Chicken keepers!

[laritheloud]

https://streamable.com/2nnwli We ended up with 2 eggers, an australorp, and a speckled sussex! They are all eating and drinking. This video is from when I just unpacked them!

[Hobbit]

AWWWW! Goodness they are cute. Their loud cheeps break my heart because those are the “Mom Mom Mom!” calls… But they do just fine without the mom hen in the end. I’ve seen some people hang up a feather duster that they can snuggle under. 😂

[laritheloud]

On 4/8/2022 at 2:55 PM, Hobbit said:

AWWWW! Goodness they are cute. Their loud cheeps break my heart because those are the “Mom Mom Mom!” calls… But they do just fine without the mom hen in the end. I’ve seen some people hang up a feather duster that they can snuggle under. 😂

They don't do the loud ones now! Only soft content cheeps. That was just on initial arrival, but they've settled and they're having a sweet chickie naptime now.

[Sal]

Little Sweeties!!!  😍 They are SO CUTE, @laritheloud Glad to hear they are settling in and eating/drinking well!

Are they/will they be named?

 

 

[laritheloud]

On 4/8/2022 at 3:39 PM, Sal said:

Little Sweeties!!!  😍 They are SO CUTE, @laritheloud Glad to hear they are settling in and eating/drinking well!

Are they/will they be named?

 

 

I've only named our Australorp right now! She looks like a Betsy Ann to me. 😆 The rest are TBD, but they're already showing their personalities a little bit. Very adorable!

[Hobbit]

I had grand plans for naming my first four chickens all sorts of fancy things… and then within 48 hours they were Fluffy, Blackie, Goldie, and Pretty Girl. 😆 We did re-name Blackie though to be more PC. Her name is now Toothless.

[Torrey]

On 3/27/2022 at 8:44 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.

@BlueLineAquaticsSC I am so sorry... that's a horrible thing to go trhough.

On 3/30/2022 at 7:10 AM, Sal said:

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! 

@Sal I strongly encourage anyone with a similar neighbor to look into the rooster bowties. They also work on the hens to muffle the sound just a tad, at least until enough eggs and baked goods have won the persnickety neighbor over.

On 3/30/2022 at 7:54 AM, Sal said:

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

We bypassed this by sneaking the ready to hatch /just hatched chicks under a broody female after dark. Wooden eggs serve a fabulous purpose in all female flocks, and luckily hens don't count nights phenomenally well.

On 3/30/2022 at 9:26 AM, Sal said:

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.

Rooster Bowties are also effective on hens.

On 3/30/2022 at 9:26 AM, Sal said:

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.

We have had a 20 acre free range farm, and a backyard flock. I used Rottweilers to patrol the perimeter on the farm, and only lost a few of our birds.

Our backyard flock would come in the house if the kids left the door opened...🙄 

I trained dogs at Cedarwoods when we had the farm, and found that remote control collars make a huge difference in having a reliable dog even when hoomans aren't directly supervising. Part of it is because I worked with Chuck for almost a decade and learned just how smart dogs actually are when we don't dumb them down. Part was no longer using treats for training, unintentionally telling my dogs I was lower in pack hierarchy.

We did have a female Rott who was a permanent maternal syndrome, and would "collect" chicks, ducklings, goslings, and kittens if she determined their mothers weren't paying proper attention... which would result in the aggravated mothers pecking at the door or on my toes to get me to return their kidnapped young (the cat didn't care, so we had a few generations of kittens who thought they were rotts). My Mastador that is my current service dog would bring the hens inside the house if she could catch them. Very gentle Lab mouth meant they were never harmed, however she did scare an egg out on more than one occasion. As a puppy, she would ram her head into the fencing until she *broke* the horse fencing that surrounded the dog run to keep them out of the chicken run. My life would have been much easier if I had taken the time to train her properly starting the day I brought her home... but that wasn't how my life worked.

On the farm, all the birds were trained to let the dogs set the perimeter. The 7 dogs would form a 60' to 120' diameter circle, and the birds would stay in the middle of the circle. Meant I didn't have to fuss with fencing, and our "farm" was able to also function as wildlife refuge with minimal negative interactions. It took about 3 months of working with Ewetopia in Roy, WA to get the dogs properly trained to herd the birds into their coops if eagles, wolves, mountain lions or bears were scented. I am sure similar training could be done to protect birds from racoons (racoons aren't indigenous to the PNW, and we didn't have a problem with them when we lived in maple Falls).

@Sal & @laritheloud your setups sound pretty solid. Your birds will be happier if you add a small kiddie pool of play sand for them to "dust bath" in. We included a little diatomaceous earth in ours. We kept 6' tall wooden trough full of crushed oyster shell available to keep the gullet and the eggs healthy. We trained all of our birds with treats to lay down on their backs and let us inspect feet, wings, eyes and mouths. This made butchering a painless, stress free encounter where the majority of feathers just fell out when the inside nerve was cut next to the carotid. The Top of the Tower restaurant in B'ham said there was a huge difference in the taste and texture of the meat, because the birds never got stressed.

If you have kids, let them get involved with a local 4-H poultry club. It will get you access to better birds, as well as connections for selling eggs as a small cottage business to local restaurants working on more ethical, farm2table options. Sunflower River in New Mexico has a pretty solid information site on how to ethically and humanely raise and butcher meat birds.

Personally? I preferred our Cayuga (heritage breed) and Toulouse for both pest patrol and meat, however we learned early on that overwintering with more than 2-3 males of any breeding stock was a recipe for disaster... so I got very good with the fall butcher program.

Thank you Sal for starting this thread, I miss my birds and can now live vicariously through this thread.

[Hobbit]

On 4/8/2022 at 4:07 PM, Torrey said:

We bypassed this by sneaking the ready to hatch /just hatched chicks under a broody female after dark. Wooden eggs serve a fabulous purpose in all female flocks, and luckily hens don't count nights phenomenally well.

I’ve done this twice! It’s quite fun. Mother hens are a joy to watch with their young. They need some help occasionally—Fluffy didn’t seem to realize how often her babies needed water—but overall she was FANTASTIC.

On 4/8/2022 at 4:07 PM, Torrey said:

Your birds will be happier if you add a small kiddie pool of play sand for them to "dust bath" in. We included a little diatomaceous earth in ours.

Yes!! They love this. You can even give the babies a little shallow bowl of sand and they’ll start their dust bathing behaviors. The sand will also be their first grit, so if you see them eating it, that’s great. My adult birds eat sand even now for some extra fine grit.

[Sal]

On 4/8/2022 at 4:07 PM, Torrey said:

 I strongly encourage anyone with a similar neighbor to look into the rooster bowties. They also work on the hens to muffle the sound just a tad, at least until enough eggs and baked goods have won the persnickety neighbor over.

I had not heard of these - thank you for sharing this!!  I will keep this in my toolbox if they start to get a little too noisy!!

 

On 4/8/2022 at 4:07 PM, Torrey said:

We did have a female Rott who was a permanent maternal syndrome, and would "collect" chicks, ducklings, goslings, and kittens if she determined their mothers weren't paying proper attention... which would result in the aggravated mothers pecking at the door or on my toes to get me to return their kidnapped young

😂😂😂. That is hilarious!!  

 

On 4/8/2022 at 4:07 PM, Torrey said:

Your birds will be happier if you add a small kiddie pool of play sand for them to "dust bath" in.

Our intention is to utilize the space under the coop as the "hen spa" and add in some sand, DE, ash, and beneficial herbs for them to bathe in, but we'll see how it goes.  I figure with it being under the coop, as long as we do our drainage correctly, this will be a nice dry spot, and if they dig too much I can replenish sand/DE/ash/herbs as needed.  

 

Thanks for all the stories and tips @Torrey It's so encouraging to know there are a few experienced chicken keepers here!

Edited April 10, 2022 by Sal

[Sal]

Weekend update!  A cold and on/off rainy weekend kept us indoors for the most part 👎  but luckily there are still a lot of smaller parts to assemble, so we made some progress.  We got the chicken door and both window panels built, and started on the human doors.  Even managed to get a couple of them hung (of course they still need latches and predator mesh, but you get the idea.)

The sun came out for a minute this afternoon so I managed to get some of the nails spackled and covered...

Hubs worked on building the run trusses in the garage, and then managed to get one up, so we at least have a visual of where the larger roofline will be.   All will be bolted and hurricane tied properly.  

I really need a couple sunny and warm days so I can get more of the outdoor painting done.  Inside the coop needs a coat of paint, and I am hesitant to paint it because the temps will be too cold for the paint to properly cure.  😞  As it is, I likely shouldnt have even done the bits of touch up, but I needed to feel like I got SOMETHING done...  Still a lot of caulking and touch up to do, but I couldnt be more pleased with how it's looking.  I ordered some window boxes and solar lanterns today too...  

 

[laritheloud]

https://streamable.com/c11agw One week old yesterday, and they're all named!

Our Australorp is Betsy Ann, our Speckles Sussex is Eleanor, the lighter-colored Easter Egger is June (or Junie) and the last little girl, more chipmunky-grey, is Gertrude (or Gertie). We love them so, so much!

 

[Sal]

@laritheloud They are SO SWEET!!  I love the names!    They are growing so fast.  

How hard are you finding it taking care of them?  I am definitely overthinking everything!  😂

We realized last night that we are within 20 days of our pick up date, so that means our eggs are currently incubating!!  Grow babies, grow!!  🙂

[laritheloud]

On 4/15/2022 at 9:03 AM, Sal said:

@laritheloud They are SO SWEET!!  I love the names!    They are growing so fast.  

How hard are you finding it taking care of them?  I am definitely overthinking everything!  😂

We realized last night that we are within 20 days of our pick up date, so that means our eggs are currently incubating!!  Grow babies, grow!!  🙂

Truthfully, it's a lot simpler than I was worried about. I'm the queen of anxiety about my pets, but it's straightforward. Heat, Water, Food. No Grit or Treats until 2 weeks. Adjust temperature of the brooder once a week. I'm working on hand-taming them with food and they're still a bit skittish and nervous but coming around.

Of course, I do worry about one of them (she had pasty butt a couple of times and now her poos are a bit on the liquidy side, though this is still normal and every other indication is perfect) because I always find something to fret about, but for all intents and purposes she is totally fine, super active, and adorable. They grow fast and they love to kick bedding out of the brooder, so prepare for that!

[Sal]

On 4/15/2022 at 9:40 AM, laritheloud said:

Truthfully, it's a lot simpler than I was worried about. I'm the queen of anxiety about my pets, but it's straightforward. Heat, Water, Food. No Grit or Treats until 2 weeks. Adjust temperature of the brooder once a week. I'm working on hand-taming them with food and they're still a bit skittish and nervous but coming around.

Of course, I do worry about one of them (she had pasty butt a couple of times and now her poos are a bit on the liquidy side, though this is still normal and every other indication is perfect) because I always find something to fret about, but for all intents and purposes she is totally fine, super active, and adorable. They grow fast and they love to kick bedding out of the brooder, so prepare for that!

It sounds like we are very similar in that way!!  😂  I will be checking obsessively for pasty butt.  I am glad to hear it seems easier than thought!  I havent quite figured out where the brooder will go in our house yet, right now it's in the back corner of the livingroom, but it will depend on how interested my dogs are, and where they will be safest. 

[laritheloud]

@Sal luckily, only the speckled sussex had a couple of bouts of pasty butt. She's over a week old now and I'm pretty sure she's done with the pasties. Fingers crossed!

You will quickly fall in love with them, though. I'm so excited to see how the Easter Eggers will feather out, because I know it'll be a total surprise. They both look to be on the grayer spectrum but it's hard to predict!

[Hobbit]

On 4/15/2022 at 10:54 AM, laritheloud said:

I'm so excited to see how the Easter Eggers will feather out, because I know it'll be a total surprise. They both look to be on the grayer spectrum but it's hard to predict!

You can start to get an indication from the non-down feathers that are already growing in. It’s a fun surprise for sure!

[Brandon p]

We had true AMERAUCANA that payed bright blue eggs, and Cream Legbars. The salmon faverolles laided pinkish eggs. The bantam Cochins always did great at fair. Sebrights and  Belgian d'Uccle You needed 12 eggs for an omelet.  The kids had so many types of chickens  but they always had 3-4 different size eggs and colors

[Sal]

On 4/18/2022 at 8:08 AM, Brandon p said:

We had true AMERAUCANA that payed bright blue eggs, and Cream Legbars. The salmon faverolles laided pinkish eggs. The bantam Cochins always did great at fair. Sebrights and  Belgian d'Uccle You needed 12 eggs for an omelet.  The kids had so many types of chickens  but they always had 3-4 different size eggs and colors

We will have one Ameraucana in our flock too!!  I am excited for the blue eggs, how fun is that?!  

[Sal]

Coop update!!  Not much for a visual update, but progress being made...  We built & painted the rest of the doors, trim, and siding.  Just waiting for it to fully cure - then those will get hung.  Got the nesting box framed out, and prepared for the tailgate door.  Built a bunch of the trusses, but do not have them attached yet.  Hubs really wants to stain the wood for the run, but most of it is pressure treated?  I thought you couldn't stain pressure treated wood?  Is that not true?  Maybe that was just something my Dad used to say to get out of staining our deck?  😂

Spent a lot of time watching videos, and figuring out how to do the roofing properly, and started with the roof on the nesting boxes as a practice run - I think it turned out great! We are feeling pretty confident now about doing the roofing for the coop and run.

It's been rainy/snowy/freezing cold here for few weekends in a row now we are running out of things we can build indoors, so I am really hoping it warms up and is NICE next weekend so we can crank out some hard work without getting cold & soggy. 

16 days until the chicks arrive! 

 

 

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by Sal

[Brandon p]

Here are some egg colors over the years. They only ones I’m missing is whit and the pink ones

[Sal]

@Brandon p  So pretty!!  😍. I love the variety of colors and sizes - the speckled ones are awesome too!  I tried to pick breeds that would give us a nice assortment - so it will be a long anticipated wait for our girls to start laying!  

[Sal]

@laritheloud How are those cute babies doing?  These last few couple weeks of waiting are torture...  The coop is keeping us busy, but we are all counting down the minutes! 😂

 

[laritheloud]

On 4/21/2022 at 10:07 AM, Sal said:

@laritheloud How are those cute babies doing?  These last few couple weeks of waiting are torture...  The coop is keeping us busy, but we are all counting down the minutes! 😂

 

I get it! Our babies are doing so well! We turned off the brooder lamp and switched to a brooder heating plate yesterday at their two-week mark. They're really starting to gain a lot of great feathers, and I've given them a hardboiled egg as a treat. All of them will eat out of my hands. Very friendly little birds!

[Brandon p]

You should get a bantam Cochin. They go broody all the time and the there is an easy humane way to stop it if you don’t want them broody. Me boys would order fertile egg for and size chickens for seabrights up to Brahma’s. The bantam o chins are great mothers and raise these of the chickens no matter the size And teaches them to Properly act. If they are broody and you need or want them to produce eggs I can tel you how to safely do this with out doing crazy stuff like dipping them in frezeing water.

[Sal]

On 4/21/2022 at 10:27 AM, laritheloud said:

I get it! Our babies are doing so well! We turned off the brooder lamp and switched to a brooder heating plate yesterday at their two-week mark. They're really starting to gain a lot of great feathers, and I've given them a hardboiled egg as a treat. All of them will eat out of my hands. Very friendly little birds!

 

SO cute!!  I love seeing their little feathers coming in!  I hear they will go wild for crumbled egg.  😍

On 4/21/2022 at 2:43 PM, Brandon p said:

You should get a bantam Cochin. They go broody all the time and the there is an easy humane way to stop it if you don’t want them broody. Me boys would order fertile egg for and size chickens for seabrights up to Brahma’s. The bantam o chins are great mothers and raise these of the chickens no matter the size And teaches them to Properly act. If they are broody and you need or want them to produce eggs I can tel you how to safely do this with out doing crazy stuff like dipping them in frezeing water.

Unfortunately, we can only keep 6 hens max where we live, so I wont be looking to add more babies regularly, but this is a great tip for anyone who can keep a large flock!