Chicken keepers!

[Sal]

Ok, final update for the weekend!

I couldnt do any more painting because there was some rain in the forecast today - so we focused on getting all the plywood up and getting things as ready as we could for starting finishing work next weekend.  I am going to try to get clapboard painted after work this week (see pic for color choice).  I think doors are all that is left to "build."  The LARGE opening will be french doors for ease of cleaning!

 

The view from my back deck...

 

 

And my paint choice!!

 

[BlueLineAquaticsSC]

Looks great. A raccoon killed all my chickens a few years ago, we’ve moved since then and just started setting up a new coop today.

[Sal]

On 3/27/2022 at 10:44 PM, BlueLineAquaticsSC said:

Looks great. A raccoon killed all my chickens a few years ago, we’ve moved since then and just started setting up a new coop today.

😔 I'm sorry to hear that happened, but glad you are getting a new coop setup!!  Good luck!

[laritheloud]

We set up a coop and completely enclosed run (hardware cloth buried underneath, too) in the fall because we had adopted a stray chicken and attempted to coax her into the run/coop for safety. Unfortunately our stray did not make it (she was struck by a car when she attempted to return to our garden after a flight across the street), and we were unable to catch her in time... but we still had a prepared coop and run.

So next week we're expecting our first small brood of chicks to raise. ❤️ Your coop and run setup looks fantastic. Can't wait to start on this journey along with you!

[Sal]

On 3/28/2022 at 10:54 PM, laritheloud said:

We set up a coop and completely enclosed run (hardware cloth buried underneath, too) in the fall because we had adopted a stray chicken and attempted to coax her into the run/coop for safety. Unfortunately our stray did not make it (she was struck by a car when she attempted to return to our garden after a flight across the street), and we were unable to catch her in time... but we still had a prepared coop and run.

So next week we're expecting our first small brood of chicks to raise. ❤️ Your coop and run setup looks fantastic. Can't wait to start on this journey along with you!

So sorry to hear about your stray, but exciting that your new babies arrive soon!!  Do you know what breed & how many you are getting?  Share pics once they arrive!  😍

[laritheloud]

On 3/29/2022 at 10:02 AM, Sal said:

So sorry to hear about your stray, but exciting that your new babies arrive soon!!  Do you know what breed & how many you are getting?  Share pics once they arrive!  😍

I totally will! And we're aiming for a flock of 4 to 6 hens (we're in a suburban town center in the middle of farm country; lots of people have backyard chickens but we don't have an enormous amount of land). We are getting a mix of Speckled Sussex, Australorp, and Easter Eggers!

[Sal]

On 3/29/2022 at 8:06 PM, laritheloud said:

I totally will! And we're aiming for a flock of 4 to 6 hens (we're in a suburban town center in the middle of farm country; lots of people have backyard chickens but we don't have an enormous amount of land). We are getting a mix of Speckled Sussex, Australorp, and Easter Eggers!

Sounds very similar to us @laritheloud, we are only on a half acre, and in a very suburban neighborhood! We're lucky to have a thick wooded area separating us from the next street down, but our side neighbors are pretty close by.  I am a little nervous about one neighbor in particular who is always complaining about the noise our kids/dogs make when they are playing...  Happy kids and pets playing is apparently not her cup of tea. 😂  I am hoping I can sweeten her up with some fresh delicious eggs.  

We have a Speckled Sussex coming too.  I wanted Easter Eggers, but our local hatchery wasn't offering them this spring, so we went with the Orpingtons instead!!  The EE's are so cute with their little feather beards! 

[JettsPapa]

Back when I was raising chickens (abut 40 years ago) my favorite breed was bantam Cochins.  I liked to hatch eggs under the hen instead of with an incubator, and those were some of the best at that.  When the weather was warm enough I'd occasionally order 25 baby chicks to arrive on the same day I had eggs scheduled to hatch under a hen.  I'd put the purchased chicks with the hen and let her take care of all of them.

Late in the evening, or whenever the hen thought the chicks should be hidden, it was pretty entertaining watching her try to cover up 25 baby chicks.

[Sal]

On 3/30/2022 at 9:37 AM, JettsPapa said:

Back when I was raising chickens (abut 40 years ago) my favorite breed was bantam Cochins.  I liked to hatch eggs under the hen instead of with an incubator, and those were some of the best at that.  When the weather was warm enough I'd occasionally order 25 baby chicks to arrive on the same day I had eggs scheduled to hatch under a hen.  I'd put the purchased chicks with the hen and let her take care of all of them.

Late in the evening, or whenever the hen thought the chicks should be hidden, it was pretty entertaining watching her try to cover up 25 baby chicks.

The concept of trying to raise 25 children is something my human brain cant comprehend, hahaha!!  However, I love this idea so much too!  I obviously don't have any hens yet, but if I ever add a few more babies in the future, I may try to sneak them in under a broody hen and let her raise them.  

I was reading something the other day that said to remember that if you are raising them in a brooder, YOU are the mother hen and all of my sad empty-nest-human-mom synapses fired off all at once. 🥺    If you find me sitting in the brooder overnight, please stage an intervention.  🤣

[jwcarlson]

You're getting a good setup there for sure.  I've got *too many* (11) in our small backyard started with 7 we hatched some number of years ago and have let them hatch fertile eggs a couple times.  And a few have been lost.  Coup is 6x4.  They have an attached 16x8 run and then outside of that in the spring/summer they have about half the yard with 6' privacy fence.

A few things I underestimated or didn't fully understand:

* They're freaking loud, even quiet ones like Orpingtons (that's what we started with, they're absolute sweethearts) will sing egg songs and occasionally the whole flock will also congratulate each other on their eggs.

* They will eat everything down to bare dirt on any location they are confined to.  Before losing my place to raise meat birds, I was raising 35 cornish crosses in a tractor that I moved daily and even those lazy birds eat a lot of grass if they're confined on it.  The run will be dirt if it's covered, mud if it isn't.  I'd suggest a roof of some sort over the run (sorry if you've covered this).

* Mine do astronomically better when I wrap the run in plastic for winter.  Before I did that they would barely or never leave the coup in the winter.  Wrapped in plastic they use the run as they normally would (coup extension).

* They poop a lot... more than most "backyard" types might like to admit.

* We shared the yard with them for quite awhile, but our old beagle finally died about two years ago and we now have two Austrailian Shepherds and they are not as chicken friendly as the beagle was (who would never bother them at all).  Between the new dogs and the poop all over the patio we went to a two layer "run" so they still get plenty of space and grass (seasonally).  

* They are much more intelligent than people give them credit for.  Mine learned to "knock" on the garage's man door when they heard me in there... hoping for treats (they can be trained to come for treats - meal worms, whole corn, etc).  Mine will follow me around and I use a handful of stuff to throw into whatever I might need them to move into (into the run from the yard, for instance).

* If you have the time and you raise them "by hand", you'll have a very interactive and curious pet.  When we had more time with them, the originals would sit on our laps, shoulders, sometimes our heads... the ones raised by a momma hen in the coup/run are much, much, MUCH more wild and cagey.  I can still get most of them to eat out of my hand and let me pick them up if I need to.  But one (and easter egger) is crazy.  It finally started laying (which calms them down A LOT).  Last summer I almost took her out with my pellet gun because she decided to start flying over the privacy fence and one evening was about 20' up in a neighbors tree and would not come down.  I finally got her back in the coup and clipped one of her wings that night.

* Water in winter is a constant struggle, you're going to want electrical in your coup/run.  I use a simple 'open' heated dog dish in winter.  During warmer months a larger waterer so I don't have to fill it up every day.

* Even with 6 hens you're probably going to have more eggs than you know what to do with.  Eggs sneak up on you.  I've got probably 150+ eggs right now.  I am horrible at getting rid of them.  Used to have some reliable egg takers, but took a new job about a year ago and without that "egg sink"... I have them piling up.  

* Chickens can be very violent.  With orpingtons, you'll probably be OK.  My brother has some different types and they have killed all but maybe one of the hens I've given to him over the years (extras from hatching).  I think he got rid of them this last fall and is starting over.  The only one that's still alive has a big part of her head missing.  They can be NASTY. (they're dinosaurs)

* We've had Orpingtons (buff and lavender), easter eggers, olive eggers, Americaunas, Marans, cream legbar, silkies, cochins, brahmas, silkie crosses (frizzle/sizzle), and others I cannot remember.  They are absolutely different in a lot of ways.  Some quiet, some "fliers", etc.  Our favorites have been buff Orpingtons and lavender Americaunas.  They are the most quiet and friendly.  Silkies seem to be the dumbest of them all by far.

 

You'll have fun with them.  If you don't have a fence around your property, they will absolutely end up in the neighbors.  But even if you don't, I wouldn't hesitate to let them out of the run and into the grass to peck around, eat bugs, etc.  They LOVE leaves and mulch and will dig through any of that you have around.  So landscape will be destroyed if they're left at it for any amount of time.  They will find patches of bugs/grubs and they will dig them out, killing/ruining grass.  They will also target any area that's up against a wall/fence.  For example, when they ran the whole yard, I didn't have to weed eat around the fence because they would scratch it and keep it down there.

Chickens seem to multiply even if you don't have roosters!  🙂  We even have a "rescue" hen that someone found wandering around.  She turned out to be a sweetie, but was very stressed when we got her.  You might have a hen (or several) that want to get broody on you.  I have found that letting them hatch eggs (if you can get some fertile ones from someone local) is the absolute funnest chicken thing that we've done.  Especially if you have a really good momma like we had.  Unfortunately, I think we lost her last year as none of our buffs wanted to hatch eggs last year and she ALWAYS did.  She was a significantly better mother than the frizzle and silkie/cochin cross were that I last let hatch eggs.  Buff momma "Blue" would sit her babies for WEEKS, always very attentive.  The frizzle and the cross tandem sat eggs, which was cool.  And shared mothering duties.  But once the babies started wandering around a bit they were not good mothers at all.  I had to help them out.  Some pics attached.  Including one of Blue sitting six of her seven week old chicks still.  Five of those six ended up being cockerels and so I processed them.  But the one hen is still a part of our flock now, she would still snuggle up to mom for about a year.  Blue was such a sweet momma type she would also let the silkies run up under her even as adults if I spooked them (pulling eggs in the dark of night like I do, or just general activities that caused them to panic a little like mowing.

Note: not all of this was in my backyard.  I had awesome access to a place where I could have some layers and my meat chickens in tractors.  I was at this location daily anyway, so taking care of them wasn't a problem.  Lost that access and condensed down to just the backyard.  Which is part of why we ended up with so many at the house.  I was incubating eggs each spring for a bit because I had the outlet and would let a mom brood some too.  Between the layers and the meat chickens I was dealing with about 70 of them at different points.  If you hatch or let eggs hatch you will have lots of cockerels (roosters) to deal with.  So consider that.  I would process them when I did my meat chickens, but the laying breeds are almost not worth it for meat.  But I am not just going to kill something and toss it.

Edited March 30, 2022 by jwcarlson

[Sal]

@jwcarlson  You are the BEST for sharing all of that info and detail!!  Thank you!  Even as I research my little heart out, I feel like there are still GREAT pointers, and I absolutely LOVE reading about others' experiences - it helps me so much!  Several of your points are things I have at least considered at this point, so that makes me feel like I am headed into this well prepared.  My biggest concerns right now are noise, my bird-hating dog, and honestly just dealing with/treating diseases (which was stressful to me about our tanks at first too!)

Not sure there is much I can do about the noise aside from keep them in the coop until a reasonable hour in the morning?  A couple of our neighbors on the street also have a small flock, and I do occasionally hear the egg song.  It never bothers me, in fact I love the background noise in the summer when I am working from home and have the windows open.  To me, it's no different than all the wild birds chirping and singing.  I don't want to be "that" neighbor, but at the end of the day, I will be following all the town's chicken rules, so there is not much my noise-hating neighbor can do except stink-eye me, and I've survived 4 teenagers, so I think I will be ok.  hahahahaha.

As for my dog...  We will just have to see how it goes.  We located the coop and run outside of our dog fence area - so hopefully he gets used to them being there.  In a perfect world he would just ignore them all together, but I think it's going to be a process for that to happen, and will take time.  As someone mentioned earlier - I have to understand a dogs instincts, and I will do my best to not blame my dog for anything that happens.  Going to try my hardest to make a safe situation for both the dogs and the chickies.

Our 8'x20' run will have roof over 10' of it.  The other 10' will be open (but with hardware cloth for predator protection).  Husband is a civil engineer, so he is over-designing (lol) a good drainage system for the whole coop/run but I think we will also be planning to use a good gravel base maybe under some soft playground wood chips or cedar-free mulch in the run?  At least that was my initial thought on keeping mud and water under control?  Let me know if you have any thoughts about that.

Frizzles might be my favorite thing ever...  I may need to add a couple at some point.  They look exactly how I feel most days, hahahaha!

  

 

 

[jwcarlson]

@Sal

Your plan sounds good.  I utilized the area under 10x12 honey bee equipment shed as part of their run.  It still get some moisture in from the joints and if it blows a lot and can get a little muddy at times.  Your chickens won't care, but you might get muddy eggs and you doing anything in there can get messy/slippery.  

If the run is sound, your dog won't be able to do much other than spook them.  Eventually they won't even really spook.  Occasionally one of the chickens will hop into the main yard and usually the dogs chase them, but they jump back over before it's an issue.  One of our dogs could probably clear our 6' fence if he wanted, but the 3' fence keeping the chickens in their part of the yard he can just bound right over without even running to it.  So I added some stuff to keep him out.  But chickens still venture out sometimes.  The dogs have caught them and most hens will just "submit" and squat like they do when they're being bred.  So once they stop moving the dogs don't have as much attacking instinct after that.  They've done some feather damage, but nothing too major.  But without intervention I'm sure they'd kill one.  Our aussies are 2 and 1.5.  The older one I did a much better job socializing and training him.  He wouldn't bother them.  But the younger one is from a "working" line and boy does he want to herd stuff.  Every sparrow or other bird in the yard cannot touch the ground when he is outside.  He got about 3" from catching a red tailed hawk this winter.  It was on some garden fence and I let him out and he ran around to it and jumped JUST missing its tail.

I plan to work on the dogs this year.  The older one I could have "round up" the chickens for me and they will just naturally run back home, but the younger one is more driven, faster, and tougher to call off.  All things that are my fault.  He's smart (or as smart as dogs can be which IMO isn't very smart), so I think I can teach him to coexist better.

Our goal is to move to the country and right now we've got a lot of the workings of a farm, but we're packed onto a 0.18 acre lot, which seemed fine about 10 years ago when we bought it.  

I think the noise eventually kind of becomes part of the background noise.  Our neighborhood is quiet... but once you start listening... it's not that quiet.  We're not too far from a main road and there's loud cars.  Everybody here in the area has at least one dog or two.  Ours bark quite a bit, but they're not even in the top 10 of barking dogs around here.  Chickens get up EARLY (I have one that is out in the run at 5 AM and in my experience they are more quiet when they can access their run as soon as they wake up.  If I lock them in the coop (have done this when a stray cat was terrorizing them) they know they should be out pecking around and get cranky and complain loudly.  In the better parts of the year when they have run of some of the yard, they will complain if I'm not up early enough to open their run.  I'm up at 4:30 every morning except for some weekend mornings.  So I am usually able to head most of that early morning stuff off.  They're always making some noises though... even if just scratching or jumped up/off chicken swings in the run.  There's some level of noise.  Usually it's just soft clucking and movement sounds.  If there's already chickens in the neighborhood they can (and will) get each other going, which might be an issue.  You can train them a bit in warm weather by spraying them with a hose.  I know it sounds cruel and you don't soak them or pin them down... just sweep some spray from a hose over them.  But they'll learn if they get loud they get sprayed.  They do not remember this forever it takes pretty constant reminding, though.  Our chickens will just sometimes go absolutely bananas and be totally inconsolable.  That is rare, but when it happens I think it's the right conditions (temp, wind, etc) that they can hear someone else's chickens some distance away and get into an alerting loop with them.  In nature birds have different vocalizations that mean "look out" or "scatter" and that kind of stuff.  Wild turkeys, for instance, have dozens of vocalizations.  Chickens have less, but you'll start understanding their noises once you get them (or YouTube it).  If they get in an alarm contest back/forth with neighboring chickens it might get difficult to deal with them.  Hopefully that doesn't happen and maybe I am overblowing the likelihood.  I've never had a neighbor complain about the chickens, but don't conflate that with them "not hearing" or "not noticing".  If you've got hens laying eggs and screaming at each other at 5 AM on Saturday morning it's going to irk your neighbors (and probably you as well).

Treats can be your friend here.  I like dry meal worms (spring/summer) and whole corn (fall/winter).  Meal worms are all protein basically, so can't really cause a dietary issue.  Whole corn helps fatten them up for winter and basically requires them to "warm up" to process it.  Or at least that's my understanding of it.  Regardless, I don't feed them much/any of that in the warmer months.  Chickens seem pretty quite during waking hours during winter.  But spring/summer is different.  If your chickens hop down into the run at 5AM and find that "mom" has scattered a couple of handfuls of meal worms all over the run... they're pretty likely to be more content than if they fly down and "mom" forgot to fill the feeder and the waterer.  If they're going crazy and being loud mid-day, I'll go out there an try to settle them down.  Usually me going nearby will get them all to run over and settle down.  This may not be the case for non-hand raised ones.  But mine have all learned that I mean food.  So if they're going bonkers I settle them down THEN I'll give them some treats scattered around all over (don't want to reward them for screaming at you).  Some in the coop, some in the run, some in the grass.  I want them to be searching out that stuff and forgetting that the neighbor slammed a car door too loud or something.  Additional methods here are things that take them a long time to peck at and will cause a frenzy.  So tossing in an apple or a squash or a pumpkin or a pepper or tomato will distract them and they'll often forget why they were being loud.  Giving them something to scratch in also keeps them happy.  I keep some straw on hand and put a flake of it in the coop and/or run every once in awhile.  I also rake all my leaves and/or collect leaves in the fall and put them in the run.  I put them in very thick, like two feet deep.  Give them a small area of bare ground and they will churn and shred and pick through all of the leaves.  And other than leaf scratching sounds, they'll be quiet.  

Multiple levels of perches in the run is also a good thing, sometimes one might get on the others nerves and if she can escape them up on a perch, that can help settle them down.

Additional note: they don't need a heater to get through the winter.  Chickens are much hardier in the cold than they are in the heat.  During summer I run a small square fan in the coop screwed to the ceiling and pointing out their door.  This keeps some of the black flies and gnats out of the coop (they can kill chickens by clogging nose or biting face so much they get infections).  Plus it helps cool down the coop a bit, which can get really hot.  They seem to love a little breeze when it's hot.  And shade.  If you don't have a tree or shrubs or something that will give them decent shade in the summer, consider putting a few bushes or maybe a vine plant that will grow on part of the run's wall to provide them some shade.  I'm in Iowa, so it doesn't get really hot.  But we get 95-98 degrees and 90%+ humidity every summer and the chickens are miserable even with good air flow and shade.  They spend a lot of time in the cool dirt under the shed when it's like that.

 

Sorry these have been really long.  Noise is a constant concern for me.  We've had chickens in the yard for about six years, I think.  Because of having added another kid (we have three total) and two dogs during that time, they might be on their way out this spring.  There's just too much else going on and we'd really like to have a bigger yard for the kids to play in as the chickens currently take up about 1/3rd of it.  If/when we move to a farm, I would absolutely have chickens again.  My issue with getting rid of them at this point is just that I have an irrational attachment/unspoken agreement to any animal that I raise, regardless of how inconvenienced I might become after circumstances change.  It might sound absolutely silly, but I can and do very much separate pet from meat.  I can hand raise a bunch of day-old cornish cross chickens for meat.  I give them the best life I can for their 7-8 weeks with me.  And I can hatch eggs knowing that all of the cockerels that I can't give away will end up butchered when they're 14ish weeks when crowing gets out of hand (they'll start at about 4 weeks, but it's not loud or frequent until later).  But the hens I hatch (or let my hens hatch), I go into it kind of agreeing "with them" that they're going to live out as close to a natural life as they can with me.  I do not enjoy any of this killing... not by a long shot.  But if you start thinking about how many cockerels are killed as day-old chicks when you buy eggs at a store for years and years, it helps put things in perspective.  And it's probably rationalization, but I figure that chick if given the choice between never really living or getting to live in my backyard and eat and scratch and chase bugs, worms, and each other for a few months before having one really bad night...  I think it would probably take that over getting tossed in a pile of other dying chicks at a hatchery.  I digress... what it comes down to is me trying to, as much as possible, look the meat I eat in the eye and understand all that it takes to put a dozen eggs in the fridge or a pound of steak on the grill.  (main meat source for us is whitetail deer that my family and I hunt and process) /end of my ranting

[laritheloud]

@jwcarlson thank you so much for your insight and experience! We were all set to adopt a stray so I think we're good to go for our babies next week. Our run is completely covered with a weather-proof tarp and the coop/run were all set up completely over the winter. It stayed nice and dry and virtually untouched inside the coup and inside the run all season long; we even had food sitting out there for a few weeks and nothing broke in. We're reasonably confident we have a secure place for our new pets.

We chose to bury hardware cloth beneath the run, attach it to an apron that encloses the run, and fill the run area with a mix of straw and sand. We intend to keep them in the run and coop most of the time with supervised 'free-ranging' time when we're out with them. We live along a state road and we've seen what can happen to a chicken that isn't hand-trained, so we have full intention of hand-feeding and coddling the baby chicks to make them friendly to human contact.

I'm so relieved to have people on this wonderful forum to share this experience with. Thanks for starting this thread, @Sal!

[Sal]

@jwcarlson it's funny you bring up raising for meat...  The whole process of learning and researching about chickens has made me have an appreciation for people raising meat animals that I never (ever) thought I could have.   I used to think it was SO cruel, and "how could anyone?!"  It is just the well-intended animal-lover in me.  On the contrary I am starting to realize how incredibly humane it actually can be, and how most of the time meat animals being raised in backyards or small farms are actually having a much better life than the circumstances under which most of our meat in this country comes from.  Although I am not sure I could participate, I absolutely look at it through a different lens now, and consider it pretty cool.

[jwcarlson]

@Sal

I have been hunting (everything from squirrels to deer) for about 25 years.  When I was younger I would say that I "enjoyed" the process of the actual kill or "harvest", to use a euphemism.  I enjoy the rest of the process... sitting in the quiet of nature, waiting, etc.  But the actual shooting of the arrow or bullet I, quite simply, dread.  I have, though, made the decision to source meat as ethically as I can.  I still buy 'factory farmed' meat, but it is always part of my decision making process.  I think of it as an evolution we're going through.  We've become so disconnected from our food that almost no one living in the US has actually killed any of the animals that they eat.  And that's made for some really upside down thinking - to be perfectly honest if future me visited me tonight and said that 10 years from now I'm a vegetarian or vegan, it would not surprise me at all (though I think that unlikely).  I would encourage everyone to get more involved in their food.  It is an extremely emotional, rewarding journey and one that I think is well worth taking.

An interesting read on the subject is Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.  If you're a reader it's worth picking up.  Or I'm sure there's an audio version as well.  OR, you can find him speaking on the subject online, I am sure.  Or to go further down the rabbit hole - Peter Singer's The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter is a more extreme view on the subject (Singer is an animal liberation activist).  You might be able to tell that I like (but do not enjoy) to read views and ideas contrary to my own beliefs as I'm not sure there's another way to grow as a human. 🙂

 

But enough about that.  This is a fun chicken thread and I do think you've done really well getting things setup and you'll greatly enjoy your hens! 🙂  (and eggs)

[Hobbit]

@jwcarlson speaks truth!

And your post reminded me of something VERY important:

Do not let your chickens stand on your shoulders because they will probably peck you in the eye!

How do I know, you ask? Well, on my birthday a few years ago, I went and let the chickens out in the morning, and our buff Orpington Fluffy jumped on my back, as she usually did. I decided to try to get her to roost in the tree, so I angled up to a branch and she crawled up to my shoulder. Well, I was looking at her, and she looked at me, and went PECK right past my glasses. I got to spend my birthday in our local ER basically blind. I never knew eyes could make that many tears! Thankfully corneas heal really fast and I was back to normal in 48 hours.

About broody hens: Our buff Orpington Fluffy goes broody every summer. It’s very hard to break her of it, but it’s possible. Unfortunately they don’t eat or drink much when they go broody, and for her at least, she never snapped out of it on her own. We’ve had to create a “broody jail” out of a dog crate. It makes them sad but it works.

Of course, giving them chicks is the BEST. Fluffy is a GREAT mom. We just buy some chicks, go out at night, put the chicks under her and take the eggs out, and voila! It’s a little touch and go sometimes—she did start pecking one of the babies once—but we just took it out and snuck it behind her and all was well.

On 3/30/2022 at 11:26 AM, Sal said:

Our 8'x20' run will have roof over 10' of it.  The other 10' will be open (but with hardware cloth for predator protection).  Husband is a civil engineer, so he is over-designing (lol) a good drainage system for the whole coop/run but I think we will also be planning to use a good gravel base maybe under some soft playground wood chips or cedar-free mulch in the run?

Ahh I love engineer husbands. 😄 My dad is a civil engineer. If he could visit for more than three days at a time, he’d love to do something like this. My own hubby did his undergrad in a mechanical engineering, so not as good for drainage systems, but still awesome for construction help.

In the fall, feel free to throw pine needles and leaves in there. They LOVE scratching through leaves, and it will help a bit with the moisture.

On 3/30/2022 at 12:36 PM, jwcarlson said:

Multiple levels of perches in the run is also a good thing, sometimes one might get on the others nerves and if she can escape them up on a perch, that can help settle them down.

I’ve actually found that my chickens will fight and squabble over the top roost and it becomes a reason to fight. 😛 If I was doing it over, for my small flock, I’d stick with one roost. But each flock is different.

On 3/30/2022 at 12:36 PM, jwcarlson said:

Additional note: they don't need a heater to get through the winter.  Chickens are much hardier in the cold than they are in the heat.  During summer I run a small square fan in the coop screwed to the ceiling and pointing out their door.  This keeps some of the black flies and gnats out of the coop (they can kill chickens by clogging nose or biting face so much they get infections).  Plus it helps cool down the coop a bit, which can get really hot.  They seem to love a little breeze when it's hot.  And shade.  If you don't have a tree or shrubs or something that will give them decent shade in the summer, consider putting a few bushes or maybe a vine plant that will grow on part of the run's wall to provide them some shade.  I'm in Iowa, so it doesn't get really hot.  But we get 95-98 degrees and 90%+ humidity every summer and the chickens are miserable even with good air flow and shade.  They spend a lot of time in the cool dirt under the shed when it's like that.

Yes! The heat’s way more of a concern than the cold. I also put a fan in the window of my coop in the summer. The coop has a white roof and is mostly under a pine tree, which also helps.

On 3/30/2022 at 12:36 PM, jwcarlson said:

I do not enjoy any of this killing... not by a long shot.  But if you start thinking about how many cockerels are killed as day-old chicks when you buy eggs at a store for years and years, it helps put things in perspective.  And it's probably rationalization, but I figure that chick if given the choice between never really living or getting to live in my backyard and eat and scratch and chase bugs, worms, and each other for a few months before having one really bad night...  I think it would probably take that over getting tossed in a pile of other dying chicks at a hatchery.  I digress... what it comes down to is me trying to, as much as possible, look the meat I eat in the eye and understand all that it takes to put a dozen eggs in the fridge or a pound of steak on the grill.

Absolutely agree. We had to butcher two australorp roosters when we got straight run chicks from an auction and the both turned out to be males that were horrible to our hens. What I will say is that they taste pretty bad once they’ve fully matured. I don’t know if it’s the testosterone or what, but we tried our best to find a way to use them… but not even our cat would eat that meat. 😝 Still, like you said later, it makes you really think about where your meat comes from. If I’m not willing to know and care for an animal before I eat it, then what business do I have eating meat at all?

Speaking of noise… one of my birds is singing the egg song. 😄 In my flock, the loudest noise is actually the “I NEED to LAY an EGGG!!” squawk. One of our birds seems to have a bit of trouble laying… that or she just really doesn’t want to go to the nest box, like a kid who doesn’t want to use the potty. I’ve even stuck my finger up her butt to see if she was egg bound, but nope. (The weird things we do for our animals…)

In terms of diseases, the only thing I’ve had to treat for is parasites. It’s not hard, especially if you’re used to medicating fish. But basically, there’s only one FDA approved medication for chickens, and it isn’t going to cover all your bases, so you may need to branch out and get horse or goat meds and dilute them. I’ve done that twice. I just soak the medication in pieces of bread. Oatmeal would probably work even better! The hardest part is finding a way to feed one chicken at a time so everyone gets the right dose. 😄 

I’ve had chickens get seriously injured twice. Once, something grabbed Goldie through the fence at night (they weren’t trained to sleep in the coop yet) and she ended up with a huge head wound. Since there was exposed flesh, I got some Well-Horse Resin Wound & Skin Remedy so it kind of coated and sealed everything. I also used some Vetericyn Plus, which seems to help prevent infections. Most websites will recommend Blu-Kote but it seemed to really sting her, and it stains everything. She lived in our bathroom for 48 hours but she was so depressed, I went ahead and put her out with the flock. After hovering over her for about half an hour and poking any chicken that just looked too close at her wound, they started to ignore her, and I never had an issue with the birds pecking it.

The other injury was recent, when Puffy lost a claw. I noticed her sitting in the garden one day and discovered she’d totally severed it off. I have no idea how it happened, but I actually just let it be and it’s healing on its own. Chickens are pretty hardy.

If you ever need to do something to your hens, the easiest way to catch them is by grabbing them by their legs and hanging them upside down. They calm down after a few seconds, and then you can put your hand under their breast and turn them upright again. Then wrap them in a towel. If you have them wrapped for long enough, I think the heat eventually calms them down.

[JettsPapa]

On 3/30/2022 at 4:34 PM, jwcarlson said:

@Sal

I have been hunting (everything from squirrels to deer) for about 25 years.  When I was younger I would say that I "enjoyed" the process of the actual kill or "harvest", to use a euphemism.  I enjoy the rest of the process... sitting in the quiet of nature, waiting, etc.  But the actual shooting of the arrow or bullet I, quite simply, dread.  I have, though, made the decision to source meat as ethically as I can.  I still buy 'factory farmed' meat, but it is always part of my decision making process.  I think of it as an evolution we're going through.  We've become so disconnected from our food that almost no one living in the US has actually killed any of the animals that they eat.  And that's made for some really upside down thinking - to be perfectly honest if future me visited me tonight and said that 10 years from now I'm a vegetarian or vegan, it would not surprise me at all (though I think that unlikely).  I would encourage everyone to get more involved in their food.  It is an extremely emotional, rewarding journey and one that I think is well worth taking.

An interesting read on the subject is Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.  If you're a reader it's worth picking up.  Or I'm sure there's an audio version as well.  OR, you can find him speaking on the subject online, I am sure.  Or to go further down the rabbit hole - Peter Singer's The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter is a more extreme view on the subject (Singer is an animal liberation activist).  You might be able to tell that I like (but do not enjoy) to read views and ideas contrary to my own beliefs as I'm not sure there's another way to grow as a human. 🙂

 

But enough about that.  This is a fun chicken thread and I do think you've done really well getting things setup and you'll greatly enjoy your hens! 🙂  (and eggs)

I hunted when I was younger, but it was just something to do because that's what my friends are doing.  I don't have any issues with other people hunting; I just don't enjoy it.  I still belong to a deer lease, but I haven't bought a license, or even taken a gun with me, in many years.  I'm just there for the socializing.  I jokingly refer to it as my beer lease.

You made some good points about too many people being disconnected from food production.  Here's an article from the National Geographic that you might find interesting:  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/meat/.  It even mentions Michael Pollan a time or two.  I've read it several times, and I reviewed it again just now.  One point I found particularly interesting, that might also be of interest to the people who blame cattle for climate change, is that according to one study the cattle in the US today produce less methane than the bison herds did before Europeans arrived here.

When I was growing up most of the meat we ate was from animals we'd raised and butchered ourselves.  That included beef, pork, chicken, and later on, when I was in my teens, rabbit.  I still have cattle, and while I no longer butcher them myself I take a calf to have butchered once or twice each year (I sell the rest).

[Sal]

On 3/31/2022 at 9:04 AM, Hobbit said:

How do I know, you ask? Well, on my birthday a few years ago, I went and let the chickens out in the morning, and our buff Orpington Fluffy jumped on my back, as she usually did. I decided to try to get her to roost in the tree, so I angled up to a branch and she crawled up to my shoulder. Well, I was looking at her, and she looked at me, and went PECK right past my glasses. I got to spend my birthday in our local ER basically blind. I never knew eyes could make that many tears! Thankfully corneas heal really fast and I was back to normal in 48 hours.

OMG!!!  ouch ouch ouch!!! 😩  Thank goodness it healed quickly, and I am so sorry but I am also cracking up over this!! 😂 Duly noted that the eyes are to be protected at all costs! 

 

On 3/31/2022 at 9:04 AM, Hobbit said:

Ahh I love engineer husbands. 😄 My dad is a civil engineer. If he could visit for more than three days at a time, he’d love to do something like this. My own hubby did his undergrad in a mechanical engineering, so not as good for drainage systems, but still awesome for construction help.

Yup, this one is a "failed" mechanical who ended up doing civil.  😂  I do love his smart, methodical brain, but after you've spent 3 hours looking at all the possible angles your trim boards can be cut and then making 14 spreadsheets to analyze which one is the best option, it gets a little annoying. 🤪 Ahhhh, marriage.  🙂  

Thanks for all the info on disease treatment, @Hobbit I am sure I will be hitting this group up for help as needed!!  

[jwcarlson]

I lost a contact to the first chick we hatched.  I was out of contacts and had an eye appointment later that week.  I went and asked for a contact and told them how I lost it.  I don't know if they believed me or not.

 

*pfffft* what's with engineers anyway?                                                     (I'm an electrical engineer.)

[Sal]

@jwcarlson @JettsPapa  learning more about food production is something I've avoided on purpose (which is privileged, ignorant, and embarrassing, but nevertheless, my truth at least.) I absolutely know how it will go for me, and I know it will be deeply traumatic, and likely change my eating habits completely.  I *want* to learn more, I just can't handle learning more, if that makes sense.  I know it's bad. 

I would like to know more about ethically sourced meats if anyone has resources. After learning about the methane issues (mentioned above) our family has significantly reduced our beef consumption, but not cut it out entirely.  I actually find a lot of the chicken and beef alternatives on the market today to be pretty good.

Anyway, really interesting conversation!  Thanks for all the reading suggestions too!  🙂

[Hobbit]

On 3/31/2022 at 9:20 AM, Sal said:

OMG!!!  ouch ouch ouch!!! 😩  Thank goodness it healed quickly, and I am so sorry but I am also cracking up over this!! 😂 Duly noted that the eyes are to be protected at all costs! 

No need to apologize! Even at the time I recognized it was hilarious. I fully enjoyed going up to the desk at the ER and saying, “My chicken pecked me in the eye!” Actually, the nurse that treated me that day ended up moving next door to us a few years later. She was like, “Oh, I remember you!” 😅

On 3/31/2022 at 9:24 AM, jwcarlson said:

I lost a contact to the first chick we hatched.  I was out of contacts and had an eye appointment later that week.  I went and asked for a contact and told them how I lost it.  I don't know if they believed me or not.

Haha a contact probably would have saved me! 😄 

On 3/31/2022 at 9:24 AM, jwcarlson said:

*pfffft* what's with engineers anyway?                                                     (I'm an electrical engineer.)

Hey, for all the quirks that come with it, I LOVE having an engineering-minded husband. (He’s in computer science and math now and can’t honestly call himself an engineer anymore.) I tell all my friends that engineers make great spouses! 😊

[Sal]

On 3/31/2022 at 10:20 AM, Hobbit said:

Hey, for all the quirks that come with it, I LOVE having an engineering-minded husband. (He’s in computer science and math now and can’t honestly call himself an engineer anymore.) I tell all my friends that engineers make great spouses! 😊

I do agree...  Even as I review tab 8 of spreadsheet 17 about possible coop color options.  🙂

To be completely fair, he shreds me for never reading the instructions on ANYTHING.  So we are usually even.  😉

[jwcarlson]

On 3/31/2022 at 9:20 AM, Hobbit said:

Hey, for all the quirks that come with it, I LOVE having an engineering-minded husband. (He’s in computer science and math now and can’t honestly call himself an engineer anymore.) I tell all my friends that engineers make great spouses! 😊

Yeah, once we're house trained we're probably not too bad to have around.  😆

[Sal]

Weekend update - had a lot going on family-wise this weekend, so the progress was slower than usual, but I did get a LOT of the trim and clapboard painted in my garage.  Hubs got most of the trim up, and started some of the siding so that I could see the color!    We are not carpenters by any stretch of the imagination, so go easy on us... 😂 It's not perfect, but it's pretty sweet for a chicken house!  

We used up as much of the scrap wood as we had, and ended up making a lumber run today.  Wow....  If you are not building anything, now is not the time to start.  😳  I also picked up the gable vents, the barn hinge hardware for the human doors, chicken doors, and those long horizontal "windows" which will be flip-up panels for extra ventilation.  Trying to decide what sort of latches/locks we want to use so I can get those purchased too...

Also got this really cool bluetooth humidity/temp gauge that I am going to hang inside the coop so I can monitor from my phone.  I set it in the coop today tested it from inside my house - it worked great!   I love gadgets!!

Ok - now my poor neglected fish need a water change, so I am off to do that!  🙂

Edited April 3, 2022 by Sal

[Sal]

Latest and greatest...  Most of the trim and siding are done - I will take credit for all of the painting... But, I am honestly so impressed with hubby for this one.  I come up with these crazy ideas and he just executes them beyond my expectations.  

There is still a LOT to do.  We need to get all of the doors/windows built, painted and hung.  We need to install the gable vents.  We need to install hurricane ties, ridge vents, and shingles (or metal, we haven't decided yet) on the roof.

Then, its onto the run build.....  

These 2 have not been much help AT ALL...  Definitely not earning their keep.  😂

Edited April 6, 2022 by Sal