Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[stake]

How about a Wyandotte?
I'm glad everyone else looks good. That just really stinks about your roo. .

Hey B:

Its just a pain....lucky it wasn't my lone CCL boy....have a girl that's looking a bit lethargic this morning...maybe I'm paranoid...also noticed something burrowed a hole under one of my coops....I;m thinking a rat...hole is about 2"....and the amount of dirt moved is more than a mouse would move...c'est la vie....


and it wasn't there yesterday.....

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Thanks for the advice. I thought about the same things. There is a kids tree house being part of the run as a shelter. We will add more roof later.

The coop has walls now, will be done after adding roof. I'm so excited.

I second the roof thing. Our origional coop run is roofed so I didn't know the struggles of the muddy mess until I had to throw together a quick Batchelor pad. It ended up being the most disgusting muddy, stinky slop ever! I will never have an uncovered run again. Even my breeding pens that I'm working on will have a roof.

 

[fisherlady]

I second the roof thing. Our origional coop run is roofed so I didn't know the struggles of the muddy mess until I had to throw together a quick Batchelor pad. It ended up being the most disgusting muddy, stinky slop ever! I will never have an uncovered run again. Even my breeding pens that I'm working on will have a roof.

Add me to the list of folks recommending a roof. In the winter it allows you to put up a couple of wall tarps and provide the birds with roaming room when things are snowy and muddy.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Those if you that plastic your runs, how do you attach the plastic? I'm going to have to get busy on that soon and I'm trying to figure out the best way to do it that should last all winter. Tape it up? Somehow tie it up?

 

[fisherlady]

Those if you that plastic your runs, how do you attach the plastic? I'm going to have to get busy on that soon and I'm trying to figure out the best way to do it that should last all winter. Tape it up? Somehow tie it up?

When we used store bought tarps we used 1.5" screws, drilled them into the framework of the run through the eyelets of the tarp and the eyelets along the ground we tied a piece of cheap nylon clothes line through them and tied it through a cement block to hold down the lower edge.
Tarps come in all different sizes so measure your runs to get sizes which are close so the fit is snug. The tighter you can pull the tarps the less flapping you get and the less noise and wear and tear on the tarps.

 

[fisherlady]

The tarps having eyelets is why we used them, I have used the heavy construction plastics on small or odd shaped areas...just put it up with staples and duct taped seams to reduce air flow and flapping.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I used a tarp last year on the one side and it worked great but made it so dark in there. This year, I want to do all the run walls. The eyelets were very convenient though.

 

[Baym]

Hey B:

Its just a pain....lucky it wasn't my lone CCL boy....have a girl that's looking a bit lethargic this morning...maybe I'm paranoid...also noticed something burrowed a hole under one of my coops....I;m thinking a rat...hole is about 2"....and the amount of dirt moved is more than a mouse would move...c'est la vie....


and it wasn't there yesterday.....

Looks like a rat hole to me as well. Keep a close eye Stake but don't be paranoid either.

 

[Baym]

Picture time...

And a few more...

Awesome photos! What breed of chicken is that black and white one with the floppy ears?

The last picture, what kind of hen? Her markings are awesome.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Crawford county

Welcome to the fun thread!

Hi everyone!

Tim...from Cumberland County(west of the river from Harrisburg).

I've spent hours and hours reading threads on BYC...sooo much awesome information!

I don't currently have chickens, though I did grow up raising them at our house and my grandmother's chicken farm next door...lol

I have 3 dogs, 4 shaft tail finches and am currently halfway through hatching out some button quail eggs in my homemade incubator.
It's my first try at it so we'll see how it goes. Lol

I am really interested in keeping Blue Sweedish Isbars!

Anyone relatively local have chicks or hatching eggs available?

(I might also consider cream legbars)

Please let me know if you can help me out.

Thanks,
Tim

Welcome Tim! There's plenty of advice here..

Hi all! I'm from Newtown, in Bucks County. Looking for local hatching eggs starting in Feb/March. Let me know if anyone wants to sell a few to a newbie hatcher!

Hello there! I'm about 30 minutes from you in Warminster. Dheltzel has some fine hatching eggs and chicks come spring. My girls have been going broody frequently, if you still need chicks in a couple months.,,.

Thank you, she is a mutt, Was a rescue from a bad situation so don't know her actual parentage, but i think a silkie mix, and she lays a beautiful green egg. I would take 10 more of her any day of the week.

Thank you! She is certainly an absolutely photogenic hen, she makes a great subject because she always seems to be posing.
X10!  I haven't been bit (that I know of) but they just give me the creepy crawlies like nothing else can! My house has a crawl space, so I deal with them...I still hate them, but I deal with them.

Thank Fisherlady for the photos, it really cheered me up as I spend my time in the hospital. I have a silkie mix too that I love. I would have a bunch more of her if it was possible. Some of those musts are the best!

Wow! Sounds like an amazing run. I'm going to give some unsolicited advice, if you haven't built it yet, please consider covering at least some (if not all) of the run with roofing. You will thank me when the winter snow and spring rain have turned your run into a muddy, poopy soup. It's the perfect combination of muck to slip in while changing out water and food.

My main coop is on the edge of the woods, the birds spend lots of time in there in the summer cooling off and dust bathing.

X2, definitely add a roof to your run. I'm going to try to two that this year, but i have to find the time.