Washingtonians

[justbugged]

I was at a gardening forum and someone posted this link.................
http://aliensunflowers.com/

Surprised to see they are local.
I ordered some packets and looking forward to the surprise flowers.
If you are in to sunflowers you might find it interesting to read their story.

The roots of these is edible also. I remember it being very mild tasting.

 

[FirewifeJess]

I'll have to try that one. Yesterday, I cut up celery into tiny little bits and gave that to them. Didn't touch it. They gave me this look like I was a crazy person or something. Then, they conveniently flipped the bowl over and managed to contain all the celery beneath the bowl. Guess they didn't want to see it, either.

Try giving them the celery greens instead of the actual celery. Mine devoured those!

So far my 5-6 week olds love:
ENTIRE heads of cauliflower...they pick a whole one clean in less than 24 hours
Squash
Celery greens
garden worms
mealworms (duh)
hard boiled egg

Things I've tried but they don't touch much:
apple slices
forage cakes

 

[FirewifeJess]

Nice coop. Myself, I would add more ventilation.
Looking at your coop I'm wondering if what I did might work for you.
My coop doors are essentially just hardware cloth attached to wooden frames.
Keeps the girls comfortable most of the year.
I built inserts that sit in the door frames during the coldest spell of winter.
They are held in place by hardware.
The inserts are acrylic panels set in a wooden frame.
This allows plenty of light.
If you find you need more ventilation, perhaps you could make that door window a bit bigger.
Good luck.

That's a fantastic idea! We could easily make a huge cutout in the door and attach hardware cloth instead. I like the idea of inserts to add in case of truly inclement weather too. One nice thing about our setup is that the door is practically underneath our deck, so it won't get snowed on, perhaps some drips from a REALLY big rain storm though. Cool, thanks SO much for the help!

 

[justbugged]

CL. That is the trail that goes to Sunrise Ridge up at Huricane Ridge. Beautiful hike
.

I have hiked this trail. I think it was the summer of 1969. It was the only time that my dad was ever out of work, due to a Boeing recession. So dad and mom figured out how we could go on vacation without costing anymore than if we had stayed home. We hiked from Hurricane Ridge to Staircase. With 5 kids we took 9 days to make the hike.

 

[justbugged]

Quote: We cut a window into our coop the size of a standard 16"x20" picture frame. I had a number of frames that had gotten banged up, but the glass was still good. I finally bought a thicker pane, after I manage to break a couple glass panes. It is fun to see some of the girls looking out the window at us. It also makes it easy to see what is going on in the coop at night.

I have found that I get away with having a rather small coop, because my run is extremely large. I can't recall having night time temperatures high enough to really worry about my flock overheating. About 4 years ago it did get up in 105 to 110 range for a few days. I used the sprinkler on the flock to help cool them during the day. They survived without any real problems.

I would be careful of too much ventilation. You could end up with a drafty coop. That seems to be harder on the birds. All the ventilation that is needed for the flock, is enough to keep the moisture from forming in the coop. At least that has been my understanding for many years.

 

[FirewifeJess]

We cut a window into our coop the size of a standard 16"x20" picture frame. I had a number of frames that had gotten banged up, but the glass was still good. I finally bought a thicker pane, after I manage to break a couple glass panes. It is fun to see some of the girls looking out the window at us. It also makes it easy to see what is going on in the coop at night.

I have found that I get away with having a rather small coop, because my run is extremely large. I can't recall having night time temperatures high enough to really worry about my flock overheating. About 4 years ago it did get up in 105 to 110 range for a few days. I used the sprinkler on the flock to help cool them during the day. They survived without any real problems.

I would be careful of too much ventilation. You could end up with a drafty coop. That seems to be harder on the birds. All the ventilation that is needed for the flock, is enough to keep the moisture from forming in the coop. At least that has been my understanding for many years.

Thank you! I think the consensus is that I will keep things as is, and make sure to inspect things daily through the winter. It would a very simple thing to remove the door from hinges, cut a larger opening, and cover with hardware cloth on a rainy day if need be. I agree, I don't want it to be drafty so I think we'll just wait and see.

Thanks for everyone's thoughtful replies!

 

[justbugged]

It's time for me to feed the fishies, and take a nasty little dog or two off to bed. Have a great morning all you early birds.

 

[MamaRoo]

That's a fantastic idea! We could easily make a huge cutout in the door and attach hardware cloth instead. I like the idea of inserts to add in case of truly inclement weather too. One nice thing about our setup is that the door is practically underneath our deck, so it won't get snowed on, perhaps some drips from a REALLY big rain storm though. Cool, thanks SO much for the help!

You could do cute little shutters that you close in the winter, and leave open on hot days.

 

[Breshcandra]

Most of my boys are fine together, but my BCM chicks were even bloodier than yours; and it happened so quick! They were broody raised in the main coop and run with plenty of space to run and hide from each other, but the 3 boys were out for blood while mamma hen and the girl quietly ate at the feeder, ignoring the commotion. I even tried painting their heads with blue-kote; and it did not slow them down. I ended up puting them in separate cages for a week, and then I put all 3 together but in a place where they could see no ther chickens. They stopped fighting then, and I had CL take them away for me when she visited.

About 3 months ago my 2 Barnevelder boys got in a bloody fight, one tore the others comb. It did not last long, maybe a minute and it was over. I have 3 roosters in my main coop. A giant English Orpington (Serius Black) who is top roo. He had run out into the yard, and roo # 3 thought he could sneak in a little action with one of the hens while Serius was away. Well, Serius must have hired Duracell as his henchman, because Duracell sure went after Flop (Flop was a runt). Poor flop. He hasn't tried again that I have seen.

 

[SweetSilver]

I'd read somewhere that you should have 1 square foot per bird. I think I may have photos of mine on My Coop page, but I don't recall. It has been a while since I looked at the page.

Maybe this is just the hutch part of the coop. My chickies have a small hutch, with a larger open air area that is still fully predator proof (so far) and the hutch door is only closed at night in the coldest (10 or below, occasional in the South Sound) or stormiest weather, never during the day.

About the ventilation on your coop-- if you keep the door open, plenty of ventilation. If not, well, you should keep a clean coop. That's the only limitation I see. Stick your head in there, you'll know when you need to clean it out. Of course, it will smell like chicken poo, but it should not be overly strong or sharp and no more than the mildest ammonia smell. Once you smell that mild ammonia, it's time to clean it out before it gets too strong. Ammonia attacks the lining of the lungs. If the smell is strong, you are overdue for cleaning in that small of a coop. If they have a small outdoor space that is fully fenced--top, bottom, nooks and crannies--you shouldn't ever have to close that door. Here on the west side of things you rarely need worry about cold weather, and coop design is more about rain, wind, storm and predator protection than cold. So, we can be liberal with ventilating where colder areas cannot.