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We gave the 24 birds , 24 feet of roosting bars (a foot per adult bird). It seems they would rather huddle together. When temps increase and they grow in size,. Im sure they will like the added room.

After 2 nights, the chickens put themselves to bed. That means I could open the space under the coop to them. I had it blocked off since I didnt want to be crawling under the coop on hands and knees to retrieve chickens that didnt know how to go back into the coop at night. This opens up...

We evicted the protein today.

Tomorrow we will move the 7 week old protein from the brooder to the coop. Today I finished adding the sand to the run and did a little more back filling of the job site around the coop and run to make sure we have good drainage away from the structure.

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Today I added some roosts in the run.

We are getting closer to putting the protein out into the coop and run. Since it was a rainy day, I made 2 feeders and 2 waterers. One of each is in the brooder and they have taken to them very well. We will be able to remove the chick feeders and waterers from the brooder. These are no...

Its spring so we are spiting our time between expanding the garden space on the homestead and finishing the coop and run. The chicks wont go in the coop for another week or two so I wanted to get the sand in the coop so it was dry by the time the chicks are added. When we add the 24 chicks...

when we put up the deer fence around the garden, I bought the black version because they claimed that from a distance you cant see the mesh (they were correct, it cant be seen) When I put the shiny galvanized mesh on the chicken coop/run, it blocked the view through the mesh. Because I have an...

As the post said, "one pic is a test to see if folks are paying attention."

I secured my last predator vulnerability at the sky light. Mr. Ermine (weasel) should be locked out now. One picture is a test to see if people are paying attention. 😉

It was a rainy afternoon here so I worked on perimeter security for the birds. My main predators will be members of the weasel family (with ermine being the most likely of all), coon, fox, skunk, after that, its coyote, bobcat, feral cat, possum, Lastly wolf and bear (but far less likely) I...

After watching the nearly 3 week old chicks dusting themselves in the wood chips, I made them a dust bath using, sand from the driveway, Peat moss that we use in our raised bed garden, and ashes from our wood stove. I sifted them all, mixed them and put it in an old 9 x 13 cake pan and put it...

Im planting dwarf trees 15 feet apart. That is a good spacing.

part of our homesteading / preparedness journey is growing stuff like a huge garden and the chickens. Part of that plan is to plant 5 apple trees between the coop and the garden.The apple trees I ordered, arrived today. After spreading more pea gravel around the coop and run, I thought I would...

Its spring, it rained last night and i sick of the mud around the new coop and run so Im doing something about it. Where the coop and run sit, was a huge pile of dirt just 8 months ago since we were excavating for another building on the homestead. Our soil is clay and rock and when it gets...

I held off on using wood shaving under the chicks in the brooder but now they are over 2 weeks old so we added wood shavings. Under normal circumstances, this means a feeder and waterer full of pine shavings and a real mess because these little buggers kick and scratch and throw shavings...

I misspelled it when I joined and I dont know if I can change it. Its supposed to be "Rancid Crabtree" a character from the Patrick McManus books.

The most likely day time killer of our chickens will be an Ermine. We have seen them near the coop already. I spent some time today closing holes that vermin would squeeze through. Then I secured the bottom of the sun shade cloth in a manner that wont get damaged by snow plowing along the run.