Windy hill chickens - first flock(s) of my own

[BDutch]

Northerly winds are colder but other than that we get weather from every direction here. There might be more wind or rain from a certain direction but you can't just build things with no protection from the weather on one or two sides, for example.

Here its possible to have a coop with the South-East completely open with hardware cloth and a little overhang if the other 3 sides are closed. No need for any other ventilations openings.
About 100 years ago the commercial chicken keepers build their coops like that.

 

[cavemanrich]

Here its possible to have a coop with the South-East completely open with hardware cloth and a little overhang if the other 3 sides are closed. No need for any other ventilations openings.
About 100 years ago the commercial chicken keepers build their coops like that.

That is still how the Woods coops are built, and positioned here in the US.

 

[BDutch]

That is still how the Woods coops are built, and positioned here in the US.
View attachment 4240345

Its a beautiful chicken house. I never saw such a coop in the article section on BYC. Is there one you recall? I’d like to read to read more about it , just curious.

 

[cavemanrich]

Its a beautiful chicken house. I never saw such a coop in the article section on BYC. Is there one you recall? I’d like to read to read more about it , just curious.

Here are a few I just ran across, One I did respond to.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/ready-to-go-building-plans-for-a-woods-style-coop.1565110

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...s-kd-knock-down-10-by-16-coop-pictorial.75421

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/scaling-up-a-woods-coop-design-dimensions-plan.1370249

https://gnipsel.com/files/chickens/mfaph.pdf

 

[kattabelly]

What does my head in is when there are different wind directions at different heights.

Or those blustery winds where each gust comes from a different direction.

That is still how the Woods coops are built, and positioned here in the US.
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They'd be more difficult to make work here but some of the ones I've seen of those look really nice.

 

[kattabelly]

FINALLY. Eggs from both Sussex pullets this morning. Both with decent shells - not quite as thick as I'd like, but they survived the trip home in my pocket.

 

[Perris]

When did your pullets hatch?

One of mine from the early April hatch has been laying every other day for a week now, each one slightly bigger than the last (progressively increasing from 44 to 49g), a sort of plaster pink colour, normal shape and strength shells. The only issue (and it's not really an issue) is that's she's taken Killay's advice to use the corner flower pot as her preferred nest ... Plenty of light and ventilation there!

 

[kattabelly]

When did your pullets hatch?

One of mine from the early April hatch has been laying every other day for a week now, each one slightly bigger than the last (progressively increasing from 44 to 49g), a sort of plaster pink colour, normal shape and strength shells. The only issue (and it's not really an issue) is that's she's taken Killay's advice to use the corner flower pot as her preferred nest ... Plenty of light and ventilation there!

May 10th(ish).

One of them started at pretty much bang on 20 weeks old iirc. Not massive eggs but not tiny (I don't weigh them) and she went through a phase of laying an enormous duck-sized double yolker every other day for a couple of weeks.

The other one's been going around with a really red comb & wattles - redder than any of my confirmed layers - and I've found a few shell-less or very soft-shelled eggs over the last few weeks, some in a nest box and some under roosts. That's been on & off and I haven't been sure over the last week or two if she was still having teething troubles and I was getting eggs from the other one pretty much every day, or if they're taking turns, or if one had started laying elsewhere.

They have calcium available free choice in the form of oyster shell / beach grit from a spot that contains a lot of shell, plus their own egg shells I give back to them. I know new starters sometimes just need a while for everything to get up and running properly but I dosed her with calcium tablets a few times on the basis that it wouldn't hurt short-term but I'd rather not have a very soft egg break inside her, and maybe she hadn't twigged that she needed the extra calcium yet. They've all been on a mix of layers pellets and chick crumb since Friday as the growers pellets I usually use have been out of stock, so she will've had more calcium from that too. (I would like to transition over to something more like how you feed them but it's just not an option at the moment for a few reasons - they have plenty of opportunity to supplement the processed feed though and the only time I ever really see them eating that is once in the morning and then a small snack early afternoon. Whatever they're filling their crops with just before they go to roost, they're finding themselves.)

There are plenty of nest boxes and other suitable places available but all five that are laying now prefer the same nest. Lots of shouting about whose turn it was this morning They dug up some fake eggs from the undergrowth but won't have those in any of the nests (they kick them out). When I've collected yesterday's eggs and put them in a neighbouring nest to take home later, that sometimes seems to encourage them to switch spots but I've not bothered doing it on purpose. The long grass around the lower branches of the Christmas trees in the back field makes a nice sheltered nest spot - they were always popular where I used to stay and I'm surprised not to've found anyone laying or resting under the ones here yet.

Talking of outside nests, can't remember if I mentioned this (from the breeder I know in Shetland)? Tough as old boots is clearly a trait of the breed