Raising chickens. Advice, comments, do's and don'ts wanted.

[ebinmaine 67,455]

The other day we finished up building the wall on the right hand side and got the floor all in place and screwed down. This evening I made up the door frames for the front. The opening is roughly 56 High by 89 wide and we're going to split that in half into two doors that open wide out so that we can clean it out easier.

 

 

[Pullstart 62,840]

13 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

The other day we finished up building the wall on the right hand side and got the floor all in place and screwed down. This evening I made up the door frames for the front. The opening is roughly 56 High by 89 wide and we're going to split that in half into two doors that open wide out so that we can clean it out easier.

 

 

 

 

One of of our best additions to our second coop was linoleum flooring.  I wish however, we would have taken the bottom frame work out of the doorway, for cleanup.  Possibly it’s not too late to add that into your design?

[ebinmaine 67,455]

15 minutes ago, pullstart said:

 

 

One of of our best additions to our second coop was linoleum flooring.  I wish however, we would have taken the bottom frame work out of the doorway, for cleanup.  Possibly it’s not too late to add that into your design?

My father is actually a flooring installer. We had the same idea with the linoleum.

we are in fact, going to line the walls 2 or 3 feet up as well.

I'm going to pick some up from him in a month or so when we get down to Massachusetts.

 

Those door frames that you see will open out completely so that there will be nothing interfering in the doorway whatsoever. There's actually going to be at least a quarter of an inch of space even after the linoleum is installed. What you can see in that picture will be covered with solid sheets of OSB and then some trim in certain places to cover the gaps and several locks on the outside to prevent predator intrusion.

 

[ebinmaine 67,455]

Here's where we're at with the chicken coop as of tonight. The doors are all framed up and installed and painted and the latches are on the bottom.

Also a shot of a chicken just for your entertainment.

 

 

 

[Darb1964 1,042]

Looking good the birds are feathin up good 👍

[Pullstart 62,840]

At 16 birds, I was quite surprised when my wife told me she thinks we need more!  She has been selling them at work, to family and of course they are a staple every day in our home.  From many different people, we’ve been told our birds’ eggs are the tastiest, creamiest eggs they have ever had.  The funny thing, is our feed comes from the local mill, free range and table scraps from us and a few friends.  I wouldn’t”t think they are any different from any other small farm eggs, but even long time farm egg eaters swear they only want ours.  

 

So my tip for the day.... don’t share unless you want to run out all the time!  

[ebinmaine 67,455]

I think we averaged consuming about 12 to 16 eggs between the two of us per week.

it'll be another three months or more before we know how many females we even have.

We are hoping for six or eight females so that we get a yield between 12 and 18 eggs per week during the laying season.

It's possible we may expand further than that if things go well and there's any consistent demand.

I built the coop big enough to house 12 to 15 birds.

[ebinmaine 67,455]

We moved the young-uns to the outdoor coop tonight!!

 

Here's a couple shots of the set-up.

 

 

 

 

[formariz 11,987]

Too bad you are not closer. I would keep you supplied with fresh bedding.

[ebinmaine 67,455]

[ebinmaine 67,455]

The coop and run are complete!!!!

 

[Pullstart 62,840]

Hey EB and BBT!  Here’s a little note to tell you that you’ll be happy with the rewards you get from your hens!

 

 

[ebinmaine 67,455]

1 minute ago, pullstart said:

little note

Hahahahahahha!!!!!

[ebinmaine 67,455]

On 6/18/2019 at 2:21 PM, pullstart said:

Hey EB and BBT!  Here’s a little note to tell you that you’ll be happy with the rewards you get from your hens!

 

 

 

 

 

We started getting eggs a few days ago. Five or six now I think.

The two on the left are from our neighbors adult chickens. I suppose that leaves the two on the right as our own.

 

Absolutely delicious. We've had fresh eggs from local places and we loved them. Now we can pull them out of our own coop and ENJOY.

 

 

 

[ebinmaine 67,455]

Trina was raking the coop earlier today and took a cute picture of the chickens so I figured I would do an update.

 

We've had them for a little over a year now and things have been going very very well.

We gave the one rooster and two hens to the neighbors across the street last fall. That leaves us with nine hens.

During the winter we were getting 2 - 4 eggs pretty much every day.

Now that it has warmed up some and the days are getting longer we've been getting 5 - 8 eggs everyday.

They are still a very friendly bunch which is actually one of the reasons why we chose this breed.

 

 

 

[quahog 14]

 look  like   Buffs  to  me .  Lookin  forward  to a  small  flock of   same   for '  quahog   farm ' soon.

[ebinmaine 67,455]

5 minutes ago, quahog said:

 look  like   Buffs  to  me .  Lookin  forward  to a  small  flock of   same   for '  quahog   farm ' soon.

Yes they are.

Buff orpington.

 

We'd certainly recommend them.

 

[Pullstart 62,840]

We have 4 different breeds.  Auracanas or however you say/spell them (Easter Eggers), Barred Rock, White Rock and Jersey Giants.  16 birds total but not all groups of 4.  They are so dang dumb it’s not funny.  We still get eggs in the coop most of the time and average about 13 per day right now.  Plenty to share with family!  Once in a while they’ll go on a egg pecking spree so we use wooden eggs to deter the habit and it helps quite a bit.  Right now we’re battling with mice in the coop.  The feeder is built in and they have made their way in from the back side with their own entrance.  I think we’re winning, we fumigated with Stormy yesterday.  

 

 

Here are a few pictures.  The girls painted the coop to make it feel happy in there and I hung a snow plowing sign upside down to keep ‘em wondering.

 

 

 

[quahog 14]

 Hope you  folks  are   chicken talk tollerant !   Had  Plymouth  rocks  RI   reds  and  Golden  lace ,  Kids  use  to  send  the Reds   down  their  slide  for   fun !   Years   ago .  The   Buffs   are  low  stress  birds   and   my  doc   says   its   what  I  need ... low  stress . Will  try  to  post  my 856  as  thats   what   this  is  about ...  Thanks    quahog

[ebinmaine 67,455]

23 minutes ago, quahog said:

chicken talk

 

Well... This particular thread is about chickens... Actually I'm surprised it hasn't strayed off to something else yet... Especially with @pullstart Kevin and me in it..

 

 

26 minutes ago, quahog said:

Will  try  to  post  my 856  as  thats   what   this  is  about

We do loves our tractor talk... And everything else.

That's what's awesome about Redsquare.

 

[Pullstart 62,840]

A true fact of life, for every birth there is a death.  We had a raccoon scale the fence into a tree and took a head last night.  Just one.  A Jersey Giant.  Then tracks leading back out.  Another true fact though, as I can play that game too.  Time to start trapping!  As for any other pests hunting or scavenging, I laid her to rest with a good view at a perfect poking distance of a 17 hmr off the back porch.  

[ebinmaine 67,455]

4 minutes ago, pullstart said:

perfect poking distance of a 17 hmr

 

Want some chicken Mr raccoon?

 

 

[Ed Kennell 38,159]

5 minutes ago, pullstart said:

took a head

 

Just the head....probably a weasel.

[ebinmaine 67,455]

I'm pleasantly surprised that nothing has broken through our fencing system yet. It's pretty rugged but there are definitely some animals around here that could get in if they really wanted to. 

 

Black bears in this area really aren't much for meat at all but they would absolutely go after the chicken food. 

 

[Jeff-C175 7,201]

I miss my neighbor Harry.  RIP Harry!  His little 'farm' was in my backyard.  He raised all sorts of birds.  MANY chickens and the eggs were wonderful, we never had to buy any.  They used to escape and nest beneath the ivy on my garage wall.  So I had chickens too.  Many broods of chicks were born in that ivy.  

 

Racoons and fox were always his worst nightmare.  I helped him uhhhh... 'dispose' of them.  Let's just say that no traps were used...

 

And rats.  OMG, the rat problem was pretty bad.  I'm not sad to see that go away.  But they were good target practice.  Them suckaz are SMART!  It's a skill set that takes a lot of practice to plink rats.  I got the father of all rats one night.  That thing was all of 24" long, nose to tail tip.  Took me four years to get him.  Harry hung him by the tail so the other rats could see him.  It didn't faze them, instead they ate him.  Rats are disgusting creatures.