Pix of my chicken house and their run

[RoseMarie1]

You ought to train those cats like you did your dog! They seem to catch on even quicker than the dogs as to what is considered prey and what is not.

oh yeah doing that now. ONLY one really that I worry about now....... and she catches all kinds of stuff. Was watching her yesterday and she'd gotten really close to the chicks. Went out the back door and hollered at her and she high tailed it the other way. She is still getting a little too close to them for my comfort. Sure wish 2-3 of those larger cockerels would gang up on her and put the fear in her but that's not happening yet. The old man as we call him (another cat that is 16 years old) (all these cats are my daughters, I don't like cats AT ALL!!!) anyway the old man taught the younger one to hunt and hunt she does. The old man is really slow now and when it's this hot he doesn't do very well now. The lizzy is a couch potato as you call them. She's getting old herself and was ran over when she was a small baby is how we wound up with her. So I don't think she has all that's coming to her in her head.

But that white one is another story. She's like your chickens in hunting food. Hubby and the daughter keeps telling me she wont bother them BUT she sure watches them and hunches down when they're close by so I DO NOT trust her!

 

[Beekissed]

Now...this cat is hunting your big chickens? No worries. My ol' Spike used to LOVE stalking and chasing the big chickens and then he'd lie down and just smile! I mean it...he'd just grin like a mule eatin' briars! It got so I could call him to round up the chickens and chase them back over the fence they had gotten out of and he loved that too.

He'd come running when I called~and this cat didn't ever come to "kitty, kitty, kitty" but "SPIKE!!!". He'd run from wherever he was and I'd tell him, "Round 'em up and put them back!" and he'd get right on it..rush right at them and keep chasing them until they all went over the fence in a high panic. Then he'd sit down and look me, forever more, like the cat that ate the canary...I could almost hear him say, "It's a good day to be a cat, ain't it?" Loved that cat!

Here he is watching the water swirl in the commode...he liked that too. Then he'd wait until the fresh water came in and dip his paw down and get it wet, then drink off his paw..just like a human drinking from a stream.

My current cat is Lennie...he also liked to stalk the chicks when they were little but I gave correction and he "got" it. But..he still enjoys running through a group of hens and making them scatter and then he'll walk slowly away, as if to say, "Yep...I still got it."

I've never seen a cat catch and kill a full grown bird..or even any of my younger ones..but I'm sure someone on this forum has a horror story to tell about it. But, I've had cats and chickens for more years than a lot of folks here have been alive and I've never seen it.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Now...this cat is hunting your big chickens? No worries. My ol' Spike used to LOVE stalking and chasing the big chickens and then he'd lie down and just smile! I mean it...he'd just grin like a mule eatin' briars! It got so I could call him to round up the chickens and chase them back over the fence they had gotten out of and he loved that too.

He'd come running when I called~and this cat didn't ever come to "kitty, kitty, kitty" but "SPIKE!!!". He'd run from wherever he was and I'd tell him, "Round 'em up and put them back!" and he'd get right on it..rush right at them and keep chasing them until they all went over the fence in a high panic. Then he'd sit down and look me, forever more, like the cat that ate the canary...I could almost hear him say, "It's a good day to be a cat, ain't it?" Loved that cat!

Here he is watching the water swirl in the commode...he liked that too. Then he'd wait until the fresh water came in and dip his paw down and get it wet, then drink off his paw..just like a human drinking from a stream.

My current cat is Lennie...he also liked to stalk the chicks when they were little but I gave correction and he "got" it. But..he still enjoys running through a group of hens and making them scatter and then he'll walk slowly away, as if to say, "Yep...I still got it."

I've never seen a cat catch and kill a full grown bird..or even any of my younger ones..but I'm sure someone on this forum has a horror story to tell about it. But, I've had cats and chickens for more years than a lot of folks here have been alive and I've never seen it.

LOL that's funny! Two of ours is this color. Old Neb (the old man) and Lizzy (the one under Neb) are this color. Then the white cat that gets all sorts of things. This cat is snow white to with only the tips of her ears another color and she gets all sorts of critters.

That's a hoot with it watching the water swirl and then dipping the paw. lol

 

[RoseMarie1]

Bee.......we got our nesting boxes yesterday. Will have to post you a picture. We don't have it installed yet though. Going to close off the area for their nesting box and his brother had told me the other day he had a partical sp? roll of poultry wire in his barn. So I asked hubby to go over there earlier today and see what he wanted for it since I don't need a whole roll to do this with. So anyway he didn't want to take any money for it but I had already told hubby to give him something for it. So he got it since he's not going to use it and now I can close off this area back there so there wont be a lot of traffic to it. HOPEFULLY it will cool off so I can get this done because I just can't handle this heat.

We got a guy to build it for us that is on our MS. Facebook page. He does VERY good work and for a very reasonable price to! Just awesome work! We went and got it yesterday from him. It's an external nesting box. We only did 4 nests in it because of the space in there between the 2 post we had to put it. I told him we might have to go back and do 2-3 more nest but that will be ok to and just put them under this one in the same area. So we're going to keep that in mind when we install this one so just in case if we need another one we will have room under it.

NOW to get some eggs.

I was looking at the BA's this evening and none of their combs are getting red yet. They will be 4 months old the 9th. I have read where they can start laying at 16 weeks old but if they wait longer that's ok with me. The longer they wait the more mature they will be.

Don't want any egg laying problems later!!!

 

[Beekissed]

Can't wait to see your new nest boxes!

So fun to get that first egg out of the nest...like Easter morning when you're a kid. I wouldn't be counting on 16 wks, though it can happen, but more like 5-6 mo. old instead. Before you know it you will have more eggs than you know what to do with and all your family and friends are going to have the best tasting eggs they've ever had in their lives. Soon....

Word of advice...start collecting egg cartons from people now instead of later!

 

[RoseMarie1]

Can't wait to see your new nest boxes!

So fun to get that first egg out of the nest...like Easter morning when you're a kid. I wouldn't be counting on 16 wks, though it can happen, but more like 5-6 mo. old instead. Before you know it you will have more eggs than you know what to do with and all your family and friends are going to have the best tasting eggs they've ever had in their lives. Soon....

Word of advice...start collecting egg cartons from people now instead of later!

OK thank you!!! We've been buying eggs from my niece and been giving her our egg cartons so I told hubby we needed to start saving them. Some times we have to buy eggs from the store but soon I hope I wont have to do that anymore!!!

Cant wait to eat our own chicken eggs.

Hubby will surely love them since he likes his eggs over easy. lol with that large yellow!

lol

 

[Beekissed]

You'll notice immediately you start to cook these eggs from chickens on FF or even for chickens that have mother ACV in their water at all times....no sulfur smell when you cook the eggs! Not only that, but the taste of the eggs are mild, sweet and nutty compared to other eggs. The white is more white and yellow more yellow...there seems to be a clarity in color and taste compared to eggs from any other method of husbandry. I know because I've had exposure to plenty of both...the ACV and FF eggs have any other egg beat, hands down.

My customers even noted the difference when I started making my own ACV and adding it full time to the water...asked me what I was doing to the eggs and whatever it was, they LIKED it! One lady said she hadn't been able to eat eggs since she was a little girl~even farm raised ones~because they always upset her stomach, but she could eat my eggs with no problems. She was 74 yrs old..a little Mennonite lady.

 

[RoseMarie1]

You'll notice immediately you start to cook these eggs from chickens on FF or even for chickens that have mother ACV in their water at all times....no sulfur smell when you cook the eggs! Not only that, but the taste of the eggs are mild, sweet and nutty compared to other eggs. The white is more white and yellow more yellow...there seems to be a clarity in color and taste compared to eggs from any other method of husbandry. I know because I've had exposure to plenty of both...the ACV and FF eggs have any other egg beat, hands down.

My customers even noted the difference when I started making my own ACV and adding it full time to the water...asked me what I was doing to the eggs and whatever it was, they LIKED it! One lady said she hadn't been able to eat eggs since she was a little girl~even farm raised ones~because they always upset her stomach, but she could eat my eggs with no problems. She was 74 yrs old..a little Mennonite lady.

Oh Bee how awesome for the little Mennonite lady! I bet that was wonderful for her to be able to eat eggs again!

Here's our nesting box. As you can see it's sitting on the grazing frames. I wanted to be able to use the little plastic dish pans in it and they fit perfectly. I found them at the Dollar Tree so they're cheap but they work fine. I have 2 more but need another one and they were out tonight when I went by there. I'll get it later since they're not laying yet. Anyway figured that would be really easy to take out and wash when I need to. You can see I have one dish pan in the end nesting hole. Hubby got him to put the 1x4 on the top and bottom so we can screw that to the posts on each side to attach it.



Then here's a pic of the back side that will be outside so we can check it from outside. It will go under the roof of the pen so it shouldn't even get wet back there when it rains since there's like a 2 foot over hang on the tin.




This ones with the door open. We have several pullets so I'm thinking we might have to have TWO of these but this should get them started.

Do you think I need to keep the door closed to their nesting area until they start laying to keep them out of there? He put locks on each side of the nesting box so nothing should be able to get in there from the outside.

 

[Beekissed]

Those little pans will be perfect for holding in the bedding and making them feel like they are in a nesting situation. I think you could leave them open and maybe install a little walk bar/perch across the front of the nesting box unit so they can explore these nests...they like to walk those bars, poking their heads into the nests, climbing in and out and choosing their favorite one...they also come in handy when one bird is waiting on another to get off her favorite nest. I saw my 4 mo. old birds in the coop the other day just checking out the nests...they will often do that as they reach sexual maturity. That gets more so as they really get to laying time in their lives.

As long as the nesting boxes are positioned lower than the roosting in the coop, they shouldn't really prefer the nests for sleeping...especially since they've already been sleeping on your roosts.

I'm so excited for you! It's all so fun planning out a coop and making everything just right...and then, when it all works great and day follows day of collecting eggs, feeding and just watching the birds, all the months of prep work pays off in spades!

Your coop and run are a model of what everyone's could be if they took the time to really look into what the birds like, how they thrive and what they really need for a contented life...space, light, air, good footing, different places of being, good nesting and roosting, shade, sunshine, foraging opportunities. Once you get your grow frames really going and you get all the kinks worked out of your system, you ought to let the local schools come for a tour and give little talks on it all...would be a neat little field trip to see your birds in action there and let them gather eggs. Particularly if you have chicks and such in your brooder.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Those little pans will be perfect for holding in the bedding and making them feel like they are in a nesting situation. I think you could leave them open and maybe install a little walk bar/perch across the front of the nesting box unit so they can explore these nests...they like to walk those bars, poking their heads into the nests, climbing in and out and choosing their favorite one...they also come in handy when one bird is waiting on another to get off her favorite nest. I saw my 4 mo. old birds in the coop the other day just checking out the nests...they will often do that as they reach sexual maturity. That gets more so as they really get to laying time in their lives.

As long as the nesting boxes are positioned lower than the roosting in the coop, they shouldn't really prefer the nests for sleeping...especially since they've already been sleeping on your roosts.

I'm so excited for you! It's all so fun planning out a coop and making everything just right...and then, when it all works great and day follows day of collecting eggs, feeding and just watching the birds, all the months of prep work pays off in spades!

Your coop and run are a model of what everyone's could be if they took the time to really look into what the birds like, how they thrive and what they really need for a contented life...space, light, air, good footing, different places of being, good nesting and roosting, shade, sunshine, foraging opportunities. Once you get your grow frames really going and you get all the kinks worked out of your system, you ought to let the local schools come for a tour and give little talks on it all...would be a neat little field trip to see your birds in action there and let them gather eggs. Particularly if you have chicks and such in your brooder.

Oh THAT would be cool on the field trip for the school kids. I have some friends that home school their kids and it's a fairly large Christian home school group.
I thought the little tubs would make it much easier to clean it and also maybe a little harder for a snake to grab an egg, or that's my hopes anyway! I told Chance (the guy that made it) I was going to lay hands on it and pray that I NEVER see a snake in it!!!

chills......

Ok will do on the little bars because I just didn't think about those when I got him to build it. I could also just put a 1x4 board across there for them to stand on I guess because I just bought 6 of those tonight at Lowe's in hopes of getting this area closed in SOON. OK I will just leave it open and let them explore. I thought it would be a little humorous to put a sign on the door of the nesting area, no boys allowed......

oh yeah I am also excited! I was just standing out there today in the back of the run watching them eat and just being social without all those cockerels. It was SOOO PEACEFUL and no squaking and carrying on. There was such a nice breeze even though it was mega mega hot the breeze was so nice and I was just standing there thanking God for the breeze and enjoying watching them enjoy their food. I picked up one of the rir pullets and I could really feel her little breast bone sticking out. Hopefully NOW she can gain some weight since she can get at the food.

Thank you for your sweet comments about my run and set up.

It's a BIG blessing that's for sure. We've got to replace some 2x4 and some post and I sure hope we can do that this winter. I figured I would just start getting a few things I need to get it done with along and that way we will have all we need to get it done when it cools off hopefully. Some of those landscaping timbers have been in the ground for many years now and they need replacing. Along with the bottom 2x4's.

Talking about the nesting area.....do you think I need to drill some holes in the inside walls of the nests for some extra ventilation in there? Reacon that would help it to be cooler when one is sitting? I thought about doing that also on the outside boxes as well and covering it with screen wire on the inside but just don't know about that one due to SNAKES, wondering IF they could get inside that screen wire?

oh chicks that sounds nice.....love messing with the chicks! I have an incubator and I hatched out a lot of ducks and man I enjoyed watching them hatch! THAT was mega exciting! I'd never seen one hatch before!

Yep working on getting all these kinks worked out that's for sure. HOPING and praying for some good rain this week to help settle this dust AND all this hay around us! The farmers are cutting their hay and every one is having fits with allergies including me and my family. About 5-6 fields around here cutting hay and baling it. I'm sitting here eating fermented garlic and Cold Eeze zinc lozenges and extra vit. C trying to keep from going to the DR>>>>>>UGHHHH. Couldn't sleep last night due to not being able to breath. Also flushing nose out with saline as well. My eye balls feel swollen. lol ok that's enough complaining....you probably get the point.

HOPING AND PRAYING I can sleep tonight.

Like you said before, I wish you lived close so we could plan all this coop stuff together! We sure would have loads of fun doing it BUT this is the next best thing with you helping me get it figured out and me doing it like you're telling me.

I was just sharing your coop with someone that made one sort of like yours. He said he has the materials to make 2 more of them. So I had to give him the link here where you shared yours so he could see your little canopies on each side. I really want to do that on my pen on the south side to keep out the rain over there. Thank you again Bee!!!