Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[pennyJo1960]

I have not had broody in my larger birds.
I do keep a broody buster in their yard.
Never had one get nasty for any time.
Ya I have the same here when a bird molts large pile of feathers.

 

[Hinotori]

The wheaten ameraucana I had would all go broody once a year. All were calm mothers. I've had other breeds that I wouldn't allow eggs again. The silkies can vary but seem to do best with the co-parenting.

When I incubate, I set humidity to 45%. Humidity pump doesn't come on much if ever usually. I do need to see why the humidity pump on my older brinsea isn't working. Maybe the wires came lose.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Both incubators are Janoel24 other is a 12 same like them hard plastic
home up to years of use.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Get to check see who is fertile in the incubator.
I have not used mine in more than a year.

 

[Smokerbill]

I'm going to candle mine on Friday. That'll be day 7.

 

[ValerieJ]

Canned 7 pints of pintos today. I love having my own. They do make the best refrieds.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Frustrating went to town here got my half n half bought almost ran out.
They had none last time down there full case now.

 

[TeePants]

I cannot believe how long this project has dragged on, but the chicks are six weeks old now and the coop is almost finished. Putting in the last wall, coop floor, auto door/coop access door, and run door tomorrow.

Then all that’s left is HWC for the bottom. We have rats so we decided to deep litter on top of the hardware cloth, we had to do it for our quail and when we sold the flock we found that they’d tried to tunnel under their coop many, many times and failed thanks to the HWC!

I think we got a good mix of personalities. They’re a little skittish but once you’ve got them in your lap they’re pretty calm. And easily lured by treats!

 

[ValerieJ]

I cannot believe how long this project has dragged on, but the chicks are six weeks old now and the coop is almost finished. Putting in the last wall, coop floor, auto door/coop access door, and run door tomorrow.

Then all that’s left is HWC for the bottom. We have rats so we decided to deep litter on top of the hardware cloth, we had to do it for our quail and when we sold the flock we found that they’d tried to tunnel under their coop many, many times and failed thanks to the HWC!

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I think we got a good mix of personalities. They’re a little skittish but once you’ve got them in your lap they’re pretty calm. And easily lured by treats!

Sounds like a great coop design, and what beautiful chicks you have there.

 

[TeePants]

Sounds like a great coop design, and what beautiful chicks you have there.

Thank you! I am a little worried because we opted for 1/4in 23g hardware cloth on the sides - the logic being that I want to also discourage mice, and our yard is fenced, so we mostly end up with mice and rats. We switched to 1/2in for the floor because we couldn’t find 1/4in that was 3ft wide on the cheap - the 1/4in rolls we got were 2ftx50ft for something like $25.

However, there IS at least one raccoon in our neighborhood- I am hoping it’s fine because the coop is extremely secure, and we have an auto door, plus my wife’s office is the shed right next to the coop. During the day when they’re in the run there’s going to be people near enough to come outside if something is messing with the run wall.

I have floated the idea of adding a second layer of either 1/4in HWC or 1/2in 19 gauge to the bottom, but the thought is kind of daunting as we are both so ready to be done, haha. I don’t have a garage so our girls’ brooder pen is on the floor in my office. It’s actually a guinea pig pen I used when I was fostering for the city shelter - it turns out it holds in wood chips just fine.