Keeping my fingers crossed that she has button quails!

And I would certainly be interested in any laying hens...but I'm not sure when we'll get the coop made. So it will probably be a few months before I'm ready for then. Until then I don't have any place to put them. My parent's have a fabulous old chicken coop built in the 1700's. A few aracauna's live there now. I'm hoping to model my coop after theirs. One question...when I was a kid with chickens of my own, I never had to worry about them getting into the road, because we lived down a long dirt driveway no where near a road. My house now is kinda close to a busy road. There is a good buffer of trees and shrubs between the house and the road...so much that you can barely see through it, but I'm worried about the chickens getting in the road. I'll put the coop in the back of the house away from the road, but I'd like to let my chickens out during the day so they can roam around the yard...is there a good way to keep them within certain boundaries without building a fence? Particularly to keep them from roaming near the road? My parent's chickens always just stayed in the yard or the barn, even though they would have had plenty of room to roam further out...I never really understood why they stayed close...

Thank you so much for your help!

-Crystal

Ask Happyhensny about road and chickens. Personally, my chickens go by the road until a car comes past and then they run for the coop. DANGER, DANGER!! LOL

To keep chickens close to the coop limit free range time. The shorter time they have til dusk/dark the closer they stay to the coop.

Umm... Stonykill? His chickens play in the ditch by the road all the time.....it has nice muddy water in it....ask him if he looses chickens to cars....I don't think he does, but that's for him to say.

Rancher Hicks has had good success with planting of raspberry or other thorny type bushes around areas he doesn't want the chickens to have access to. Hopefully he will chime in....again, later today when the sky goes dark, that's when the regulars come online.

 

[Jackeltree]

Ohhhhh...that dark swirly egg is really interesting! Neato! Thanks Henny! If anyone knows of any button quails, please let me know. I really appreciate it! And so will Willow (my lonely guy).

-Crystal

 

[queenchick16]

I can't believe I got a "fart egg" also today. Never have before.

 

[Cass]

I can't believe I got a "fart egg" also today. Never have before.

awww, that's so cute.

I had one once that had a yolk....a very teeny tiny yolk.

 

[featherz]

I don't have quail, but Cass is right, I do need to rehome a coop o' chickens (8 hens, one roo) ASAP. One member has said she will come get them, but if she can't I am certainly willing to have a backup! They need to go soon, as the coop needs repairs and I have 18 chicks in the barn that need to go in there.

I am glad my girls are doing well.. and yes, they are fatties aren't they? You should have seen the brahmas I had last year. And I fed them nothing but chicken food and the occasional handful of boss!

and to the NY thread. Happyhensny has quail. Not sure what kind tho.. She will be around later today (if she isn't running around, it is monday) You might want to PM her and ask, in case she misses your post. (To PM someone, find a post by them, hover your mouse pointer over their name and it will show a menu, with PM being one of the choices. PM = Private message)

Featherz is thinking of rehoming a whole coop of laying hens. Not sure how much she wants for them, just know she needs the space for the chicks of the breeds she really wants.... I have 2 of her hens and they are WONDERFUL and friendly and sweet. Not sure what she feeds them, but they are the BIGGEST hens I have ever seen (and they are NOT jersey giants) They intimidate my alpha roo, which cracks me up....worth it just for the entertainment value of seeing him looking over his shoulder all the time.


Happyhensny is near Albany, Featherz is near Saratoga.

 

[featherz]

Speaking of broodies, I *think* I have a broody turken. As I have eggs in the incubator for the easter hatch anyways, I gave her a couple of little pullet eggs that would probably end up being fed back to them anyways (eventually). We'll see if she stays the course. She is of course in the favorite nest box. Grr.

 

[Lapeerian]

Stopped at CountryMax and got chick feeder and waterer. Chick of the week at Cortland TSC was Red Star pullets. Next week is the big delivery for Easter chicks, will definitely be bringing something home! Can't wait for some little fuzz butts.

 

[stonykill]

as much as I ask them not to, 2 of the harems like the ditch by the road. About 10 chickens total go there at least once a day. So far, they haven't gone in the road , that I am aware of, and no I haven't lost any. They have been doing this for 2 years now.

Ask Happyhensny about road and chickens. Personally, my chickens go by the road until a car comes past and then they run for the coop. DANGER, DANGER!! LOL

To keep chickens close to the coop limit free range time. The shorter time they have til dusk/dark the closer they stay to the coop.

Umm... Stonykill? His chickens play in the ditch by the road all the time.....it has nice muddy water in it....ask him if he looses chickens to cars....I don't think he does, but that's for him to say.

Rancher Hicks has had good success with planting of raspberry or other thorny type bushes around areas he doesn't want the chickens to have access to. Hopefully he will chime in....again, later today when the sky goes dark, that's when the regulars come online.

 

[stonykill]

and now there are 3 broody Sumatra's !!!!!

 

[rancher hicks]

When we made our "new" coop we put in 5 buckets (5 gal) for nesting boxes (they had a much larger space in our old coop) They refused to lay in there so I took them out and put in old dresser drawers and a milk bin turned on side. they tended to lay outside in a bag of leaves or behind the milk bin. Now I have broodys in the dresser drawers and I out the buckets in our other side and now they ONLY lay in the buckets (even the biggest orps and sussex) so .... If you are raising them from chick age then a bucket would work on its side or an old milk crate if you want to reuse items.

This is when we originally built it last July.

I hate to be a downer but it would kill my back collecting eggs. Not to mention cleaning them out and replacing the nesting material. One thing I look for in design is cleanability. In everything I buy.

Our refridge is a pain in the neck. If it were up to me refridges would be less deep. Who needs the zone in the back where things get pushed to and disappear until they evolve into a new life form? Sure the shelves come out but they don't "roll" out for ease of retrieving last nights meat loaf. At least not ours.

Back to my coops. I like things that are easy to clean. My roost in the one lifts on hinges so I don't have to bend over to get under it.

I tried the all on one level approach this last winter and had a pecking problem, so I went back to the "ladder" design. They arrange themselves to their pecking order and can't get at each other.

My exterior next boxes are just the right height for me to lift the lid collect the eggs and not have to bend down. Because they are inside the covered run I can just scoop out the hay, which is not too dirty and toss it into the mix of wood shaving and straw on the run floor.

I do like the drop board idea though and wish I could use it but it just doesn't work for me. If I could just figure out how to make it work. That would make it easy to clean and keep the floor drier too. I'll have to sleep on it.