What did you do with your flock today?

[629864]

@TropicalBabies
My reds are about 1.5 years old. The rest were all hatched on August 11...so that makes them 22.5 weeks old. The 2 new Orps are 6-7 months old.

I currently dont have anywhere else to house the boys in a bachelor pad. That's why I was thinking I might need to reduce the number of them. We had originally wanted just 2, but got sent 4. I maybe should have culled two when they were little and easy to catch. Now they're impossible to catch. Sure, I can corral them easily, but I haven't ever been able to catch one since they left the brooder. Cant catch the pullets either. But that's also why we chose these two breeds...flighty and therefore more predator resistant. The reds and the Orps are the only chickens I can catch reasonably reliably....and even some of the reds are very difficult to catch. I guess I'd have to wait until nighttime to catch one of the roos and hope the other three dont go on the defensive.

 

[pennyJo1960]

@TropicalBabies
My reds are about 1.5 years old. The rest were all hatched on August 11...so that makes them 22.5 weeks old. The 2 new Orps are 6-7 months old.

I currently dont have anywhere else to house the boys in a bachelor pad. That's why I was thinking I might need to reduce the number of them. We had originally wanted just 2, but got sent 4. I maybe should have culled two when they were little and easy to catch. Now they're impossible to catch. Sure, I can corral them easily, but I haven't ever been able to catch one since they left the brooder. Cant catch the pullets either. But that's also why we chose these two breeds...flighty and therefore more predator resistant. The reds and the Orps are the only chickens I can catch reasonably reliably....and even some of the reds are very difficult to catch. I guess I'd have to wait until nighttime to catch one of the roos and hope the other three dont go on the defensive.

Usually if you do it at night then others do not go after you!

 

[TropicalBabies]

@TropicalBabies
My reds are about 1.5 years old. The rest were all hatched on August 11...so that makes them 22.5 weeks old. The 2 new Orps are 6-7 months old.

I currently dont have anywhere else to house the boys in a bachelor pad. That's why I was thinking I might need to reduce the number of them. We had originally wanted just 2, but got sent 4. I maybe should have culled two when they were little and easy to catch. Now they're impossible to catch. Sure, I can corral them easily, but I haven't ever been able to catch one since they left the brooder. Cant catch the pullets either. But that's also why we chose these two breeds...flighty and therefore more predator resistant. The reds and the Orps are the only chickens I can catch reasonably reliably....and even some of the reds are very difficult to catch. I guess I'd have to wait until nighttime to catch one of the roos and hope the other three dont go on the defensive.

A dog cage works. If you have enough room in the run. Maybe just days off and nights with the flock. You are smart and will figure it out ♡♡ Yes, night works great for nabbing them.

 

[629864]

Thanks so much for the feedback @pennyJo1960 and @TropicalBabies! It's really appreciated.

A bit of a win tonight: all reds willingly in one coop, all young ones in the other...and I even managed to gently shoo the guineas into the young one's coop after dark ... guided by the light on my cell phone. I couldnt get the new Orps to stay in the coop (the opening from the coop to the run doesnt close) so I had to lock them back in their temp cage. I had put them in the coop several times, but they kept coming out into the rain. I should have toweled them, but stupidly didnt think of it in time. They're both snuggled in their nests, so I decided to leave them be. I hope they'll be ok. I hate the learning curve with animals. Next year our chickens will benefit from what we've learned from our mistakes/ignorance from this year. *sigh*

 

[pennyJo1960]

I think we can all say that now. I grew up on a cattle farm years gone by. So much has changed over the years .. Time I think I need to look something up and do ... Usually can find the answer here..

 

[629864]

I think we can all say that now. I grew up on a cattle farm years gone by. So much has changed over the years .. Time I think I need to look something up and do ... Usually can find the answer here..

Thank you for understanding. If it were asparagus, I wouldn't fret so much. But animals suffering because of my ignorance...that really bothers me.

DH and I talked this evening about needing to get the new covered run built before next winter hits. I'm so sorry our current flock had to help us learn, but next year we'll be far more prepared.

 

[pennyJo1960]

My coop the new main one will be up mid Spring .. We had known for quite a long time that we would have to build a new coop .. My problem was my birds currently have 17 feet diamteter of coop I have 25 birds in there.
On 3 tables at night ..

 

[TropicalBabies]

Thank you for understanding. If it were asparagus, I wouldn't fret so much. But animals suffering because of my ignorance...that really bothers me.

DH and I talked this evening about needing to get the new covered run built before next winter hits. I'm so sorry our current flock had to help us learn, but next year we'll be far more prepared.

I think you are doing great and I enjoy hearing about your little farm. Super love the photos.

 

[629864]

My coop the new main one will be up mid Spring .. We had known for quite a long time that we would have to build a new coop .. My problem was my birds currently have 17 feet diamteter of coop I have 25 birds in there.
On 3 tables at night ..

It's amazing how spacious a coop seems when you move the young birds in from the brooder....compared to how cramped it becomes once they grow up. I'm so thankful these coops were already built when we bought this place. But having them built and clearly decades old, we made the mistake of assuming the previous owners had everything in place that was needed. So we learned as we went along. We have the chickens and guineas for insect control as much as for eggs. So that's why we have so many birds. We dont expect them to patrol the entire 36 acres of course, but they took us from absolutely infested with ticks to no ticks in less than two weeks. That all by itself makes all of these birds worth gold to me. Plus they're hilariously entertaining .

 

[629864]

I think you are doing great and I enjoy hearing about your little farm. Super love the photos.

Awww thanks!

I'll post some "Holy crap! What the heck is this stuff?" photos in the morning when I open the coop door and the reds see snow for the first time. The youngs will likely have gotten out and seen it before I get out of bed though. And DH let me know just now that he'd gone out around midnight (1:34 am for us now) and the dumb guineas were back outside on the roost in the enclosure getting snowed on instead of staying in the warm(ish) dry coop.