The Front Porch Swing

[LindaB220]

I am sorry .... but...... Bwahahahahahahah....

Glad you werent hurt... But the imagery...

@TNTchicks
No, no. You MUST do it once more, (so we can watch) I mean, so you can find out if it was the red.

 

[tntchix]

@TNTchicks
No, no. You MUST do it once more, (so we can watch) I mean, so you can find out if it was the red.

I am sorry .... but...... Bwahahahahahahah....

Glad you werent hurt... But the imagery...

 

[dpenning]

That sort of reminds me of what a ridiculous looking venture my first attempts at herding the flock back into their run must have been. Now we've got them trained to come running when shouting "Kanakanakanakana" in a high pitched voice and throwing down some oats (kana is Finnish for chicken), but in the beginning getting them in without help was a 20 minute undertaking involving strategic placing of a rake, the run door and a chair and running circles around the coop with a brush in the hand trying to get the chickens to go back in, each lap getting one in just in time for another one to go out while starting the next lap.

Was this a new environment for them? My girls stay fairly close to their coop, closer as the evening wears on. They are contained by an electric fence but we have been thinking about opening the fence some days while we are here to watch. I was sure they would go back to the coop on their own as the evening wore on but your chicken laps are making me wonder! Great visual.

What do you do for egg collection? I'm guessing keeping the eggs in outside temperatures isn't a good idea with a Texan climate.

Don't know yet. They are still a couple months away from laying. There are six hens and only two of us so I figure worst case scenario I can throw away whatever is there when we arrive on Friday afternoon and just collect until Sunday. I will have to wait to see how it all works out; I also have a neighbor who doesn't keep chickens any more but wouldn't mind having eggs that might come collect mid week for me.

 

[vehve]

Was this a new environment for them? My girls stay fairly close to their coop, closer as the evening wears on. They are contained by an electric fence but we have been thinking about opening the fence some days while we are here to watch. I was sure they would go back to the coop on their own as the evening wore on but your chicken laps are making me wonder! Great visual.

Don't know yet. They are still a couple months away from laying. There are six hens and only two of us so I figure worst case scenario I can throw away whatever is there when we arrive on Friday afternoon and just collect until Sunday. I will have to wait to see how it all works out; I also have a neighbor who doesn't keep chickens any more but wouldn't mind having eggs that might come collect mid week for me.

We're new to this chickening, so our flock is still between 15 and 26 week youngsters. They get to free range in the yard quite a lot, but they share it with the dogs and we don't trust them out there to together yet, so the chickens need to be put in their run every once in a while when we want the dogs to get to enjoy the yard. Also, we don't like leaving them in the yard if we go somewhere.

The extra eggs could be boiled and fed back to the flock, or then you could build some sort of collecting egg nests that feed into a fridge (my inner tinkerer is drawing up plans as I type). Of course, a neighbor who gets free eggs might not be that hard to convince to check up on them once a day and just keep half of the eggs or something.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Katee has a devoted caretaker... my neighbor Tom. he fills her Big feed tub with a whole bale of hay which lasts her three days or more... and keeps an eye on her big water tub.

I tried the chicken commute.... an hour each way. Worked for a while as long as infrastructure worked. I was able to do it for about three years till the pump in the well died.

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
When i had chickens I had Wellsummers and over twenty of them. I used to put the eggs in a tub and put it on the roof of the coop. The ravens were very fat that year. I have temps over a hundred during the summer not often but often enough. So My new coop design will keep the chickens at a comfortable temp .... on those hot days. I have a design for a roll out nest. and recently saw my first homemade swamp cooler design. I can encorporate a flow through of cool air to go through the egg collection drawer.

I was also toying with running the water pipes through the egg collection drawer area on a recirculating pump... through a big tank of water. It takes a long time to warm up 55 gallons of water so in a way it would be a heat exchange system. and it could run off a solar powered fountain pump...

deb

 

[wyoDreamer]

Deb, I like your egg cooling idea. I have been thinking about trying the same thing, but in reverse for keeping the water from freezing. Run a water pipe through a solar collector to heat the water dish during the winter in Wisconsin.

If your not going to be there full time to collect eggs, it seems the roll away nest boxes would be a necessity. At least that is my opinion. It would keep the chickens from sitting on them and starting development as well as removing the temptation of eating them. It will also make it easier for chicken sitters to collect the eggs if you need to be away for a time. I have a friend that would be willing to watch the chickens while we are gone but she is terrified of birds and wouldn't be able to enter the coop to go through the nests. A rollaway nestbox will allow her to check on them, gather eggs, and still stay on the "SAFE" side of the fence.

To check if it was the color of your shirt - enter the pen in sandals with red painted toenails!! insert evil chuckle here ...Bwaa haa haa ...

Making sweet cherry pie tonight. My first cherry pie from scratch. Also making a blueberry pie to take to work. Just to celebrate the progress so far of the house sale. Crossing my fingers that it the sale goes through alright.

 

[LindaB220]

Don't take my methods as general methods for Finland - I'm only in the learning stages still, and I don't really have any Finnish chicken keeper friends to compare stories with. The climate is a bit different from yours though

I try to think of the best way to keep a flock alive through winter (other than moving them into our bedroom), but I'm sure my coop will show some defects that Ill have to attend to in -20 deg C. I also try to build everything as low maintenance as possible, and since it's in the middle of our yard, I like to keep things nice to look at too. That compost I'm always rambling about will soon be painted grey, like our deck and fence.

You know Felix, there are some good threads on keeping chickens warm in the winter. Search at top for them. Those Canadian folks have it going on and keep them just fine without heat. Read up on it.

 

[perchie.girl]

Deb, I like your egg cooling idea. I have been thinking about trying the same thing, but in reverse for keeping the water from freezing. Run a water pipe through a solar collector to heat the water dish during the winter in Wisconsin.

If your not going to be there full time to collect eggs, it seems the roll away nest boxes would be a necessity. At least that is my opinion. It would keep the chickens from sitting on them and starting development as well as removing the temptation of eating them. It will also make it easier for chicken sitters to collect the eggs if you need to be away for a time. I have a friend that would be willing to watch the chickens while we are gone but she is terrified of birds and wouldn't be able to enter the coop to go through the nests. A rollaway nestbox will allow her to check on them, gather eggs, and still stay on the "SAFE" side of the fence.

To check if it was the color of your shirt - enter the pen in sandals with red painted toenails!! insert evil chuckle here ...Bwaa haa haa ...

Making sweet cherry pie tonight. My first cherry pie from scratch. Also making a blueberry pie to take to work. Just to celebrate the progress so far of the house sale. Crossing my fingers that it the sale goes through alright.

Yep.... here is my design...


I could run cooling pipes under the tray compartment... This whole thing is going to set about eighteen inchs off the ground so I have lots of room under there for chill pipe.

deb

 

[Alice28]

We don't have a big lot, we live in town, but are whole yard seems to be over run with goaphers! Every day it seems I find a new mound. My cat has killed two that I've seen, we have killed a few with traps, but now they seem to not be coming to the traps. I think they just have so many places to go! So now, after setting two traps Friday (no luck) I've found yet another hole! Now I'm trying to drowned them. Sitting here with water running and I have a 2x4 in my hand incase I find any trying to dig out to escape. Figure if I even kill one it's more then my traps have cought lately. These guys are driving me crazy