I hope you weren't being critical. I live on a very open 30 acre hay farm. All of the local farmers have dogs that run loose, ours do not, they are controlled when outdoors, but I do have to lure the free range chickens in when I see certain dogs on our farm. There is very little cover for...
I have never started chicks in winter before, but bought a dozen 2 week old chicks in early December. When they were feathered, I put them in the empty, cleaned coop and left them inside for about a week and a half or two for them to become accustomed to "home." Of course once they were...
In November, I bought a dozen 2 week old chicks; 3 each Olive Eggers, New Hampshires, Welsummers, and Mottled Javas to replace an aging flock of Buff Orpingtons and Welsummers that had quit laying. The pullets have been in the outdoor coop for about a month, and allowed in the run for the past...
I have a welded wire run that currently has bird net over it. I have been looking for a more permanent, substantial run but the run is on a slight slope and our area is noted for it's rocks so digging in posts to make a frame and wire structure is difficult. My coop is a Leonard 5 X 8 raised...
It was the second photo that prompted my question. The door into the run is in front of the coop, the tall coop door at a 90 angle to it. The ramp from the chicken door, in my case a pop door goes into a part of the run that is chain link fence.
I have had 5 hens brood this spring. Hen 1 hatched 6 of 10 eggs. I moved her to the chicken tractor with her Little's and all was well until week 3. An Opossum got in under the end of the tractor, killed 4. I moved mom and 2 chicks to the coop and they have been fine. Hen 2 hatched 7 of 10 one...
I have a Buff Orpington hen who has sat an empty nest for more than a month. If I block the nest box, she just moves to another one. I had golf balls in some of the boxes for the pullets who are just starting to lay and she would collect the golf balls from all the other boxes and put them...
Thanks for the input. I can't put heat or light in my coop and wouldn't. Of the 9 pullets, I am still getting 6 to 8 eggs a day, she will start again eventually. It hasn't gotten that cold here yet, except for a few nights and I do give them scratch in the late afternoon to warm them up and...
My BO roo is the same age as yours. He is half again larger than the pullets. He doesn't crow a lot, especially now that it is colder, but my first clue was when he started mounting the girls.
My DIL won't eat my eggs because they aren't uniform and white. Won't eat my chicken because it has bones and isn't packed in a styrofoam tray and "we only eat healthy." Won't waste my eggs or chicken on them again.
My flock are all about 8 months old. 1 BO roo, 2 BO pullets, 3 Red Star pullets, 1 RIR pullet, 1 SLW pullet, 1 unknown maybe Delaware pullet, and 1 Olive Egger pullet. My mid October, all 8 ladies were laying about 6 eggs per gal per week, except the Olive Egger and she would give me an egg...
I built 2 PVC feeders with a 45 degree connector, hung them several inches off the floor of the coop and they still throw the food out. I actually have less waste with a bin and tray hanging feeder that holds 10 lbs.
Yesterday the babies got a pen within the run and a pen within the coop. Things went well until today and I came home to find one had escaped into the run and was being terrorized. I hung an apple cored and stuffed with peanut butter, oats, and pumpkin seed and a hot stick in two locations to...
Three pallets fastened on a U, covered with a tarp, add a 3 foot high run of a 25' long roll of wire fence and top with poultry netting. Served a flock of 10 for about 3 weeks until I could get their cull house finished.