Recent content by AFG

Look for a free dog house or kennel type structure. That might tide you over until you have time to build properly. BTW, chickens also love to eat the rigid insulation (pink or blue stuff). Have no idea why, but my girls free-ranging on 75 acres preferred to run to the garage area and eat...

Watch them, plain and simple. If they are huddled under the heat source, it's too cold. If they are avoiding the heat, it's too warm! Don't need a thermometer for that. Besides we all know from our "take your temperature every 2 hours" Covid days, most thermometers are not as accurate as we...

Chicken Math! From an article I read on BackyardPoultry.com Pullets and hens eat an average of 1.5lbs of their respective feeds per week. Attached is a worksheet I give my 4-H'ers.

If those are the roost bars, to the left in the photo, they seem pretty low. They and the food and water are taking up floor space. 1st: you move the roosts up -- and turn them so the 4" side is up while you do it. 2nd: put in a shelf above chicken head height when they are standing on the...

I am going to do something similar, but with more sturdy plastic pallets, we have both the kind in your photo and more traditionally shaped plastic pallets where I work, so I looked at both. How are you going to fasten those together? Also, yes, rodents can still chew in. I am going to put...

I've got 2x4's wide side up in a stadium seating arrangement starting at 3ft off the floor going up to 7ft high. I do have a box about 15" high as a launch/landing pad for the big girls.

The birds will peck at the paint and any "spots" that appear on it, especially as composite/chip board starts to loosen up over time, lots of cracks for dust to settle onto. I like tile board (basically 4 x 8 sheets of whiteboard) which is pretty cheap, very smooth, and anything that the birds...

Um, sounds like everyone is making these statements based on very small numbers of birds of those types? Like saying you don't like a specific make/model of car because one had muffler issues... I live in a cold climate, and the Leghorn and Minorca I have are the first ones out in the snow...

Unless you are very carefully balancing the ration (like the nutritionists at the feed companies!), you are best to be sure 90% of the food you give them comes from a commercially prepared layer feed, and only 10% treats. Even free-ranging provides different nutrients in different locals...

Any type of light will work, and enough to comfortably read a newspaper throughout most of the coop. So, a low output LED is your best bet, on a timer to come on in the a.m. Increase the amount of light by about 30 minutes per week until you hit the 13-16 hours of light per day, whatever your...

I know I'm a bit late to answer your question, but doesn't look like anyone else did, and maybe this will help someone else. Be sure your roost bars are higher than the nest boxes (which are too large for most breeds -- allowing room to pile in), the roosts should be 2 x 4's with the wider side...

Fun! I will give this page to my poultry 4-H'ers who love finding weird/fun/gross things.

Hmmm, my chickens must be as weird as myself. I'm in Northern Vermont, we've had good snow cover for about 3 weeks now, since early November this year (but next week should hit 50 degrees & rain Tuesday with 20 degrees Wednesday...) My chickens always go out free range, unless I lock them in...

That coop is lovely! My only question is do they feel safe and snuggly with all the windows? Are their roost bars in a quiet dark corner? While we're at it, smooth 2 x 3's or 2 x 4's actually make the best roost bars, chickens don't actually love round bars, and prefer to have their feet flat...