Hello members,
I am a city chick turned homebound rural animal care provider. The older I get the more my home life represents that of an earlier century. Originally, I adopted 6 hens from a client who sold her home to go into assisted living care almost 9 years ago now. Then I tried out my first rooster about 3-4 years after that, when my adopted chicks had aged out and I retired them to a rural property. Roo Paul died about 3-4 years later (ate something rotten and never fully recovered) and I am now with my 2nd Roo, and 3rd batch of hens, and trying out natural incubation... Oh my, what in the WORLD inspired me to do so?
My chickens have a pretty decent used/scrap/remodeled hen house (it is 6x6 and 2 levels tall, with 5 nesting/hiding areas and half the floor is raw dirt, which allows for self composting and longer stretches between cleaning...) and a large fenced yard (about 10' x 60') and well shaded by several large trees. I let them out every morning and close the door every night. After a fatal racoon attack about 6 months ago (caught him IN the hen house, lost 1 chick) I secured the compromised fencing area and installed a solar powered motion light - which seems to work WELL to scare off the giant vermin.
Until now, I've just been a voyeur on this site... or maybe commented on other posts. But now that I dabbling in God's house (raising chicks from eggs...) I feel totally lost and have come back to Backyard Chickens for help and support. I so appreciate this community, and it is WONDERFUL to see that a couple of folks are able to survive making this forum a full time career. With the rampant loss of agricultural land to development (a bigger problem of it's own account) It's been a blessing to see animal husbandry work it's way into the urban envelope.
I am a city chick turned homebound rural animal care provider. The older I get the more my home life represents that of an earlier century. Originally, I adopted 6 hens from a client who sold her home to go into assisted living care almost 9 years ago now. Then I tried out my first rooster about 3-4 years after that, when my adopted chicks had aged out and I retired them to a rural property. Roo Paul died about 3-4 years later (ate something rotten and never fully recovered) and I am now with my 2nd Roo, and 3rd batch of hens, and trying out natural incubation... Oh my, what in the WORLD inspired me to do so?
My chickens have a pretty decent used/scrap/remodeled hen house (it is 6x6 and 2 levels tall, with 5 nesting/hiding areas and half the floor is raw dirt, which allows for self composting and longer stretches between cleaning...) and a large fenced yard (about 10' x 60') and well shaded by several large trees. I let them out every morning and close the door every night. After a fatal racoon attack about 6 months ago (caught him IN the hen house, lost 1 chick) I secured the compromised fencing area and installed a solar powered motion light - which seems to work WELL to scare off the giant vermin.
Until now, I've just been a voyeur on this site... or maybe commented on other posts. But now that I dabbling in God's house (raising chicks from eggs...) I feel totally lost and have come back to Backyard Chickens for help and support. I so appreciate this community, and it is WONDERFUL to see that a couple of folks are able to survive making this forum a full time career. With the rampant loss of agricultural land to development (a bigger problem of it's own account) It's been a blessing to see animal husbandry work it's way into the urban envelope.
Motion sensor lights or solar lights really do help at night. My yard used to look like a run way, I swear you could probably see our place from space it used to be so lit up! 
I have since cut back on the coops and bird aviaries. 
That's about it. 
