NY chicken lover!!!!

[Cass]

OK, I just went down to the coop to rearrange the stupid chickens for the umpteenth time. 4 of them keep roosting on the top of the nest box and pooping in it all night long. How many times do you have to move them before they take the hint and STAY PUT?

 

[Cydney83]

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lots!

 

[happyhensny]

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Some of them never get it. I have a small garden hoe I use to scoop out the poo. Sassy girls.

 

[WindsOfChange]

I made nestboxes out of office crates. We turned them sideways and cut a piece of wood to put across the bottom of the opening so as to keep hay in there. I got some "nest pads" from online for the bottom, otherwise hay and eggs fall out the holes in the crate but it works great! We screwed them into the coop walls and they're sturdy and fine. What I did for the tops, because yes, my girls want to roost ON them (I've even had my turkey hens lay EGGS on there!), is I bought some of those silicone sheet "cutting boards". They're just a very thin, tough sheet of silicone that they typically sell in Walmart for cheap. I poked a hole in each corner and wired each one on top of the crates/nestboxes. They still poop up there but it doesn't fall through onto the nesting material now. They're really easy to clean off, too. Sometimes they roost IN a box, but I can easily clean that out by taking the plastic nestpad out and banging it against the edge of something hard to loosen everything- like the outside of the coop. Not elegant but it works and the plastic doesn't harbor mites like wood does. :-D
Barbara

 

[vmdanielsen]

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Thanks for asking1! 10 buckeye chicks in the brooder! one late hatch peeping like crazy coming out, one with no activity and one that started to pip and died. total of 11 buckeye chicks!! yeah!! I can hope that they are all hens!!(yes! I am delusional!!) I never realized that from first pip to getting out of the shell would be SSOOO painful!(to me, never mind the chick!)

Good luck with the dorking!! cool birds!!

Awesome!!!!!! I have a dorking!...pipped and hatched while I was away!...Still not sure if it is a cockerel or pullet...Geezzzzzzz I hope all pullets!

congratulations!!

 

[Sachasmom]

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Forever. Sigh. If I let my Ameraucanas out of the pen on a hot day they'll roost on my rabbit cages at night before they will put themselves back in the coop.

 

[Tab's chicken obsession]

This is what I saw when I walked into the coop this morning.

Our 2 hens went broody at the same time (andalusion and cochin bantam). They insisted on sharing a box.

 

[shellz131]

Tab's chicken obsession :

This is what I saw when I walked into the coop this morning.

[URL]https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/67565_100_4881.jpg[/URL]

Our 2 hens went broody at the same time (andalusion and cochin bantam). They insisted on sharing a box.

that is always a great sight to see

 

[rancher hicks]

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You might want to make wire covers to block acess at night.

Oh and I have some EE/del crosses and some Barred friz/del cross chicks that I posted to CL and got no takers anyone wnat them? 6 or 7 total. free if they didn't go to auction. (I'm in TX).

 

[codymax2]

Any girls?? I'd take em!
Quote:
You might want to make wire covers to block acess at night.

Oh and I have some EE/del crosses and some Barred friz/del cross chicks that I posted to CL and got no takers anyone wnat them? 6 or 7 total. free if they didn't go to auction. (I'm in TX).