Plymouth Rock thread!

[normanack]

  I can understand her frustration!  That's some deep snow!  Love this face......if looks could kill, you'd be dead. 

I'm revamping my coop this spring and expanding, changing the cover, etc. so that I have more light and space and am thinking about adding some foraging boxes in one corner with cold hardy grasses or greens so that they can get a little green...will also maximize space by adding some pallet gardens vertical along the wall.  They clearly need it more than we realize or they wouldn't be so desperate to get to that grass.  I think these severe weather patterns are the new normal and we need to adapt and adapt fast if we are going to try and keep up with them. 

Please share the building/renovating/forage boxes when you make them. My birds would love greens to scratch in.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

  I can understand her frustration!  That's some deep snow!  Love this face......if looks could kill, you'd be dead. 

I'm revamping my coop this spring and expanding, changing the cover, etc. so that I have more light and space and am thinking about adding some foraging boxes in one corner with cold hardy grasses or greens so that they can get a little green...will also maximize space by adding some pallet gardens vertical along the wall.  They clearly need it more than we realize or they wouldn't be so desperate to get to that grass.  I think these severe weather patterns are the new normal and we need to adapt and adapt fast if we are going to try and keep up with them. 

I like your idea of an inside scratching area of greens. I have been thinking about making dust bathing stations in each pen. Just in the corner with some sand and DE.

 

[Beekissed]

Please share the building/renovating/forage boxes when you make them. My birds would love greens to scratch in.

They will be along the lines of these......

I like your idea of an inside scratching area of greens. I have been thinking about making dust bathing stations in each pen. Just in the corner with some sand and DE.

Every time I do that my birds ignore them and dust in the deep litter. I just provided them one a couple of weeks ago made out of an old tire with a wood bottom, filled with fine sand, with a little wood ash and lime...they haven't touched it. They are dusting in the deep litter, which has no real dust at this time of the year, only damp soil underneath it. Crazy birds.

 

[aoxa]

They will be along the lines of these......





Every time I do that my birds ignore them and dust in the deep litter. I just provided them one a couple of weeks ago made out of an old tire with a wood bottom, filled with fine sand, with a little wood ash and lime...they haven't touched it. They are dusting in the deep litter, which has no real dust at this time of the year, only damp soil underneath it. Crazy birds.

Try peat moss. I didn't believe it until I tried it. I added 3 bags to my deep litter. They instantly dropped. DROPPED like they were in a trance and the entire barn dust bathed. It was hilarious. I wish I had of had my camera.

I had to add shavings over top of the peat moss because it was being flung all over everything.

 

[Beekissed]

Try peat moss. I didn't believe it until I tried it. I added 3 bags to my deep litter. They instantly dropped. DROPPED like they were in a trance and the entire barn dust bathed. It was hilarious. I wish I had of had my camera.

I had to add shavings over top of the peat moss because it was being flung all over everything.

That's what my coop looks like every day now...like it has been put through a leaf blower...the feeder is full, when I open the door it falls out of the coop, etc. It's as if the bedding has suddenly become a huge bubble bath that everyone must partake of. I tried putting the lovely bedding bath into the dusting tire....and nothing. They would not be fooled. There it sits taking up space in lonely solitude.

 

[aoxa]

That's what my coop looks like every day now...like it has been put through a leaf blower...the feeder is full, when I open the door it falls out of the coop, etc. It's as if the bedding has suddenly become a huge bubble bath that everyone must partake of. I tried putting the lovely bedding bath into the dusting tire....and nothing. They would not be fooled. There it sits taking up space in lonely solitude.

I did the tire thing, and the only one who used it was my dog. They did love the kiddie pool, but I think they like to bathe as a community, so a single tire seems impossible to them. They need a 10 chicken tub lol

 

[Beekissed]

I did the tire thing, and the only one who used it was my dog. They did love the kiddie pool, but I think they like to bathe as a community, so a single tire seems impossible to them. They need a 10 chicken tub lol

That's it! I had forgotten that concept....the all in or all out, Korean communal bath.

 

[aoxa]

That's it! I had forgotten that concept....the all in or all out, Korean communal bath.

Exactly.

 

[broodyhen2]

Are Plymouth rocks good layers
How many eggs a year does anybody know
Thanks

 

[Fred's Hens]

There are a half dozen popular Plymouth Rock strains, White, Bared, Columbian, Silver Penciled, Buff, etc.

Each strain produces differently. Whether one has bred to Standard Rocks or hatchery Rocks also makes a difference. Finally, each individual female is different, so making sweeping, generalized statements is difficult.

The Plymouth Rock is a dual purpose bird, meaning it is intended to be both an egg layer and provide good meat. It isn't an extremely high egg layer such as a Leghorn might be, nor a meat bird on the order the commercial broilers, they are dual purpose and do each reasonably well.

I've had hatchery sourced Barred Rocks lay 230 eggs a year and some more than that. Standard bred or so-called Heritage birds may or may not lay as well, depending on what the priorities of the breeder are.