Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Farmin Momma]

Quote: Ok, I lied. Cree Farms does BBS(blue, black,splash) Ameraucanas, and Wheaten and Blue Wheaten Marans. But I did get a really nice Splash Marans from them. So I don't know. I just Googled Cree Farms and their website came up.

Great thanks, you always seem to come to my rescue lol!

 

[Ogress]

 

[Chicken Rustler]

 

[Chicken Rustler]

OK time for me to feed the dragon and park the wagon. See ya all in the future not the pasture.

 

[JennS]

We finally started building the coop today. Finally! All the tools are moved into the detached garage and I'm running a space heater in a vain attempt to keep it comfortable. Still, it's much better than working outside! We went over the plans today and I made a last minute decision to add 4 square feet. It'll be 4X7 with 1X4 being a storage cabinet under the egg boxes, so the hens will have 4X6 living space. It's going to be pretty darned huge for a suburban backyard. The full size didn't sink in until I saw the frame going up in the garage. Hopefully I can integrate it into the yard so it doesn't dominate it, but it's going to be hard. Oh well, I've never been good at keeping a formal, static landscape. My garden changes every year, just like my life.

I read somewhere that 14"X14" is a good size for a LF egg box. Is this true? Hopefully it is, because the overall size allows for 3 egg boxes in that size. It'll have a shed roof with a gutter on the low end. I have one window but would like to get my hands on a second one.

The coop will be 2' off the ground so the run will include the space underneath. How hard is it to clean chicken poop out from under a coop which is built on cement? I'm worried that it'll become a soupy mess in the rainy season. The patio doesn't get standing water, but it doesn't stay dry either. I could spray the hose underneath, but that might just put a fine coat of poop on everything. Any suggestions? Should I put down straw, even though it will get wet?

Jennifer

 

[justbugged]

Quote: I would love to join the group. I am more than willing to do the driving.

 

[justbugged]

Hello all - south puget here. Interested in raising chicks at home, came here to learn a thing or two :0)

Welcome to the thread.

 

[justbugged]

Ha! You guys are great greeters!

Has anyone fed "grass" clippings to their chickens? j/w....

I usually throw in some of a bag of grass clippings whenever I mow the lawn. They can't eat all that much at one time, but some is good food. I have somewhere between 20 and 30 birds at any one time, so I take that into account with the amount the crew gets. I really should count my chickens. It's isn't easy to get them to line up, and count down for me. I'm going to have too train them better. lol

 

[justbugged]

Firewood sculpture to bring tears of joy to the eyes of firewood stack aficionados:
http://www.alastairheseltine.com/index.htm

That ia one gorgeous stack of firewood. Thank you for sharing the link.

 

[justbugged]

We finally started building the coop today. Finally! All the tools are moved into the detached garage and I'm running a space heater in a vain attempt to keep it comfortable. Still, it's much better than working outside! We went over the plans today and I made a last minute decision to add 4 square feet. It'll be 4X7 with 1X4 being a storage cabinet under the egg boxes, so the hens will have 4X6 living space. It's going to be pretty darned huge for a suburban backyard. The full size didn't sink in until I saw the frame going up in the garage. Hopefully I can integrate it into the yard so it doesn't dominate it, but it's going to be hard. Oh well, I've never been good at keeping a formal, static landscape. My garden changes every year, just like my life.

I read somewhere that 14"X14" is a good size for a LF egg box. Is this true? Hopefully it is, because the overall size allows for 3 egg boxes in that size. It'll have a shed roof with a gutter on the low end. I have one window but would like to get my hands on a second one.

The coop will be 2' off the ground so the run will include the space underneath. How hard is it to clean chicken poop out from under a coop which is built on cement? I'm worried that it'll become a soupy mess in the rainy season. The patio doesn't get standing water, but it doesn't stay dry either. I could spray the hose underneath, but that might just put a fine coat of poop on everything. Any suggestions? Should I put down straw, even though it will get wet?

Jennifer

We went with a 4' X 8" raised coop at our house. We live in a Sub-division neighborhood, and I have a rather large group of girls living in the coop. It works because our run is very large. The reason that we went with the 4' x 8' is that is the full size of a sheet of plywood. There was next to nothing in the way of leftover scrap wood. It sounds like your plan for nesting boxes is right on. We have pull out drawers that hold 4 nesting boxes each. I have no problems with any on the hens using the drawers. In fact they tend to want to sleep in them.

You will need to have a place to wash the poop into. It will have to go some place. I have a very large concrete patio. It cover the entire north side of our house. The coop is not on the patio though. We have found that in the run, the pea gravel is the way to go. We have also used sand, but it tends to travel out of the run, and that makes me a little crazy. The pea gravel did start to get a bit smelly by the end of our dry spell, but with the rains I don't smell it anymore. We also covered a big portion run so that the girls wouldn't get so messy. The Silkies tend to look like they are half drowned without the cover. My girls don't like to get wet.

I do use straw in the coop, and nesting boxes. So far it is the best, and easiest to clean up. You may also want to have poop boards under the roosting area. My girls are supposed too roost on top of the covered nesting boxes. The cover is just wide enough to use a large dust pan to scoop the poop.


You would be more than welcome to and see my coop and run if you would like to.