I’m pretty happy with my set up, it’s about as close to Fort Knox as it can get. Pretty much I’d only worry about the occasional bear that we get wandering thru.
I just wish it was BIGGER.
Flat land is at a premium here tho.
I thought about doing something more permanent under the poop shelf. But I’d rather leave the floor open as much as possible when not brooding. Maybe if I had chicks more often. Had more room. Could have more chickens.
Ahhhh….some day I’ll have my little hobby farm and will be drowning in...
I’ll be the first to admit that I take the lazy way out when ever possible! Brooding on the floor of our coop means no cleaning needed. Just stir the wood pellets around a bit if the chicks haven’t done it themselves.
Well…and clean out and refill feeders/waterers as needed.
That’s what I used for my very first chicks. We didn’t have the coop ready at the time so they stayed in a pop up playpen thing with shavings in the bottom in my basement.
It did work out really good at the time!
Now tho, I prefer brooding on the floor of the coop so integration can start...
I think I’m going to ditch this dog crate when this group of chicks is done needing a brooder. I don’t like how the floor is a wire grid as well as everywhere else. The grid is raised up so a plastic tray can be slid underneath to catch any droppings if a dog was kept in it.
But every time the...
I had one of those I used as a temporary grow out pen. Mine came with spiral ground anchors and straps to help anchor it down. Maybe look into something like that? Would work better than rebar.
And definitely DEFINITELY keep snow off the roof and use some 2x4’s to prop the center roof pole up...
Home from work and Eleven is back to normal with a few scrapes that should heal no issues. Whew....
This is River, she's supposed to be a Welsummer but dang if she isnt looking just like the bat shit crazy brown leghorns I got with my last batch of chicks. Fingers crossed there wasnt a mix up...
Yesterday Eleven was standing in the pop door admiring the view when another chick had zoomies and body slammed her into the run. I just happened to be checking the coop camera and saw it happen.
Just what I was afraid of and she couldn’t figure out how to get back in. The adults chased her a...
I ordered 12 last month. One didn’t make it so I ended up with 11. I originally was going to stick to a sci-fi theme but that went out the door. We have:
Janeway
River
Eleven
Q-Tip
Chonky
Gimpy
Laverne
Shirley
Coffee Bean
Susie
Dolly Parton
Gimpy and Eleven. I think that’s Gimpy on the right and Eleven on the left. I think.
One is a Black Ameraucana and the other is an Olive Egger which this hatchery frequently seems to use Black Ameraucana as half of the hybrid.
They are both cute little balls of fluff.
Q-tip is starting...
Or maybe this is Gimpy….perching precariously on the edge of the brooder plate. Those look like her little pink toes.
But wait, Eleven had pink toes too. Maybe I should have left leg bands on!!
Gimpy is getting around so good, I can’t tell her apart from Eleven on camera or even in person at this point since I took leg bands off.
I think that’s her looking like an emu bottom right. But it could be Eleven also. They are both clean legged mostly black chicks so…. 🤷♀️
Thanks for reminding me I need to put some blocks on one side of mine so the littles can reach the nipples too. They just got released from the brooder today, and still have their waterer in their brooder they can access but I should make sure they can get to the adult waterer in the run too!