Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[TurtlePowerTrav]

How does everyone recommend training baby cockerels to be human friendly? I have a Modern Game baby and a Cochin baby. Right now, I'm not to worried about the Cochin, as it doesn't run and doesn't mind being picked up. However, the Modern (Klondike) runs, fights, and makes a lot of noise when I do manage to pick him up. I made the mistake of not taming my last cockerel and he is as mean as can be. Any tips are appreciated.

Handling them a LOT. We handle our Silkies and the orphan several times a day. "Riddick", the orphan LF, is now comfortably jumping onto our arms and just sits there. If you are providing chick grit you can start giving treats like meal worms and very small clippings of grass. If they see you as the "food person" it helps too. My LF rooster was scared of me at first. Took 3 weeks of daily treating with raisins to get him to eat from my hand. He won't jump up on my lap but I can pet him now(6 months later). He is the first to greet me when I go outside. He associates me with treats, which is good, but he also knows I am top rooster here. I have had to correct some behaviors, like chasing the teens to mate when they clearly are not old enough.

 

[FirewifeJess]

Whew! I just cleaned out the entire coop top to bottom and put all the poo and shavings in the garden. That was a lot of work! I'll need to wet it all down, and once the ground isn't frozen we'll rototil the whole garden. I didn't even have to spread it out, the chickens did all the hard work!

Then I tossed DE throughout the whole coop in every nook and cranny and all over the roosts and floor, and added about 4" of shavings. I even bought that "Nest box blend" and added a bunch of it in the nest boxes. All the girls went in immediately to check it out and they were eating little pieces of the herbal blend. It smells good! Now to find a piece of fabric in my stash for nest box curtains, and filling in the gap at the lid edge, and waterproofing the lid. All that's on the agenda for tomorrow!

 

[BantyChickenLuv]

Thank you. I've been handling him, but it's difficult to catch him in the brooder. He actually jumped out of it yesterday and was running around the garage until I caught him. I'm not providing chick grit, but is it safe to give them dried mealworms without it, if I break them up? I definitely want them to see me as a treat giver and easy to handle for shows, and train one up for showmanship, maybe even Klondike if he calms down some.

 

[FirewifeJess]

If I put up pics of my coop, run, and nest boxes, can y'all tell me what I can do with it to make it prettier, more secure, more functional. IDK, I just don't feel like the projects ever end. But I really want it all to be awesome by the summer time. Then we won't have so many projects to do when the kids are off school. I also don't know where a good place for food and water should be either. Right now they're in the run, but with the right setup they could be in the coop.

 

[FirewifeJess]

Thank you. I've been handling him, but it's difficult to catch him in the brooder. He actually jumped out of it yesterday and was running around the garage until I caught him. I'm not providing chick grit, but is it safe to give them dried mealworms without it, if I break them up? I definitely want them to see me as a treat giver and easy to handle for shows, and train one up for showmanship, maybe even Klondike if he calms down some.

If you give them ANYthing besides their chick crumble, they should have grit. You could just get a tiny glass bowl to put in there with some grit. That would do just fine. And yes, treats always help socialize those stinker roos!

 

[Slinglings]

 I feel the need to know what to do when the time comes to cull a hen.  I signed up for  a class through the seattle farm co-op, they will be processing 6 birds with 10 'students' watching/participating.  Will I regret this????  The thought of watching this really makes me sad/gives me the creeps, etc.  but I don't feel like I'm being a responsible chicken owner by not knowing what to do when the time comes.  I don't want to eat any of my birds, honestly, I'm just sort of concerned about having an injured/ill bird and I don't want to see them suffer..I guess I could always bribe a local chicken person to come over and do the deed

Anyway, am I going to regret watching 6 chickens be killed and processed?    I have pet cats and I don't feel like I need to know how to kill them, ya know?  But they can be taken to an emergency vet and they aren't at risk of being attacked by a raccoon (they're indoor cats).  Can chickens be taken to an emergency vet to be euthanized?  It would probably cost a fortune.   There should be an at home euthanasia kit for pet chicken owners.  Chloroform, then an injection of some kind.  Something easy and not bloody.

When we need to have a bird taken care of, we just take it to the local avian vet.  I know that it's fairly costly, but since they're my pets primarily I have them put down like I'd have the dogs or cats put down if need be.  That's just me, of course.  I'm a giant softie and can't bear to even think about processing chickens.

How much does that cost? I could see paying as much as $50 maybe,but it has been much more than that for my cats..

 

[FirewifeJess]

Just out my back door/basement to the left is the front of the coop; the door has plenty of ventilation, and no it's not done with the trim. There's also a vent up high on the front and back of the coop under the eves, which you can see in this pic:

Here's the inside left of the coop. Nest boxes straight back; they only use the one on the right. Roost about my waist high, about 1' above the pop door which is open full time; yes, I hung that bag of shavings on a nail in the rafters to spare my DH having to store it in the basement.

Ok here's the inside right of the coop; there IS another "pop door" on that side which we covered with hardware cloth to keep as a floor level window for more ventilation; for the winter, it's closed with a piece of wood as there was quite a drafty breeze blowing underneath the roosts when it was open. The light plus is in the ceiling

Here are the nest boxes from the outside. I raised the flat lid up and that encouraged them to actually use the boxes; now they love it in there, but I don't feel it's dark enough. Also, the corner piece on each side needs to be made more secure, right now any predator could squeeze in there.

Here's the run and coop next to each other; notice DH put a rain gutter on the run side of the coop so that rain didn't run off into the run, woohoo! There's sand in the run and I need to find a good way to remove poop from there about once a week. Thinking a wide tang rake with hardware cloth over it, to use like a huge cat litter scoop?

And this is the inside of the run from the door on the end; there's a roost on the front of the run that they all use, 40lb feeder hanging towards the coop, a waterer on a block, and a rabbit hutch that they also all use to lay eggs in; that will turn into our broody house if Lucy, who is STILL in the nest box since this morning all huddled and ruffled up feathers and purring at me when I open it since this morning, goes broody

So everyone...what do you think? What can I do better? How can this all improve?

 

[FirewifeJess]

Sara - we had a sick bird who didn't seem to be getting better and she was suffering. I know it's graphic and oh so sad, and we did cry, but there's no way I'd ever pay any money for someone to kill a bird I could do myself. I held her deep inside a trash can after a good long cuddle and talking to her and thanking her for eggs and being sweet, apologizing for not being able to save her, and DH cut her head of with one quick motion. We both dropped all into the trash can and ran out of the garage until the flopping around stopped. DH even cried, it was hard because she was a pet, not some hunting animal like a deer that DH would have no issue shooting. But we were glad we had the guts to do it ourselves. I still cry sometimes when I think about what happened to her but it was for the best that she be put out of her misery. I don't think you need a class honestly, it WILL upset you. When I took roosters to the processing class I was very upset by it all and my food didn't settle right for days. That said, I couldn't kill my own roosters on that day, but I did process quite a few birds on my own after learning how, which is a great skill to know!

 

[Greg Richardson]

I'd get rid of your lower vents.
You already have good vents up top that's all you need.
You answered your own question as far as your egg box goes yes you need to fill in the corners.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Thank you. I've been handling him, but it's difficult to catch him in the brooder. He actually jumped out of it yesterday and was running around the garage until I caught him. I'm not providing chick grit, but is it safe to give them dried mealworms without it, if I break them up? I definitely want them to see me as a treat giver and easy to handle for shows, and train one up for showmanship, maybe even Klondike if he calms down some.

If you don't want to buy chick grit(less than $6 a bag), you could cut a good chunk of sod from your lawn. That will have the grass for them to eat and maybe some bugs too. It should have some small bits of gravel they will eat for grit. Many do this as an alternative to chick grit.

I'd get rid of your lower vents.
You already have good vents up top that's all you need.
You answered your own question as far as your egg box goes yes you need to fill in the corners.

X2. I would do the inner tube or roof flashing over the hinging part of the nest box lid. If not too much work I would raise the roosts another foot higher, unless you have birds unable/willing to fly up that high. Otherwise it all looks good.