Sleepy Owl's Feathers and Fur

[SleepyOwl]

Hi!

I have had Chickens since 2012. I lived in town when I first got them. I thought getting chickens would help relax my desire to move to a farm. No way!!! They just made me want to move even more!

I grew up a country girl, but moved to town when I grew up, and had been stuck there ever since. Our circumstances and timing kept us there much longer than I would have preferred. Well, this year we were finally able to make it happen. In Aug we bought a cute little farm with 15 acres, enough room for the kids to play, and animal populations to grow.

We are also a bit closer to family, so that is nice. One thing we really liked about this place is the old barn. (We are both old barn admirers.)




My current chickens (minus one EE that didn't make it into the shot, and the chicks that came in the mail last week.) I had 20 chickens when the summer started, but a couple died, and I gave some to my sister. That left me with 9. Now I have 19 including the chicks.




So far our other critters include a dog, two indoor kitties, 4 barn kitties, and one bunny. I usually have aquariums going too, but they all got taken down after our move.

I am happily married, and we have 3 school age girls. They are all mostly loving the move to the country.

Here is a link to the coop I had made for my chickens when I was in town. It was super fun, but we had to leave it behind. Now they live in a room in the barn. It is not nearly as pretty, but it's a lot bigger, and will be much easier to take care of them in the winter. (It's so nice being able to have their feed right by their door, and not in the house, etc, plus, doing stuff from in the barn, not leaning into the coop from outside in the winter.) Still, if that was the only way, I'd do it again for sure!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/677782/little-shed-into-a-coop-my-summer-project

 

[N F C]

How nice you were able to move and get a bigger place. 15 acres should give you enough room for all kinds of animals. And that is a great looking barn in the picture!

Thanks for sharing!

 

[SleepyOwl]

How nice you were able to move and get a bigger place. 15 acres should give you enough room for all kinds of animals. And that is a great looking barn in the picture!

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks! I am happy that we have enough room for plenty of critters. Planning on getting horses next year. Then maybe ducks, goats, a few cows and pigs. Maybe I won't end up with them all, but I love most farm animals!

 

[b.hromada]

Congratulations on the move! Lucky you!

I keep telling myself, some day, some day. When my hubby retires we want to get a place up in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina, its simply gorgeous there. Enjoy your place and all your critters too!

 

[SleepyOwl]

Congratulations on the move!   Lucky you!       I keep telling myself, some day, some day.   When my hubby retires we want to get a place up in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina, its simply gorgeous there.   Enjoy your place and all your critters too!    

Thank you! That sounds lovely!

 

[SleepyOwl]

I put my chicks out in the barn last week. It's getting cold outside, but so far so good. The only negative is that a couple of the chicks were getting burned on the heating plate that I have for them. Today I raised it much higher, put the heating pad I had for them under the whole thing, and hung some fabric around two sides. Hoping it makes a cozy, warm "nest" for them to snuggle in. It isn't too cold tonight (about 35), but I measured the temp in the "nest" and it was 70, and that was without the chicks snuggling inside. I'll keep an eye on it, and add more heat if needed, but should be ok. They are almost a month old now.

Here is the set up. The light isn't for heat, it's LED. I just added the light during the day because they don't really get enough light in there. It is the inside of a chicken tractor, so when they are just a little bigger, I'll start letting them out into the run part during the day.


The back of the "nest".


The chicks, you can see the one with the worst burns towards the right. The others who had the problem seem to be healing up. This one maybe just doesn't feel it? I don't know.

 

[SleepyOwl]

I switched from just feeding pellets, to adding my own "scratch" every day. They get a bit of whole corn, white rice and BOSS every morning, and a bit of the corn 2 hours before lights off. They still have pellets all day, but eat a lot less of them. After a couple weeks of feeding the extra grains I went from getting 1 egg a day (from the same hen) to 2 or 3 a day. The extra grains got two more of my girls laying. Who knew? I'm not complaining.

 

[SleepyOwl]

Introducing Sweet Pea, our newest bit of fur.

 

[SleepyOwl]

It's been a crazy week. Our 14 year old cat quit eating, and was wasting away. Ended up finding out she had cancer, and put her down on Thursday, as she was basically starving to death. That night, my sister went into labor. She had her baby boy the next morning. He got stuck, and ended up with a broken arm, so they sent him down to Children's. I spent a few days visiting and driving her around. Thankfully, he is just fine and home now, and they think the arm should heal in 2 weeks.

As for chickens, Sunday I had to put the sick pullet out of her misery. I found her on her back, and she couldn't stay upright anymore. Can't get better if you can't even sit up.
This morning I found my favorite hen dead. I have noticed she was low on energy and last night she looked pale. She didn't seem to have any symptoms otherwise, and was eating, so I didn't do anything about it. She might have just gotten old, although she was only 4. Nobody else seems to be weak or sick, so I hope that's enough of that for now. Although, I plan to cull one of the roosters soon.

I think my "chicks" are big enough to join the rest of the crew. It will make the rest of the winter easier.

 

[SleepyOwl]

The chicks that I got last week outgrew the dog crate in the porch. The other day I moved them into a playpen in the garage. I have 3 weeks to build them a grow out pen, because then the eggs in the bator will move to the playpen. I rarely get anything done unless I have a time limit, and then I tend to wait until the last minute... Anyway, here are my 13 BLRWs.



It's a lovely day today. Planning on working on my coop today. I have an old Quanset hut coop. You can see it on the left side of the first photo in this thread. Anyway, it was in pretty rough shape, and the previous owners put on new shingles, and vinyl siding. It still needs some patching and things on the inside. It is 12x12 and six feet tall. I'm gping to make half a grow out pen that will have a run outside, and...