Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[Bens-Hens]

Ohhhhhh that just makes me even MORE keen to hatch our own chicks hahahaha.

I have some photo's to download later, and a bit of a story too. Made a bigger pipe feeder today, the old one will be used for shell grit when it is empty.

When I got home and let them all out for a run and forage, I noticed Little Tea was acting a bit 'funny' Crowing and prancing about. The I realised he was staying very close to Luna hahahaha "Ohhhhhhh, I get it" hahaha. He was not beings rough, he was trying to be nice. Was funny to watch two complete novices try impress each other.

Still no eggs.

Will come back later with my photo's of the two feeders I made today (one for me and one for someone else)

 

[NovaAman]

Well... As soon as he starts trying to be amorous, you should get eggs about two weeks.... Least ways that's when I know...

 

[Bens-Hens]

He is 5 weeks her junior lol Eager little lad he is. [checks for eggs again]

So, my little story.

This older gent I have been working with liked to talk chickens with me. He would say things like "back in my day, if you didn't won chickens you didn't eat chicken" and "as a kid looking after the chickens was one of my jobs" I took it for granted he knew a bit about them.

A couple of weeks ago they got three Isa Brown's. I think they were rescue birds, not sure. His wife brought them home from out of the paper.

So every day we would have a bit of chook talk. Every day he would take a bit of info away saying "I never knew that" and I began to wonder about how he looked after these chickens when he was a kid. There have been a few inconsistencies.

Last week he asked me what I fed my birds. I ran through my list of scraps, greens, left overs 'and the usual feeds with a bit of scratch" "What feed?" he asks. I say that I give a combination of grower crumble and premium layer mix, plus some whole grains in the morning for them to scratch around for.

Long story short, his three girls only got what they found in the sand patch he has them penned in, and if they have any food scraps his nephew goes down and gives them some. No layer pellets, crumble, open feeders. This is only a week after I talked about giving them shelter and somewhere to roost as he said "after dark they just huddle in the corner of the yard"

So I run through what I consider the basics. Explain that it's best to have feed available all the time, preferably something what is designed for birds like layer pellets. I said they also need good water which he assures me the bucket gets changed daily. I asked if he had grit or oyster shell or anything, he never heard about anything like that. The whole time I am thinking "These poor chickens!" I explained how to make a real cheap feeder and let him go about his day.

That was a week ago, today I asked how he got on with making a feeder. He hadn't got around to it! Only bought a bag of feed the night before!

So, I went to the rack, there was a length of 100mm PVC pipe. Shot to the hardware and grabbed some bits, came back to the shop and made him a feeder and mounting straps. Since there was heaps of pipe there, I made a new one for our birds too. I told him where a good feed store was so he can get some decent feed much cheaper than the supermarket 1kg bag he bought the other night. He paid $9 for a 1kg bag, when a 25kg bag is about $22.

He wanted 'bigger is better holes' so his is the top one. I went for some smaller ones so the birds can feed from either side at the same time. Total cost for two feeders $11.45.


Our one is a bit shorter, fits nice under the coop. I will use the old PVC feeder for shell grit and removed the hanging feeder.



He was pretty thank full. He really is a nice guy but I was pretty shocked to hear how little he knew about his animals. Even after having them for weeks he seemed to make almost no effort to learn about them. At least now I know he will have somewhere to put feed, just hope he bothers to buy the stuff!

 

[NovaAman]

Some people... I didn't just go and get chickens willy nilly. I did a bunch of research, asked a bunch of questions from my neighbors who already had chickens... (don't care much for how they do things, but their birds are healthy) and made decisions on how I was going to raise my birds. It's amazing, I talk about my birds, and have talked to people who used to take care of the birds when they were "kids" and they are shocked now at how much is done. They didn't pay that much attention as kids, didn't realise all their parents put into it. Just... what ever. But there are basics in all animal husbandry. Water, food and shelter. Not that hard. Same needs as people. Water, food and shelter. if you can not provide that, then don't do it. I can provide less FEED here in my patch of happiness, since this is a pretty buggy, woody, grassy area. My birds can meet most of their diet needs naturally until winter months. I need to keep fresh water at hand though and shelter at night. That is not to say that they are not provided feed. There are several feed buckets all over. I feed the lazy butt squirrels too. LOL. BUT, I wouldn't expect them to fend for themselves on property that isn't able to provide those needs.

You're a nice guy, Ben. Not a lot of people would have just went ahead and gave the guy a homemade feeder.

 

[EverMystique1]

Ditto, here. I remembered helping my grandparents when i would stay with them, so I had more of an idea than some. And when the chance came for 25 free birds, a year and a half old, I jumped on it. We had to quickly rig a small pen until we could get the materials to build a proper coop. But the girls gave me eggs right away, so apparently, they were happy enough.

I laugh at some friends about their experiences, sometimes. Had one tell me she could never get a successful hatch with a broody, always had to use an incubator. I have 2 broodies doing a great job, plus an incubator. And she lives just 3 miles from me.

Of course, she surpasses my horse knowledgewithout hesitation, so we share info. Lol. Not that i have horses. I don't have enough time to have an animal of that nature. Maybe when I end up on disability. (Yes, that was a joke. I won't be able to care for anything beyond chickens andcats at that point. But I have a few years yet.)

Meanwhile, when I want to ride, I go to hers or my sister in laws to ride theirs.

I am rambling. Gotta finish dishes before heading to work.

 

[LFchixranch]

Well I finally read through the whole thing.

As for the gentleman that had chickens when he was a kid I can relate to that. We had chickens when I was a kid and looking at how I raised my last flock we were surely lacking on the chicken care of those breeds 40yrs ago. But you know, I was much like Ben in getting into this chicken stuff. I had an idea but not the knowledge. I ordered some chicks from online chickens are us and I am a chicken farmer.......Then I find BYC

. So to make a long story shorter I had to get rid of my first flock to relocate and am currently working on getting a flock up for my brother and 10 yr old niece. I have some eggs in a Hova Bator, Ben your doing well, a heck of a craftsman with an eye to detail. Loved the story you wright as well as Oz who BTW sent me in this direction, (been a fan of his AND BERNIE'S, for some time). I am thinking we may have to come up with some I heart Ben T-shirts.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Hahaha, thanks LF, I saw you in here the other night. Oz is a great bloke, and I feel like I know you from reading your posts over there.

Today, I had to use the impromptu rooster door opener again. Worked a treat, just as it was supposed to. Maybe a little too well as a neighbor's FB page was complaining about not getting a sleep in today. Birds may have been roaming around the yard at 7:30 (Sat) Might be time to lower the rooster numbers again now they are a little bigger. I have sent him a message (he has gone away now) to see if it was our roo's that bothered him.

As for my work mate, he is a real nice guy, just seemed the conditions his birds were in were poor. He described a bare dirt patch, a lime tree and a sandy patch under the deck. At least I know conditions are getting nicer for them. They still laied every now and then so it was not like they were completely un cared for. I also know I spoil my birds, but it was nice to help the guy out.

 

[LFchixranch]

Maybe you should introduce your work friend to BYC. I know before I found it I had every intention of just feeding them and housing them. After I found BYC they became very spoiled well looked after birds. I have some of Arucana eggs in the bator I won off Ebay. Not real happy with the egg color but I really wanted this breed so I gotta start somewhere. They are a hard breed to break into as most breeders will only sell pairs for a pretty penny at that. I also bought 10 Black Copper Maran eggs from a hobbyest near me. She couldn't fill a dozen so she gave me 2 EE eggs as well. I had participated in the Easter and Cinco De Mayo hatch alongs and got to meet some of those really nice folks. So I contacted Superchemicalgirl for an egg bomb, (where they just ship you mystery eggs) So I a dozen of hers in there. Mostly mutts, she has an EE roo and a Naked Neck roo covering her hens. I wanted to go for the NN for the

factor for my niece and sister in law. I am on day 8, Had to pitch around 9 of the Araucana eggs when I first candled them because they were clear, I would have left them for another week but I had to make room for SCG's eggs. So Out of the 23 Araucana eggs I still have 14 that show some promise. 1 EE was clear and the BCM are so darn hard to see into.

On another note I like you rooster box but I think I would have went with a different medium then the styro/ss. Your garden looks great, I saw some gardens that they use 5 gal buckets and rain spouting to make. Here's a Youtube video of it.

they also have a FB page to it. https://www.facebook.com/groups/144745362329424/?hc_location=stream Pretty neat stuff, puts lots of ideas in my head. I always wanted to try a hydroponics setup with Tilapia. Just gotta figure a way around the winters......

Well thanks again for the great read and You have another subscriber out of one of your Lurkers.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Welcome any time LF, more the merrier

I like that watering system, been thinking about a rain tank off the coop roof.

I would love to get my work mate on here, but he is not that sort of guy. IN fact, he does not even ave email, heck not even a mobile phone! His invoices are hand written, and he does not have an ATM card, only ever carries cash.

He had a look of awe on his face when I was showing him some of the stuff phones can do today, the app 'Shazam' (the music one) nearly made his head explode. The net is just not for him hahahaha.

I wold loved to have used different material for our night box, but it's what we had on hand, cost very little to complete using scraps and off cuts. Since we lined it with carpet is has really dropped the emitted sound level. No dampness forming inside even with four roosters in there so I am assuming there is plenty of airflow. Will need to watch temperatures though as it begins to warm up after winter.

Even more airflow in there as of tonight, we reduced our remaining rooster stock by 50%, down to two. We have kept Smudge (Ara) and Barney (BV) as they were the best natured and carried the genes we want to breed off.

I had also spoke with the neighbor right after my last post as he had just walked in. He said he was just awake early, didn't hear the roosters until he was outside at 10am so that was a relief.

 

[LFchixranch]

I guess you can only lead that horse to water (your work friend), No making him drink from the BYC fountain of knowledge.

Well here is something you can ponder.

(Excuse the mess in the garage) This is what I plan on using as a brooder. It is 6'lx2'dx33"h on wheels. Should be large enough to hold about 20 birds till I figure who can stay and who I will have to get ride of to get them down to around the 12-14 goal. The PVC you see in it is a nipple water system that should hold around 3 gallons with 6 nipples. I also have a PVC feeder made by attaching a pie pan just off the bottom of a 4" PVC pipe.


So I was thinking about mounting the OSB below on an angle as a poop board. BUT since seeing your sand system in your coop

I am now think of making a pull out drawer on the bottom and filling it with either sand or kitty litter. I figure the kitty litter would help with order control since this will be kept in the garage.

I like your worm farm system and may actually steal it at one point

. We have a good size garden that we could use them in. Not to mention chicken treats.

The shelf on the bottom of the brooder is currently holding the 3 plastic tubs I am raising meal worms in. I just keep them in rolled oats, (think Oatmeal) and toss some bread and a few carrots about twice a week. I am trying to let them go another cycle but I may have chicks before they make it to that point. I don't know about you, but I am a huge fan of a game of chicken Rugby, (American Football). I probably have around 6k right now, if they go another cycle and 3k are females laying 400-600 eggs that should give me about 1.5 mil, enough to split them into 6 bins so I have worms all year long for treats. I would have to refrigerate some at different intervals to keep them on different life cycles.

I saw you were doing the fodder thing. I was thinking about it and actually tried it with my last flock. I just did not have the room to do a proper set up. I am curious to see what you come up with. I saw one on the fodder thread that used rain spouting mounted on different levels on a sheet of plywood. I may have to to try that this winter so the kids will have greens.

Also working on planning the coop. I would like to build a 12'x30' enclosure. With the structure being 12'x12' and elevated about 5' so the birds have a good size run. I also am in a residental area (with PITA neighbors

) that are not allowed to have Roosters. I am thinking of stashing a breeding trio of Araucanas in the garage

....

Well thanks for the chat. Have a great day