Washingtonians

[Rainwolf]

Itsren and dawng, here's some pics of our set up as far as the inside of the chicken house. I included a pic of the nesting boxes and the roosts so you can get an idea of their locations/proximity to one another. 


We have 5 LF hens of laying age and 2 bantie girls not ready to lay yet. We put in 7 boxes because we plan on getting more LF in the spring and we wanted to make sure we had plenty of spots for them to choose from. And when it comes to chicken math, who knows how many we may end up with. Lol




Here's the roosts, and you can see the nesting boxes in the lower right corner. I read that you need to make sure the nesting boxes are lower then the lowest roost bar so they don't roost on the nesting boxes.   Today, I've gotten 2 eggs so far. I didn't let them out until after 11, hoping everyone would be done laying by then. I found 1 egg in a box and 1 egg on the floor in a little dug out spot in the shavings. Sometimes when they lay on the floor they don't even make a little nest, they just drop it where they stand! 


I hope this helps you help me!! Thanks everyone!!  

WOW VERY nice !!!! First remember you have seen my ugly old coop so I probably have no business commenting but here goes!!!!  First  what size are the nest boxes? I would cover some of the nest boxes to give a more "private" area.  Other than that the couple other details I see are just personal preference   

That's good advice.  I look at those nest boxes and think that if I was a hen I would not lay in those.  They are not 'safe' looking.  Too exposed.  Put a 'top' on them and/or install curtins.

HTH,

Fog

The darker and more secluded - the happier your girls will be =)

You could run a strip of 1x1 (or old curtain rod or something straight) down the front-top of the boxes and hang a sheet over the top covering the "roof" and most of the front. I'd think that'd be a super cheap fix to see if they like it better.

Old tarp is super easy to clean.... or even feed bags with the pretty pictures.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Quote: Yeah, but I'd have to pick them up from him Sunday morning, and that doesn't work with my work schedule...thanks for the idea though!

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote:
Interesting. Thanks for your feedback. I've never met anyone who's used anything but the K curriculum, which she loved for their kids. We also feel like it's a bit easy right now but that's because he already reads and we're doing early phonics; that part is super quick and over with by day 9 though, so we're looking forward to getting into the meat and potatoes. We're also maximizing the library book basket and bringing in every book we can on the topics of the week, which is beefing it up for sure.

Just a side question: Did you do the Basic or Deluxe package? What about the extra's like "Drawing with Children" and the music stuff? I feel like it's actually hard to get everything in the deluxe package done daily, maybe it's just because I have William (2) all over the place and needing extra attention. Thanks for chatting with me about it! I like hearing what people think for sure since we chose it this year

 

[hallerlake]

Well, my BF and I drove all over Seattle yesterday in a pickup truck we borrowed from a friend, hauling scrap lumber from various sources for our new coop! Speaking of which, big thanks to the lovely Hallerlake! First fellow BYCer I've met. Super fun to meet someone who's just as crazy about chickens as we are! Her birds are absolutely freakin' gorgeous!! Now we have about 25 pallets at my BF's place, I believe, plus a fair amount of plywood and various types of posts, some of more considerable length than others. Going to pick up some cinder blocks from a friend on Friday, but I don't know if it will be enough. We still need roofing/flooring materials and hardware cloth, none of which we'll find for free, I'm guessing. I don't know where we're going to scrounge up the money for the rest of the materials we need, but I'm determined to make it happen! And SOON! My BF already has a rough design of the coop, which he drew out for me and it looked totally awesome! Our girls free-range 24/7, so it is just going to have a small run (which will also be attached to the separate brooding area), and if I recall correctly, the roosting area is going to be above the run. He also wants to build a storage closet onto one end. So excited!!!

Still no eggs from my two Leghorn pullets. At five months old, I really thought they'd be laying by now, as Leghorns are known for laying quite young. One of them doesn't even have much of a comb - it seems to be sort of stagnant and not really even developing anymore. The other one has had a huge red comb for several weeks now.

I forgot to give you the pallet I have. It was a pleasure to meet you, too.

 

[hallerlake]

I candled my eggs in the incubator. It's day 13/14. All twelve eggs started developing. One quit early. I expect 11 chicks in another week. We have a brooder outside, but I want to keep them inside for the first week or two because they are too cute to put outside when they're tiny.

 

[UrbanEnthusiast]

I forgot to give you the pallet I have. It was a pleasure to meet you, too.

Thanks! No worries about the pallet. I have unlimited access to pallets via my ex-BF's work. If you really just want to get rid of it, I can probably get my BF to work it into his schedule sometime this week to go pick it up. By the way, he was very taken by your birds! He had never seen crested chickens before (I told him he needs to spend more time on BYC! As in, ANY time! LOL). I think he would be totally up for buying one or two chicks eventually if there were some way to sex them at hatching, which I'm sure there isn't.

 

[hallerlake]

Quote: I'd be happy to be rid of the pallet.

Sorry, my chicks aren't sexlinks.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Quote: Yeah, but I'd have to pick them up from him Sunday morning, and that doesn't work with my work schedule...thanks for the idea though!
chee's just beein picky picky picky.

 

[itsren]

Not really. I like the layout of instruction, how it was a pretty simple "heres what you do" BUUT I felt like it was too easy for him. I guess I just didnt really feel like it was as academic as I was wanting for him. We did a lot of supplementing to make sure he didnt fall behind

We went with moving beyond the page for 2nd grade. This year we will use some of moving beyond the page and bits and pieces for other stuff. I dont know that there is a FULL complete curriculum that will satisfy me

I have yet to hear of any curriculum that keeps up with state standards by itself. I know many, many people who have home-schooled and most of the kids I know have grown up struggling in high school or college if they stick with one curriculum. There was this one family, where both the husband and wife owned a very successful businesses, that I thought had the home-schooling plan down to a tee. Turned out, her oldest couldn't get into a college, and was struggling with passing classes in his vo-tech school. They were beginning to realize their other two were going to struggle, as well.

I supplemented my kids early education with Abeka when they were smaller. There was no way that curriculum even came close to what they were being taught in the Public School they were going to at the same time - and they were in a special needs class in the public school.

I grew up in an A.C.E. school (Accelerated Christian Education). Both my brother and sister completed every Pace that had ever been written, and aced most of every test, too. They had to graduate one year early because the curriculum had nothing else for them to do. They went on to attend NNU (Northwest Nazarene University) - the only college my parents could find that would accept them. Both of them struggled. My brother had to switch his degree to a ministerial degree just to get through and graduate on time, and my sister had to go to NNU for a few years, before she could switch to a state college. She ended up having to go to college for 10 years to successfully get the degree in finance that she wanted. My brother did not become a minister, but he had a degree that helped him get a good job in the work force. He spent years being disappointed that he was never able to get into the architectural field he wanted to be in. I was switched to a public High School in 11th grade and the school counselors told my parents that I was so far behind academically, that they could not ever imagine that I would ever make it into a state college. I did get it into a state college, but my 11th and 12th grade years were brutal. Gratefully, I had very sweet English and math teachers who were willing to have me stay after school to help me.

My recommendation to any homeschooling parent would be use multiple curriculum and make sure your child is keeping up with state standards. You can pull them from the Internet here: http://www.k12.wa.us/CurriculumInstruct/learningstandards.aspx . They are huge documents, but it is worth making sure your child keeps up with what the Public School system teaches. I've seen far too many kids, from well-meaning parents, come into the public school system after being home schooled and really struggle. The child's ability to get into college in the future will rely on the kid's being able to pass college entrance exams and those exams are based on what is taught in the Public School system.

Edited to fix the link.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

I am still watching for 2 answers.. Is there someplace away from the Enumclaw sale to meet??? And Will I be meeting with myself?? Is anybody else coming? I will be bringing birds to sale and would like to get my $$ when the sale ends but thats the only reason I have to stay.