New in my Life Raising Chickens

[joessportster]

Pics of Chicks

[joessportster]

The locker on the back of the coop was modded to make nesting boxes (they are to young to lay but it is there and they can get used to it) last couple nights a couple adventurous birds have figured out the eaves are open for ventilation on the front about 4" of space. We go out in the am to find 1 to 4 outside the coup on the ramp huddled together.  

[Thaddeus Smith]

1 hour ago, CECAA850 said:

What makes you think he doesn't already have that?

 

Hehehe. Indeed.

 

1 hour ago, joessportster said:

Living here in the sand hills of NC with long needle pines everywhere I am thinking about using those needles for bedding in the coop / nesting boxes,  Its free Just get the boys busy with a rake................Any thoughts ?

 

as far as feed goes mine are still on the starter mix once that runs out the local TSC has recommended there brand. Thoughts ?

 

Many opinions exist about Purina, but my birds have done well on their starter/flock raoser/layena feeds.

 

1 hour ago, Schu said:

I am worried that I won't be able to eat a bird I so dearly raised... maybe just for eggs?

 

It can be - but I've found it pretty easy to do if I have it set in my mind that they're meat birds from the start. Chickens take about 9-13 weeks to reach butchering size, so it's not too bad. Turkeys take 5-6 months and we definitely got attached tt the hair presence, but it meant that much more to give them a good healthy life, respectful death, and to feed my family with them.

[dtel]

Good to see your doing ok, it's been a while.

 

Good to see you have a roof/wire over the whole thing, if not most of the birds would be gone in a week if not sooner, all kinds of things like to eat chicken.

 

Had chicken for years, to be the best thing I did was add a automatic waterier, then a automatic feeder, this cut that everyday job to once a week or so with 12 birds. It seemed a rare occasional dose or wormier seemed to keep them healthy, well it seemed so at least ?

 

I built the nesting boxes in the coop along an outside wall about 4' off the ground, , this way you you could open a hinged door behind them to get the eggs without going in the coop, this kept you from walking in the mess if your just going to get eggs. It kind of looked like how you have your cabinet thing on the back but flush with that back wall. Unless that is there nest in that box ?

 

 

[tigerwoodKhorns]

You are lucky that you can raise chickens.  A friend moved to Utah about three hours away and is raising chicks and other animals.  Sounds great but I cannot live in the cold. 

 

 

I actually just ordered  a 1/12 grass fed cow from this place last night.  They deliver to a warehouse in Las Vegas that is very close.  Nice service and much less than organic meat at a supermarket. 

 

https://bar10beef.com/store/product/grand-canyon-package

 

 

 

[joessportster]

Dtel, the cabinet is an old locker that had a shelf, I cut part of the back out of the cabinet and left the shelf so they have 3 nesting areas one above the other 30 inchs wide and 10 inchs tall  and 10 inches deep with a 10X10 opening at each shelf I figure they can nest side by side or I could easily go in and partition off sections to limit space, access to the nests will be easy just open the locker doors from the outside

 

Tiger thanks for the link I will look at it, I only buy meet that they are clearing out due to the date, we throw it in our freezer untill needed, end up spending about 40 percent less overall

[WillyBob]

I considered getting some chooks.

this place was [some time ago] set up. 3 coops. Feeder/waterers, nesting boxes, wooden eggs 

Along with everything else on the property, most is broken down and in need. 

 

 

[Audio Flynn]

I have done chickens since 2010. Currently rebuilding my flock.

 

Hawks and mink killed off allot of my older fowl last year. Guniea Hens make me nuts. They would not roost inside and 14 of 16 were killed by owls in 3 weeks after they were inside the coop for 5 months.

 

I am adding three geese as a predator deterrent this time. I prefer to free range since they eat the insects and fertilize the lawn. Very pretty 'portable shrubbery'.

 

I love duck eggs. Kacki Campbells and other frequent layers.

 

At times I do 25 meat chickens at a time. I have 3 coops.

[Thaddeus Smith]

I lost two flocks of Guineas because they would roost on the edge of my chicken run, only about 4.5ft high and predators would ****** them early in the morning while still asleep. I have one left.. the single male that learned to roost in the rafters of my barn, and he's the last one I'll own in the foreseeable future.

[JJkizak]

1 hour ago, Audio Flynn said:

I have done chickens since 2010. Currently rebuilding my flock.

 

Hawks and mink killed off allot of my older fowl last year. Guniea Hens make me nuts. They would not roost inside and 14 of 16 were killed by owls in 3 weeks after they were inside the coop for 5 months.

 

I am adding three geese as a predator deterrent this time. I prefer to free range since they eat the insects and fertilize the lawn. Very pretty 'portable shrubbery'.

 

I love duck eggs. Kacki Campbells and other frequent layers.

 

At times I do 25 meat chickens at a time. I have 3 coops.

 

Geese also keep the snakes away.

JJK

[Thaddeus Smith]

we've found pretty good success in just having roosters roaming around with our hens. we also keep an inner perimeter of about 20yds mowed on our pasture so that coyotes can't creep too close without being seen.

[parlophone1]

Last week we have left our chickens in the open, forgot to close them for the night.

Although we have a loose dog during the night, we lost half of chickens. It must have been foxes from the woods.

Fence all around is a good thing, especially for lighter hens that tend to fly over the fence. But for predators it is wise to close the chickens in the closet during the night. And watch for holes in the cabinet occasionally.

[joessportster]

And here I just told the wife they would be fine without closing that damn door..........................I gotta get off my kiester now....................

[Audio Flynn]

On 4/17/2018 at 9:43 AM, joessportster said:

Pics of Chicks

I cannot see the bottom of the gate. I do put chicken wire at the bottom of the gates at the hinge and lock area. Gate does swing funky but it keeps the small nasty predators out.

 

We do not have snake problems in Michigan but the DAMN minks are frustrating. I do not have a successful method of trapping them.

[Thaddeus Smith]

Might as well share my setup. This was a horse/donkey barn with a couple of paddocks, so I tried to reuse core infrastructure as much as possible. Here's an outside view of the coop entrance and their run. It's roughly 32x32ft. The green corner is for wind/sun protection (was more important when I didn't free range them). We typically don't close the coop hatch and instead just close the gate the to the run each night. We've only had one snake problem over the course of 2 years. Aviary netting over top, supported by the 2" pvc frame. The uprights are simply placed over top of some T-posts. It stays up wonderfully and flexes enough in the wind that nothing breaks. 

 

 

Here's the entrance to the run. I have a lot of cattle panels, so I cut them up all sorts of ways and use them as the skeleton for things, tie-wrapping various types of lighter fencing to them depending on the animal. It make conventional latching solutions a bit more difficult, so in this case we just lean a heavy paver stone against it to keep it shut. KISS.

 

 

This was our first coop, built mostly out of scrap. Now we use it as a holding space for juvenile birds, currently ducks. From there they go into the main coop/run for egg layers, movable tractors in the pasture for meat birds, or exclusively free range if I just don't have a care/purpose for them.

 

 

The coop itself is a converted tack room.

 

 

Nothing fancy, but it keeps them dry and out of the sun. We use the deep litter method, so having full access for cleaning out the compost material is important. The structure on the left is an old wooden chaise lounge. Usually it sits flat so we can feed them during inclement weather, but they've been laying underneath it lately so I'm trying to break that habit. It has lights and electrical outlets, along with floors/ceiling/walls - it just made the logical choice for the coop. I cut a hole into the siding and built perches on each side. I anticipated to use the hatch door more but it hasn't seemed necessary.

 

 

This was an old stock tank that was rotting away in the barn. Helps containin the layers and I'm all about re-purposing things. They'll lay in the buckets, or to the side of them, seemingly on a whim. So I try to just make sure there's enough straw to suit their needs. Nothing fancy here folks.

 

 

My biggest concern was ventilation, so I took some of this wall down and threw up some hardware cloth. Expensive stuff, but worth it compared to chicken wire.

 

 

A view from the other side (one of my goat pens).

 

 

And then this is a rabbit hutch we got for free from a friend. Tightened everything up and now it serves as the brooder for all of our hatchlings. We do have a plastic tote brooder if we end up with chicks in the winter months and need to keep them indoors. They go from here to the juvenile pen after about 3-4 weeks.

 

 

[boricua2480]

We’ve had issues with hawks getting 2 of our chickens and 3 were killed by a Mink that squeezed through a small spot and decapitated them. Currently I’m building a Fort Knox for them so these things don’t happen again. Predators never stop trying though. Lots of trial and error with keeping them safe though. 

[joessportster]

Thad thats a big setup (NICE)..............................Baby steps joe,  baby steps

[Thaddeus Smith]

Baby steps indeed. The first coop (now for juveniles) had a 16x16ft run attached, basically 4 cattle panels square. The barn was full of trash and just a dumping ground for everything I didn't want in the garage, which was full of crap I didn't want in the house. It took me about a month to clean up, burn, bury, haul it all off and start to prep for birds and goats. A year later and I continue to refine things but overall it's working out like I had planned. We're on year 3 or so since we started buying and growing livestock and in it for the long haul, so just taking our time and growing in manageable increments.

[parlophone1]

In our experience, concrete foundations help with big carnivore predators like foxes preventing them to dig holes under the fence. Fence all arround help against hawks etc. The problem are snakes and smaler animals that can enter through the fence. Denser fence might be a solution to most of them, but not all.

[Rivervalleymgb]

If snakes are stealing the eggs, put a golf ball, or several, in the laying boxes. End of problem.