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

[LFchixranch]

Done deal on the drawer.

 

[Bens-Hens]

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

I really like the sand and milk jug scoop system, most poop is bigger than sand so it filters well, and depending how much you like to save, it can be scooped out and washed if you really want then just topped up. Does not absorb smell though. I saw another product called something like Pez (???) that was like sand but for horse stables?

Your brooder looks pretty awesome, I really like the storage and access. Are you just having a fine wire floor, no bedding to make dust or get kicked out?

Meal worms, something on my list of things to try down the track. No more treats for our girls though until they start holding up their end of the deal.

As fort the fodder, I just had a crack at a simple system. Not sure how long we will keep it up after our damaged feed stock runs out so I didn't want to spend big on something.

Currently using two olive drums cut length ways. Drilled drain holes on the bottom, then stack them in the laundry wash basin two deep and two wide. Water twice a day and let the water drain through. Expecting the first green shoots from the wheat in a day or so, already got some roots showing.

Looks like this at the moment.


Yet to see how the root mat grows and releases from the plastic shape, but for free it worked for me.

Done deal on the drawer.

I like it, if my garage was enclosed I would opt for something like this.

 

[LFchixranch]

Ours is enclosed and heated/ac, As for bedding for the brooder not sure, was thinking of wood chips but that is hardware cloth on the bottom and may defeat using the sand under it. I posted pics on a couple other threads and was informed that chicks can get through the holes in chicken wire so I am going to have to modify it.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Yeah I saw that. I didn't think they would get through there but seems they could! Maybe just a low strip along the bottom, or even another row of timber. By the time they can get high enough they should have grown big enough not to fit through.

I have a section near my passion fruit vines where I weaved some metal wire through the holes to close the gap up, then they could not get their heads through that section. The the vine grew wide enough they could reach it again lol.

Easy fix, at least you found out now before it was occupied or there was a casualty. Can't wait to see your Araucana chicks. I assume they are the US SOP bred version, not our tailed version.

Still no egg.

 

[LFchixranch]

They are Lavender. so the color is not an accepted color but they are suppose to be tufted and rumples. Going to have to wait and see what hatches, I am sure well get non tufted or clean faced but hopefully no tails. I was not impressed with the color of the eggs, so that will be mission #1 if I can hide a roo stashed away

.

 

[EverMystique1]

Slightly bug-eyed right now. 1 year ago this week, I began with 14 hens, given freely. As of this morning, with finding my free range broody out walking 7 beautiful babies, I currently have 49 hens, roos, and chicks. In the incubator, I have 1 hatched, 2 pipped, and 13 others, having culled 2 quitters yesterday. If the rest all hatch out, we will have a total of 65 birds. O M G.

 

[EverMystique1]

Here is mama and her 7.

 

[EverMystique1]

Here is mama and her 7.

Correction: just went outdide again. Make that 9!

 

[Bens-Hens]

Wow, that is some population growth!

Please pass on my congratulations to your broody mum!

BTW, I just saw this video. Many probably have seen it before. It was new to me, and I very much laughed.

The dangers of Backyard Chickens - The Gateway Livestock.

 

[EverMystique1]

Mama left 1 out a while ago, so we brought it in the house to thebrooder box. We left for dinner. Came home and found her in her nest with 4, the other 4 outside huddled together. DH gathered them and added them to the brooder, too. The box is getting full. Lol.