[The Shire] Our growing flock!

Standard Cochin, Langshan, and Jersey Giant Hens would be a good pairing, also. Friendly, large, & gentle. McMurray Hatchery (min order 6) has all 3 breeds if in the future he needs some larger lady friends! And they have a cool fancy breed assortment…heh heh.
Yes, I was looking at those! I would need to math a good size coop for those breed types. Maybe 5 ladies each? I feel like even if the second is a roo, they won’t be overly… lady needy. 🤭 plus I could get more if they are. 😂
 
Last night we spot cleaned the bigger baby brooder, but this morning we did a BIG deep clean and boy, it took all of 10 seconds for them all to start pooping like fiends. 🤭 We're speeding up the building on the big coop to get it ready to put them in as soon as possible. Next Friday, the youngest ones will be old enough to go out with the bigs assuming it doesn't get TOO cold at night. Even then, they'd be 4 weeks old and able to all cuddle up for warmth. It'll be well protected against chill, so I feel like it'll be fine. 💙 Last time, we started the biggest chicks in the coop/run but for these, we think we're gonna put them in the coop first and leave them in there a few days so they hopefully can learn to put themselves to bed. That'd be a lot of chicks to put in individually. xD It'll also give us a little extra time to wrap up the run. It'll be half covered to give them a ton of space free from rain/snow/etc but also half out so they get plenty of sun if they want it. I am SO so very excited and can't wait to post pics here once it's all done.
 
Silkies and 10 rare breed special chicks shipped from Cackle! So anxious. :fl I hope they all arrive healthy and safe. A frizzle Tolbunt or buff laced Polish would be a dream, but as long as they’re as wonderful as last batch of surprises from them, we’re happy!
 
People love seeing in progress shots! It's almost cooler to see how it comes along and the finished product.

These forums aren't instagram, no one cares how stuff looks and most people prefer common sense set ups, from what I can tell.
Hahaha I’m taking pics as we go along to show it all together! I have had so many experiences with “work in progress” things like this in the past where something crazy always happens that starts me from level 0 when I post it. Paranoid probably. 😂 But… these were some of them from when we first got started! I know it’s really a bit off kilter but we were more focused on steady grounding than totally perfectly rectangle. 🤭 We’ve got some funny ground here… and THANKFULLY that’s actually worked out! I was anxious about the walls with it, but so far so good. Roof soon!
My son featured in one of the shots when we got the floor going! He was AMAZED he could stand on it. Like that’s the point, silly goose. 😂 it’s 30’ by 15’ and will be 10’ tall!
IMG_4947.jpeg

IMG_4948.jpeg
 
I REALLY can’t wait to start putting up roosts. We’re going to build custom nesting boxes and I was thinking about painting them and adding little curtains for privacy. We thought about making them easily moveable in case of broodies? 🤔 I’m starting on those tomorrow. I’m sketching out ideas tonight and doing more research to solidify my plans to make sure it’s logistically good. We were thinking 14” by 14” and 12” deep. That way they’re definitely large enough for bigger girls if we wind up with any! We’re really trying to make everything as cozy and happy-making for them as possible. I also wanted to add a couple low planks so if chickens got to fighting, they’d have space to duck under and high up places to jump to, but nothing “entrapped” so they don’t get stuck to get pecked at relentlessly. Hoping it never happens, but trying to plan for the worst and hope for the best!
 
That looks like a massive hen house!!

Is the run off of that? Or is that the run? too?

Large nest boxes are :thumbsup:thumbsup for sure

I dont think curtains are necessary, just potential for poop to get stuck on.

Everyone wants all these cute things and what noone realizes (myself included) is that no matter what you do, POOP gets on EVERYTHING. Chickens just don't obey any sense of 'cute' or 'aesthetic'

I lost all my notions of perfect looking coops as I learned the realities of chicken keeping.

Sure, we don't want it to look like a trash heap - and it won't with all the work you're doing - just don't be disappointed when it gets dirty, and rather quickly. Esp with ~150 chickens
 
That looks like a massive hen house!!

Is the run off of that? Or is that the run? too?

Large nest boxes are :thumbsup:thumbsup for sure

I dont think curtains are necessary, just potential for poop to get stuck on.

Everyone wants all these cute things and what noone realizes (myself included) is that no matter what you do, POOP gets on EVERYTHING. Chickens just don't obey any sense of 'cute' or 'aesthetic'

I lost all my notions of perfect looking coops as I learned the realities of chicken keeping.

Sure, we don't want it to look like a trash heap - and it won't with all the work you're doing - just don't be disappointed when it gets dirty, and rather quickly. Esp with ~150 chickens
Just the coop! The run will go nearly to our house! 🤭 It will surround the coop but the main “size” of it will be length wise as we’ve got a hill down to a river not too far from that. We’re going to fill it with clutter, like branches and tree stumps and palettes and plenty of roosts/perches.

Oh yeah, I was sheerly thinking privacy. I’ve heard some lay better with having it a little less “open”? The painting was sheerly because I like things colorful. 😂 I definitely expect poop on it. They’re poop machines! But I love them.

I’ve learned QUICK that everything is a poop target. 😂 I don’t mind that from a looking at it standpoint, but definitely want to keep it tidy just for the sake of cleanliness. The main “aesthetic” will just be us painting the outside a soft blue with natural wood stain (a medium or dark brown!) we’re doing lattice at the bottom so chickens can’t get themselves stuck under the coop. 🤭 And so nothing can hide in wait under there if goodness forbid something somehow got in. It will be a hardware cloth run with a roof, covered halfway to help with heat and coverage from rain/snow, and the other half left open but with hardware cloth above to avoid sky predators but also to let the sun in!
 
Mystery chick photo op again. Definitely still leaning against black sex link (the bin it was in). The marks don’t really seem like barring at all. Featuring some of our pullet? Sapphire gems? (Please be pullets at LEAST 🤭) And Americanas! Is it possibly a Silver Laced Wyandotte mix? 🤔 legs are looking pretty thick on the mystery one. I’m keeping an eye on that comb…
IMG_4999.jpeg

IMG_4998.jpeg
 
Americanas were back in today, uh oh! One was really different from all the others. Every time I’ve seen Americanas in the stores, they’ve ALL had some manner of chipmunk pattern. This one was pure pale yellow with soft blue atop its head and no pattern. Interested to see as it grows! (Only got 4 this time. Nailed it?) I know they’re just fancyish EEs but this one was just so different. And puffy cheeks like the others! Some of them had WILDLY puffy cheeks. Two of them amazed me with how puffy they are. 🤭

No update on shipping again. Argh! Praying they get here tomorrow and not Saturday. Can’t wait to see what the assortment is!

We’re upgrading to a giant tent with mega ventilation at the top until we build a nice big chick brooder this fall for next year. Honestly hopefully by then we can have the brooder IN the coop or in a secondary one so they can get used to being near other chickens. And an excuse to go check in on the chickens constantly? Score!

Still wondering what our little yellow with black spots Bantam is. Maybe it’ll just grow out of the black spots entirely. 🤔
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom