The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

They are laying already??  Did they hatch with Edie? I swear when I looked last night that she is only 16 weeks old? I didnt think she would start laying till September at the earliest??   I didnt realize EE layed so early.......but I havent seen Edie checking out a nesting box....tho at times her comb

Edie was hatched March 11, 2013 along with 5 others.  2 turned out to be cockerels, 2 pullets I've kept, 1 pullet went to a friend of my DIL and you have Edie.  They pretty much all look alike.  I think some may have more white.  When I picked one to go to you or Jeff, I just caught the first one I could.  Mine don't seem as personable as Edie but I don't spend the time you do with them.  I need to ask my DIL about that one but Mar 11 would make them 16 weeks. These EE's are part white leghorns.  It might be a little early but  not impossible.  All my other ones will lay brown or green eggs so I know these came from the Edie sisters. 

Mumsie-I haven't been able to download pic's in months.  Every once in a while I am able to but it's extremely rare.

Wow I didn't know they could lay that early. My big girls didn't lay till almost 28 weeks........guess I figured that was the normal or close to it. She has no interest in the nesting box & doesn't squat so I am guessing she will be a little bit till she lays. Heck with this brutal temps we are having I certainly wouldn't want to lay an egg

But the heat habits good points........I had 6 hens under the shade lean to when I got home. The big girls never let the tots or Lucy under there the same time as they are. Guess they are feeling more generous in this heat

Mumsy glad to hear you have everything worked out and can stay with us

 

[Bulldogma]

Look you have a Penny!!

Yes - that is our beautiful Penny! She was named for your birds.We lost the 2 others at the same time we lost Gunnar. I am usually rather private about negative things or losses as I prefer to stay upbeat. They were all poisoned when the neighbors had the exterminator out.

This sweet Penny is doing great and is nearing POL.

Oh my! I thinks something was fixed!!!
Test image! One of my HRIR sixteen week old boys! It is fixed!

So glad it's working now! And he is a very lovely bird!

 

[Sally8]

I know everyone is tired of hearing about the heat but less than an hour ago I got home and the temp was 95. A storm is just going through with thunder and lightning and lots of downpour rain and the temp dropped to 82 and with a breeze. Feels wonderful.

Armorfirelady I was checking the 2 I have and one is much larger than the other. They aren''t as white as they started out being but they aren't gray either. I see them I the dirt a lot.

The twisted sisters sitting on the nest together were just gasping because of the heat. I was trying to decide what to do when the storm hit. Ron's scanner has been going off for a couple of days now because transformers are either blowing up or catching fire. Power outages all around us.

 

[Sally8]

I have a question for those of you that have broodies. Do you feed them in the nest? Feed them anything special? Provide water somehow? With it being so hot, I've been picking them up off the nests and carry them outside near the food and water. Some will eat or drink, others won't. Recently, I've been mixing yogurt and a little food and place the dish near them after they come back in. They wolf the cold yogurt down. Water is a little hard without them dumping the water in the nest. Thanks. sue

 

[hotrodflash]

I have a question for those of you that have broodies. Do you feed them in the nest? Feed them anything special? Provide water somehow? With it being so hot, I've been picking them up off the nests and carry them outside near the food and water. Some will eat or drink, others won't. Recently, I've been mixing yogurt and a little food and place the dish near them after they come back in. They wolf the cold yogurt down. Water is a little hard without them dumping the water in the nest. Thanks. sue

I don't feed mine in the nests because of fire ants. Fire ants will kill a wet chick in just a few minutes, so my feeders are hanging in the coop right in front of the nest boxes and water is a few feet away outside the pop door in the run. They usually run and get a drink, hit their favorite dusting spot and eat and back to the nest.

 

[delisha]

I have a question for those of you that have broodies. Do you feed them in the nest? Feed them anything special? Provide water somehow? With it being so hot, I've been picking them up off the nests and carry them outside near the food and water. Some will eat or drink, others won't. Recently, I've been mixing yogurt and a little food and place the dish near them after they come back in. They wolf the cold yogurt down. Water is a little hard without them dumping the water in the nest. Thanks. sue

all broody's get food and water. I use heavy bottom containers so they do not dump. If I am out I attach the water so it does not dump.

 

[Bulldogma]

feeding a broody in the coop depends on the broody. Some of the "first-timers" can get paranoid about leaving the nest and will refuse to eat. For those girls I put little dishes of food and water right where they can reach them. The ones that I see get up and leave the nest to eat and poop don't get their own dishes,

Speaking of which... my SFH Ginger hatched 2 healthy BCM chicks on Monday, and today she had them about 100 yards from the coop. I love watching mammas with chicks! She was showing them all the wonderful treats that crawl in the grass.









And Darth 'Bator is doing a wonderful job with her own month-old brood (as usual). She is currently raising 4 BCM and 1 SFH chick. The SFH is Gunnar's last chick, and seems to be the Mille Fleur pullet I have been hoping for!

 

[NanaLynn]

Did we see photos of this? Even if we did...could you post again?

Also - do you have any fears of raccoons or whatever tearing open the hardware cloth? I've been leaving the outer doors open the last few nights but have hardware cloth on inner framing inside. It still makes me a little nervous even though it's all nailed to framing.

You can see the interior hardware cloth framing in these photos... Still worry about creatures pulling them off since we've heard so much especially about raccoons ripping open wire.

Here is our coop and run. The run is covered all over with hardware cloth and stapled in, we used a heavy duty staple gun with a compressor and applied tons of staples all over. The pop door to the run stays open all the time.



This is inside the coop with some of my chicks roosting by the open windows. You can see the older chickens in the garden behind them.


Here is the back of the coop that shows one of the big windows. They have access to the garden only when I am home now. My mistake was leaving them out in the garden when I left which I found out the hard way was not a smart move. So when they are locked up in the coop and run I feel like they are safe, it is a heavy gauge of hardware cloth.


and here is the other side. In the winter I cover the windows with plastic and moving blankets, but I still leave some ventilation holes.

I have only had the stray dog problem when they were free ranging. I have not have any problems while they are in the coop and run. I also use sliding locks and hook locks on each door to prevent break ins there too.

I have to add: Your coop looks really nice, mine is not so pretty.

 

[armorfirelady]

BDM- I love the pics. And Darth Bator chicks are going to be bigger than her soon

Lynn- love the openness of your coop. It doesn't have to be pretty to be function able

 

[midnightroo]

Very true. My chickens would love the breezes your have with the windows.

Saw a snake outside the coop today, ran it off under the shed.

pLEASe send some of that rain here! I put a fan out and they looked at me like I was crazy.

Pretty chickens everyone.

There was something else I was going to comment on but I can't remember.