Reviews by wolfinator

I have power in my coops and I use heat lamps with the 6 chicks I'm raising and for the water heater bases. They're on the multi purpose side of my main coop. I also use baby monitors for all my coops. My heat lamps are clamped to boards and have wire holding them in place. I started initially using them with some of the more exotic bantams I was given that weren't cold hardy. Mine are timers set to come on for a few hours in the morning and evening, just enough to knock off the chill - except for use with the chicks. My coop at night, chick side is lit up from their heat lamp.

One thing that wasn't mentioned in the article is it's a good idea to install smoke detectors inside and keep a fire extinguisher handy.

I have 7 roosters - 2 RIR's 3 1/2 yrs (bought togethers chicks), a black Australorp 3 1/2 yrs, a buff Orpington, a Amberlink/black Australorp cross 2 1/2 yrs, a Cuckoo Maran 1 2/2 yrs and the youngest at 7 months, a buff Brahma. The Australorp and Orpington's were gotten together from a friend. All were bought at the local TSC or Southern States Co-op except the cross breed, he was hatched by one of my bantams. They mostly get along with minimal tiffs. Two of them, a RIR and the black Australorp are co-alpha over all the flock with the RIR being the top rooster. Together they keep the younger roosters in line as well as all of the hens. I also have 3 drakes and 3 duck hens. The oldest drake, a 2 1/2 yr old, for an unknown reason, constantly chases the Cuckoo Maran rooster around the pen. My boys also talk to neighboring roosters throughout the day. I'm not sure whether its mine or one of the neighbors that starts first but they all seem to like crowing starting at 3am. At one time, I had 11 roosters in 4 pens but some were rehomed and a few died. Now all the ducks and chickens share the same pen and 2 coops.

I did have a "mean" rooster, a black Australorp named Jokester that I raised from age 4 months to his death several months ago at just over 3 years old. He for no reason attacked my hand one day drawing blood. Another black Australorp and both my RIR roosters whooped him all over the pen afterwards. He left me alone for about a month, then struck again. I showed him who was boss this time. That lasted another month or 2 before he attacked again. As he got older, he tested me a few times more. One day I bought some organic feed on sale and had just filled feeders when the worst happened. He was eating sneezed and inhaled the very powdery like feed causing him to turn purple. He was suffocating and he stumbled over to me as I made my way to him. I tried everything I could think of but he passed in my hands shortly afterwards. Eventhough we had our differences, he came to me for help but I wasn't able to. He got his name because he always laughed at people especially if you dropped something. He had the most beautiful perfect pitch crow I've ever heard and I miss hearing it each morning and miss him.

*Pictured are 3 of my boys.

I can even hold all 6 of my roosters. I found the best time to hold a mean rooster is a bedtime once on a roost. I have 2 roosters that I can more easily catch and hold once on roost. When mine see me in the back yard, they come running to the fence - including my 3 ducks. I even have had a few of my girls fly up and try to sit on my back (as I leaned over), my shoulder and even my head (glad I had a hat on!), demanding their attention. They have learned where the food is kept and a group will camp out at the storage door when the food is low/out. It fun trying to walk through 30+ chickens to get to the storage room.

1st photo - My coop and pen. They spotted me taking photos and ran to the corner as usual.

2nd - me holding my buff Orpington rooster (he's my gentle boy)

3rd - she's the last of my Showgirls (age 4+) - her first time meeting my dog, Kitty. Kitty although having been around the chickens was never allowed to interact since snapping at one when I first got them in 2015. She's since matured and gained my trust after a group of hens escaped and she watched over them til I could find and put everyone back - has happened several times since that 1st time.

I have a mixed flock of bantam chickens, standard rooster (he chose to be in this pen) and khaki Campbell's ducks. My bantam hens have been surrogate hatching mommas to 6 ducks and 6 standard chickens plus 6 bought standard chickens over the last year. My bantam hens are 3 1/2 years old and don't lay as often, 2 go broody every few months so I let them sit on others eggs at times. I limit each hen on how many eggs they can try to hatch so I don't have too many babies at one time.
Pictured below are my 2 bantam surrogate hens (white 1 is a Showgirl, grey 1 mix breed) with 2 of the ducklings they hatched and chicks I bought together in nursery coop. 2 more ducklings hatched a few days later.
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I have haven't had any problems with my mixed flock other than the ducks constantly muddy the water. I allow all my pens of chickens and ducks to mingle in a larger fenced area outside their 4 pens. There's a total of 69 between all of them of which there are 8 roosters (1 bantam), 49 hens and pullets, 2 drakes and 4 ducks. The 6 chicks (5 pullets, 1 cockerel - bought as pullet) are kept separate since they're under 9 weeks.
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