Pix of my chicken house and their run

[RoseMarie1]

Bee hubby got to get some more good stuff out of the cows path today. I think he got 3-4 more good wagon loads and put in here and in their roosting area. Man they are some mega happy campers to! lol You really can't tell much about it unless you look at the stump and then you can see how deep it is.

And my swings in place.



The other load in here in the roosting area. As you can see I put one of those stumps in here with the ladder on it until they get used to this new roost. He's got to put another load or two in here yet but it's getting there.
I got a few of my BA pullets banded today before they start changing and I wont know pullet from cockerel. lol Got their numbers logged so I can keep track of them. Got to go back and look again though because I could have sworn I had 10 of them but looks like there much less than that.


another close up shot of the roosting area.



Hee hee when I turned them in here they all came in and went to scratching.

I can't remember if I already asked this or not excuse my forgetfulness if I have. This is a cockerel right? It's comb and wattles haven't gotten red yet like the others.


I'm looking at my BA cockerels now to see which ones I want to keep. Got to print out something someone gave me to look for. The comb doesn't need to have a lot of points and no white on the tips of the feathers. I like this one so far but gotta get that printed out so I can see what all else I need to be looking for. Don't have many to choose from. lol I think it was 5 points or less on the comb and I think this is as close as I'm getting with my bunch. ;-)



Close up of that ones comb.



Then here's another with no many points. I think this one is number 5 I can't really tell from the angle it's standing.

 

[Beekissed]

He certainly looks like a cockerel to me! WOW! I LOVE how that DL looks! I wish I could have a wagon load of that put in my coop...what lucky birds you have!!! That is so going to serve you well in the coming months as it breaks down and keeps your soils healthy. Your birds are going to have endless foraging opportunities in that...smart, smart move! How neat that you won't have to buy litter materials!

How are the birds adapting to the new roosts? Are they finally moving to the back one more?

 

[MurphysBYC]

It's huge! I have to post pictures of mine so I can get peoples opinions on how many hens I can fit.

What the capacity of your awesome coop and run?

 

[RoseMarie1]

It's huge! I have to post pictures of mine so I can get peoples opinions on how many hens I can fit.

What the capacity of your awesome coop and run?

Oh I have no idea what the capacity of it would be but it IS huge. I loved messing with the ducks and just kept adding to it and adding to it and adding to it. ;-) With ducks you have to have lots of space especially with like 60 of them. lol
Do post pix we'd love to see it to.

 

[RoseMarie1]

He certainly looks like a cockerel to me! WOW! I LOVE how that DL looks! I wish I could have a wagon load of that put in my coop...what lucky birds you have!!! That is so going to serve you well in the coming months as it breaks down and keeps your soils healthy. Your birds are going to have endless foraging opportunities in that...smart, smart move! How neat that you won't have to buy litter materials!

How are the birds adapting to the new roosts? Are they finally moving to the back one more?

oh wow and I sure wish we could get you some sent that way to Bee! Oh this stuff is all over the place around us. In fact I had already raked the same area he raked just a few weeks back to put in the run and it had already filled up again. It's been dry here to the leaves and pine straw is falling. When he went back to rake up another wagon load I was like you raking right there and he said yes. I said I just raked that a few weeks back and it's already filled up again, YEA! So the other end of that run hasn't even been raked up yet.

Oh they are adapting pretty well I guess. I had one sitting on the block under it tonight but he must have waited too late to get on the roost because he had space but I guess it was too dark and he couldn't see OR he got knocked off it one or the other.

Lots of pushing and shoving going on. silly chickens. Tonight when I went out to shut their back gate there was a RIR pullet pushed off the end of the roost. Told hubby and he says, do we need to build a stop block on the end of it?

Oh yeah the back one is full always and there are still one or two that is on the ladder going up to it. Going to stand out there one evening and just watch to see IF they are actually using the ladder but I did see the cockerel that was on the block when I got out there tonight, he walked it to get on the roost. The front roost has about 4 foot of empty space every night. Don't know why they gotta squeeze each other out toward the ends. lol But it is MUCH better than the other one! MUCH better!

Ok was thinking that was a cockerel but wasn't sure on it. I THOUGHT I was going to have 10-11 pullets out of 22 but it looks like there is only like 6 of them. Man that's a herd of cockerels! Sure wish I could eat what I raise and I would finish raising them to eat but I just can't do that. I guess I just get too emotional with it. ????

 

[Beekissed]

Yep, probably. A good bird's life is only worth what you do with it. You can keep them for years, eating their eggs and then let them die of old age and illness~usually this is not a good death~ or you can keep the same bird for years, eat their eggs and then eat the bird before she dies and goes to waste. It's a practical choice and it's also an ethical choice..I don't think God means for us to waste what He has given to us. That's like burying a talent.

So, those cockerels were put on this Earth for a reason, to live, to breed, to die. After they die they will be food for something, be it humans or creatures. God means those birds to be used for food. I don't spurn that gift of food from the Lord, but rather receive it with all thankfulness to Him that made it and provided it for me. He did all the hard work, all I have to do is be strong enough to kill it and eat it. I see it also as saving one more of His creatures from being raised in horrible conditions so that I may eat...that's what chicken from the store is, just tortured animals offered up as food.
Quote:
So you like this roost more than the ladder roosts? I figured you would! All my birds do the same thing...crowd up on one end or the other and act like they just can't fit and there's a whole length of roost that no one is using. This fluctuates from day to day which end of the roost is the favorite spot...I've found it's wherever the rooster chooses to roost, that's where all the hens want to be.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Yep, probably. A good bird's life is only worth what you do with it. You can keep them for years, eating their eggs and then let them die of old age and illness~usually this is not a good death~ or you can keep the same bird for years, eat their eggs and then eat the bird before she dies and goes to waste. It's a practical choice and it's also an ethical choice..I don't think God means for us to waste what He has given to us. That's like burying a talent.

So, those cockerels were put on this Earth for a reason, to live, to breed, to die. After they die they will be food for something, be it humans or creatures. God means those birds to be used for food. I don't spurn that gift of food from the Lord, but rather receive it with all thankfulness to Him that made it and provided it for me. He did all the hard work, all I have to do is be strong enough to kill it and eat it. I see it also as saving one more of His creatures from being raised in horrible conditions so that I may eat...that's what chicken from the store is, just tortured animals offered up as food.

So you like this roost more than the ladder roosts? I figured you would! All my birds do the same thing...crowd up on one end or the other and act like they just can't fit and there's a whole length of roost that no one is using. This fluctuates from day to day which end of the roost is the favorite spot...I've found it's wherever the rooster chooses to roost, that's where all the hens want to be.

lol yep that surely sounds like these to on the comment where ever the rooster is. One of the pullets got pushed off tonight while I was out there so I just picked her up and sit her on the HUGE 4' area where no one was. What does she do? She starts going over across the board where the rir cockerel was. She's a rir to.

She didn't want to be beside the BA.

yeah I see what you're saying on why they're put here.
Oh yeah LOVE this roost MUCH better than the ladder. So much easier to get at the birds to. On that ladder roost if you needed to get the one on the top roost in the middle you would have to go UNDER the roost and get pooped on.

so happy I didn't have to get one of them off it. lol
oh yeah I feel so sorry for those chickens in these chicken houses.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Free ranging chicks. As you can see from the clouds we were in for a little thunderstorm. Shortly after I took this pic it started to rain and it's still raining. Coming a GOOD shower out there! I did get to enjoy my swing for awhile though.


As you can see in this pic, this was our garden spot this summer, or one of them. You can still see one squash plant toward the left of the pic. There was a RIR rootin' around in it so I just left it for later.



Check out what they have done around this pine tree.

They know they can do some rootin'. lol






One of my BA cockerels. I think this is #15.





I THOUGHT this one was about to peck our dog in the butt.

But it didn't. For some reason now they feel him as a threat and he's been around the whole time from while they were a baby and everything.

 

[Beekissed]

Happy, happy chickens!!! Love to see chickens free ranged.

Thought I'd post a few pics of my roosts to show you my "style" of roosts. Disregard the white powder...was treating the roosts with a little preventative pyrethrin dust today after I cleaned out nest boxes and laced them with a little also. That's the only places I put dusts of any kind in the coop and I just started that this year to see how effective it will be...always up for an experiment. You can see that all the old gals want to be smooshed up with the rooster...Toby's harem.

The tan strips are nonskid rubber strips...that's something new this year too because I chose the wrong kind of sapling for the roost and the bark is too smooth...then it got even more smooth with use, so the birds were slipping off when moving around too much.





I have one roost going across the coop and one of the same length on the side of the coop on the right. Two smaller bars are mounted under the nest boxes to aid in getting into them...for some reason Ginny has taken to roosting down on one of them lately. She has always been a little bit of a loner. You can just see my stump in the bottom of the pic there. Some of them use it for a jumping off spot for ascending to the roosts but most do not.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Happy, happy chickens!!! Love to see chickens free ranged.

Thought I'd post a few pics of my roosts to show you my "style" of roosts. Disregard the white powder...was treating the roosts with a little preventative pyrethrin dust today after I cleaned out nest boxes and laced them with a little also. That's the only places I put dusts of any kind in the coop and I just started that this year to see how effective it will be...always up for an experiment. You can see that all the old gals want to be smooshed up with the rooster...Toby's harem.

The tan strips are nonskid rubber strips...that's something new this year too because I chose the wrong kind of sapling for the roost and the bark is too smooth...then it got even more smooth with use, so the birds were slipping off when moving around too much.





I have one roost going across the coop and one of the same length on the side of the coop on the right. Two smaller bars are mounted under the nest boxes to aid in getting into them...for some reason Ginny has taken to roosting down on one of them lately. She has always been a little bit of a loner. You can just see my stump in the bottom of the pic there. Some of them use it for a jumping off spot for ascending to the roosts but most do not.

oh how neat Bee and yours are shiny to! LOVE looking at your set up to. lol yep I see your stump.

I finally got that last stump moved into place today and moved that other one out of the roosting area since it would be in the way in case I need to turn the litter in there.
I love those white chickens with the different colored feathers. What breed are they? That last pic sh'e so pretty she looks like cotton. I am so clueless when it comes to chicken breeds. You'd think a country girl like me would have paid attention to these things but I haven't.
LOL yep those chickens have worn that roost off nice and smooth. Shouldn't have any trouble with brumble sp? feet on those roosts. I think my chicks are really liking this new roost I know I am. Some of them were on it today before I let them out to free range. I didn't let them out until later in the morning because it looked like it was going to rain but it never did.
OH I let the jail bird out of his jail today and he free ranged with them and I never saw him pulling feathers or anything or heard any squaking from feathers being pulled out. I was out there for a pretty good while adding to their DL. I was in the freezer getting out some meat to thaw this morning and found some liver I'd bought. So I boiled it and gave some to the chicks and to our dog. He loves the stuff. The chicks did have a field day with it.
OHHHH forgot to ask you which ones are the old girls? Are they the gray and white ones?