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So it looks like in the next couple weeks I'll be culling my current herd of egg-eating shitheads, and bringing home some 6 week old Silver-Laced Wyandottes. My question is, is 6 weeks old enough to put in an outdoors coop, or will I have to rig up something indoors for them with a heat lamp (and cat-proofing)? For reference, here's my current setup:  I would keep them in the coop for probably a good 2-3 months, and then let them roam the yard... the neighbors are cool with trespassing chickens, mostly because the house on the other side of them also has some free range chickens. I always have to do a double take because my neighbor has the exact same mix of breeds too. XD (If you're wondering why I don't know this already, I got my current herd of chickens when they were already 1+ years old, so not a lot of effort required there. And don't get mad at me for culling them, I've tried everything imaginable to get them to stop eating eggs, but they resist all efforts. I get maybe 2-3 undamaged eggs a week from 4 hens... *sigh*)
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Jun 16, 2011 00:37
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Let Them Eat Cake posted:How to pluck a chicken? Put up a kill cone, a scalding pot (something to hold boiling water), and make one of these: Oh man, I feel so bad for laughing at that video, but it's just so outrageous. Yet effective! For the record, I won't be killing them and eating them myself - I don't have the heart (although those cones make it look really easy, it's almost tempting), and my husband won't eat any meat with bones in it (so picky). So my husband's coworker will hook me up with a nice little Brazilian lady in the next town over, who buys hens from him at $3 a piece. Her family gets fed, and I have room for new chickens! My husband should be able to whip up something simple to keep them in for a few weeks, although how he'll feel about them staying in the mud porch... hahaha, we'll see. Should be an interesting discussion. My cats will definitely think it's the best thing ever. And yeah, gently caress raccoons. I had to deal with a family of them back when I kept geese up in Maine, and I burned through so much grain because they were eating it all. Eventually we started live-trapping them and taking them a good 10 miles away and across a river... the mother raccoon was so big she messed up the cage and that wire was not flimsy. We missed one though, and I think it bred more raccoons, and eventually they started stealing the eggs too. Down here in Mass, the chicken's main predators are the hawk (which I've seen divebomb my chickens once, and carried off one of my neighbor's chickens), a fisher cat, and something that left big nasty paw prints all over my coop one winter night, but couldn't get in. I've been pretty lucky so far and haven't lost any chickens, but I suppose it helps that my coop was basically covered in two feet of snow all winter.
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Jun 17, 2011 00:24
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Chido posted:Edit 2:I'm gonna record their interaction tomorrow and put it in youtube, so you guys can tell me if I should worry about their behavior. I'd just give them time. I know you're worried about the hen getting hurt, but every time you remove her you're basically letting the rooster win. Just keep some anti-peck lotion on you in case he breaks skin, and leave them be. My hens when I first got them were downright nasty to each other, but eventually they got their hierarchy sorted out in the first couple of months with a minimum of bloodhed and leave each other alone now. They just have to establish the pecking order and they'll be fine.
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Jun 19, 2011 19:46
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Mr_Biggs posted:Hey everybody! Awesome thread, just read it from start to finish. I have two questions I hope somebody can help me with. First, do chickens eat snails? I have quite a snail population and being able to feed the snails to the chickens would really help out in that regard. They may, chickens love protein (you should see the melee that occurs when one of my hens find a juicy worm), but I dunno if they'd see snails as a food because of the shell. You might have to train them to see snails as a food source by holding the snail still for them and letting them peck out the juicy part. Or you could just throw the snails in and see what happens. But I will say chickens are excellent food disposals. I get rid of all my moldy bread and veggies via the chickens, and they've even eaten ham and cole slaw when dumped in their pen. During one party, people thought it was hilarious to feed my chickens the BBQ chicken wings we were serving. It was so wrong, but the chickens pecked those bones clean. quote:Secondly, I have a pretty average sized yard, enclosed by 6ft concrete walls. Would it be possible to let the chickens chill in the yard on the lawn etc without running the risk of them flapping over the walls or crossing into my neighbour's property? I really don't know what chicken capabilities are in this regard. Maybe. Chickens can probably do about 4-5 feet by just launching themselves from a standstill, so 6 feet might require a lot more effort than the chicken would be willing to put forth. You could put something at the top of the wall that the chickens can't get a hold of for some extra hilarity if they do manage to reach that height. The highest I've seen my fat hens do is about 5 feet to the spoiler on the back of my husband's Mazda6. He wasn't very amused. Another chicken got about 4 feet right into the middle of a snowbank, and then couldn't move because she hated snow, so I had to wade in and rescue her. Stupid birds....
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Jun 21, 2011 23:20
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Zeta Taskforce posted:How did you all acquire your chickens? Do you go down to the hardware store and if so, how many breeds were available? Mine have been through co-workers and family so far, but find your local grain seller and ask them. Some do a big batch of one breed of chick, like the little family-owned one down the street from me (and then apparently raises and eats the rest, kind of a strange family, but they took my egg-eating hens so I can't complain). Some of the larger stores will rotate breeds through, there's one up in Maine that has about 4-5 different breeds a week. You can also order them online through the Murray McMurray hatchery and have them shipped to you, but those come as 25 minimum I think, so find some family/friends/co-workers willing to split what you get.
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Jul 26, 2011 02:50
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Welp, just as an FYI, chicken wire will not stop two very determined marauding pit bulls. Woke up this morning to a large hole forced into the side of my coop (through wire that was pristine before) and four dead chickens, and two dogs happily bounding around in my yard. When my chickens ran into the coop to escape the dogs, they forced their way in so hard they snapped the Plexiglas door in half. At least they only killed mine by snapping their necks... they dragged my neighbor's poor chicken around for quite a while... feathers all over my yard. And the poor thing was still alive enough to cluck a few more times and then finally die when I found it.  I hope they fine the poo poo out of this guy... unfortunately there's no leash laws in our town but the property damage and chickens they killed will hopefully count for something.
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Aug 1, 2011 14:53
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MoCookies posted:What a bummer - that's a lovely way to die. Usually livestock killing is serious business, even if you're in a rural area where there aren't leash laws. Yeah, they said if they took the guy to court over this they look at the value of the bird over its life span rather than just how much I paid for it initially. I dunno if I'll get anything for the damage to my coop though. Welp, guess I'm out of the chicken business for a while, at least until I get that coop repaired. I guess it's a good time to take it apart and make some modifications too. 
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Aug 1, 2011 15:39
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The dogs had collars and tags and animal control was chasing them down last I heard... they weren't aggressive to people, just having a grand old time running around killing small animals. Looks like my neighbor also lost two chickens to them. They wouldn't come near any people because they knew if they were caught the fun was over. If the owner comes over himself and offers to pay reparations, we'll let things lie and probably just send him the receipt for the nice heavy gauge wire we're going to rebuild the coop with. If not, we probably will go small claims so we can give him a hefty slap on the wrist for letting his dogs run around and kill chickens. But I think I'm probably done with chickens until next year at least, got too many other projects to do first before we start worrying about rebuilding the coop. God it makes me so glad my cats are indoor cats though, I'd be wrecked if the dogs had gotten to them. Lyz fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Aug 1, 2011 |
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Aug 1, 2011 16:35
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Zeta Taskforce posted:The more I think about it, the more I want to have chickens. Like I mentioned earlier, they are illegal in Boston, but none of my neighbors would have a problem with them, but you can see my backyard from a train platform, so visible might be bad. I have a free standing garage/shed with a cement floor that is 20 by 25 feet. I personally wouldn't keep chickens if I couldn't let them outdoors, but I did work for an animal research lab on college that kept chickens indoors all the time (to keep them isolated from outside pathogens) so it is possible. You'll probably have a higher instance of chickens being stressed and pecking at each other, so invest in anti-peck lotion. quote:Are there any special considerations to keeping them entirely indoors? Like if I blocked off a 12 by 12 corner, that should be enough room for 5 or 6 chickens? Ventilation! I would look into installing some sort of fan near the roof for dust. 12x12 should be fine for that many, I've seen 5 kept in an 10x10 quite comfortably. If the coop isn't very well lit, you'll have to provide light for them to get them to lay. If it is well lit, you'll still have to provide light in the winter if you want eggs year round... which may draw attention if you have a shed lit up at odd hours. They may think you're growing weed and raid you. XD quote:If I weeded my garden, would they be able to safely eat the weeds if I tossed them in while they were still fresh? Yeah they should be fine, I have some sort of tuber weed that grows in my garden that the chickens always seemed to enjoy, and they like most grasses. If you're going to keep them indoors though, I'd caution against throwing too many things in there that could rot and make the bedding damp. quote:How do dried leaves work as bedding? Just get a bale of shavings. One bale should cover 12x12 no problem, and it's like $5. You'll probably have to change it once a month if you're careful with the waterer and don't end up with too much spillage. Leaves will decompose and smell unless you can keep them perfectly dry. quote:Do they eat watermelon rinds? Also, it looks like some feed is formulated for layers. Does this already have calcium added or do they still require another source like crushed shells? Yeah, chickens love bread and veggies and fruit. I've had hens even eat cole slaw and spicy chicken wings. Regular layer grain I think has a fair amount of calcium, but honestly throwing some oyster shell in with their food doesn't hurt. Here's the best picture I can find of the indoor coop for the research facility.  The half wall opens up on the outside side for access to the nesting boxes. The wire went floor to ceiling, with boards along the bottom to keep the shavings in (chickens LOOOOOOOOOOOVE kicking shavings around). The outside of the rest of the building was sprayed down daily to keep dust down, and it did get pretty dusty even with a fan running constantly. After the initial layout cost (which I avoided thanks to the generosity of my husband's parents) chickens are pretty cheap to keep. Maybe about $20 a month in feed/shavings/supplement. The most expensive part for you I think is the fine you'll incur when you get caught, so it's probably better to wait until Boston legalizes chickens - which may occur pretty soon, backyard chickens are becoming VERY popular to keep. If I still had chickens, I'd say come out to my place Mass buddy, my chickens always laid more eggs than my husband and I could consume. But alas, I gave away my laying hens and my chicks got killed. =/
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Aug 6, 2011 03:52
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Alterian posted:You let your chickens eat chicken meat? I didn't put it in there, my husband's co-worker (who owns chickens himself, actually gave me those hens) threw one in there to be funny. They picked the bones clean. Although I did feed them some chunks of ham later, after my mother in law persuasively argued that it really was the same as them going around eating worms and whatnot (just saltier). They polished that off, too. /shudder But no, I don't make a regular habit of feeding my hens meat, it creeps me out. Stale, moldy bread and veggies gone past is what I threw in their coop mostly.
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Aug 6, 2011 14:09
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Alterian posted:You beat the poo poo out of that co worker and never talked to them again, right? Hell no, he and my husband own a company together now. Plus he looks after my critters when we go on vacation. He's a cool guy, he was just being funny. It's not like he dumped a whole tray of wings in there. He also has like 40 chickens so I'm going to have to get eggs from him when I run out. =/ Amethyste posted:ugh please don't give them moldy bread...they can get sick from it like you or I. Veggies past their prime are fine, and stale bread...but if its moldy etc its not good for them. Alright moldy was the wrong term. More like bread not fit for consumption, but not like crawling in mold or anything.
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Aug 7, 2011 00:01
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Chido posted:Not yet, but my four chickens are about 5 months old this week, so I guess it can be any time now. Also, sometimes I think I'd like to let one of my pullets sit on her eggs if she gets broody and the eggs are fertile... but the dad would be a possible 12 pound really docile brahma rooster, the mom a most likely 3-4 pound game hen... the embryo might be too big for the eggshell and they wouldn't hatch, I think. But can you imagine the combination? It'd be awesome! Careful about letting hens hatch their own eggs... most of them really have no idea how to raise chicks since the eggs are always taken away from them and hatched in an incubator. I say this because my husband told me that his co-worker had found some hidden corner where his hens were laying eggs and had actually managed to hatch some... and then suffocated the newborn chicks because they wouldn't move till all the eggs were hatched. Domestic chickens are all kinds of stupid.
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Aug 24, 2011 00:13
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Get some anti-pick lotion if you haven't already and put it around her wound, it should keep the other hens from bothering it. Even if they aren't now, it only takes one taste of blood or flesh for them to go nuts and eat the poor hen alive, or at least make the wound a lot worse. Other than that, I guess just keep it clean, make sure she eats and let nature take its course because her best defense is probably her natural one. I wouldn't go crazy on the antibiotics, dosing without specific instructions from a vet tends to lead to the formation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that could make your other hens sick and put you in a worse position. Antibiotics aren't something you want to just make up your own dosing schedule for, and they may not even be right for the type of infection she has.
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Sep 13, 2011 23:32
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Ah... this thread is reminding me that I really need to get going if I want to get back into chicken keeping. On the plus side, most of my coop improvements are on my neighbor's tab, since I'd have four lovely, full grown Silver-Laced Wyandottes a-layin away if it wasn't for her drat pitbulls. I think this time I'm going to try to do a mix of Silver- and Golden-Laced Wyandottes.
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Mar 29, 2012 17:35
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:I do hope the pits are better secured though. They're stubborn pups. The one behind us practically came over the 10 foot wall to try to get at the chickens that were wandering around after the dust storm last week. Well, there was apparently one other incident with the dogs - the police stopped by to check to see if I had gotten any more chickens to make sure the dogs weren't harassing them. I guess they were trying to get into a rabbit hutch. Well anyways, I'm redoing my coop with the heaviest gauge wire fencing I can find and it's all on the owner's tab, so yay! I might charge her for the stone foundation I'm going to mount the run on too. Probably not the plastic roof though, I'm not that vindictive.
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Mar 29, 2012 22:13
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To everyone building a coop - don't set it on stones. It sounds nice in theory, but goddamn is it a massive pain in the rear end. Pour a concrete slab instead. My work in progress:  I might have a livable coop by the end of the year. Of course my ever supportive husband has decided that since it was MY idea to put it up on bricks that he is not going to help me lay the blocks what-so-ever.
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Jul 3, 2012 19:58
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Inveigle posted:I'm not too sure what your run is supposed to look like when done? Is it going to be all cinderblock? Or a row of cinderblock on the outside? What are you going for? This is my old coop: So basically I'm going for the same thing, only having the run mounted to that row of cinder blocks. The side walls will be a bit taller to accommodate the taller coop (was tired of breaking my back bending over to work in that thing), and the roof will be plastic. Up side of raising the coop on the blocks is the chickens will have a cool place to go on hot summer days... if I get this thing done by the end of summer. I lost my last batch of chickens when a pair of pitbulls ripped through the wire fence so I'm taking no chances this time. This is going to be the Fort Knox of chicken coops.
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Jul 4, 2012 01:53
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Inveigle posted:I asked about your run design because it seems to me that when it rains that the hole (bordered by the cinder blocks) will just fill up with water and then become a mud pit. Right now, the hole is lower than everything else. Were you planning on adding more dirt to make it level (or higher) than the dirt that makes up the surrounding lawn? Yeah, I'll have to fill the hole back in because I'm not mortaring the stones, so the dirt is needed to hold them into place. Unfortunately if it really pours I can't keep the area from flooding so the chickens will just have to chill in the coop (when they're big enough they'll get to wander the yard anyways). My hope is the plastic roof will have enough overhang to keep most of the water out. Can't really solve the flooding problem without redoing the entire lawn's drainage. I was going to bed the thing with sand but I figure the chickens are just going to dig anyways so no point. All I need is a way in to rake it out every now and then.
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Jul 4, 2012 02:46
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Quick question - I'm trying to find a good heat lamp for a smaller brooder box, unfortunately all the bulbs I've found so far are way too big for my 2x2x1 box for four chicks. Are the smaller lamps you would use for reptiles good enough to use? The chicks will be in my mud room so they won't get too cold at night but it won't be so warm that they could do without the lamp. Just a week or so to go until I'm back in the chicken business! Still have some work to do on the coop though, but I'll have a few weeks before they'll outgrow that box, and then they can just be in the coop with the door shut. It's just the run that needs finishing, gotta shore it up against raccoons, foxes and pitbulls. I'm thinking these chickens aren't going to be free range.
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Apr 22, 2013 18:40
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Awww, sorry to hear about Roo Chido, what a shame. Chicks should be arriving this week! Oh god why am I getting into chickens again... Also I finally got the stupid block foundation for my coop laid last weekend (great thing to do when eight months pregnant right?), all that's left is to build a new run. I almost gave up and was like "meh just build it on the grass" but I persisted and it's done! Which made me feel a lot better when I saw the chicken murdering pair of pitbulls running loose in the field behind my house this morning. So much for that neighbor keeping them contained better. This is going to be chicken Fort Knox, and with racoons, foxes, hawks and pitbulls to contend with I guess there's no such thing as overkill in this case.
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May 4, 2013 04:58
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Zeta Taskforce posted:I don't think you can really make a dust bath for them. Chickens are really good at walking over things, pecking, scratching and randomly making GBS threads everywhere. But if you leave them in one place that is covered and stays dry, within a week they will end up digging out some holes about a foot wide and 6 inches deep and that will be their dust bath. Pretty much. My old chickens would go underneath our mud porch and dig holes down into the nice dry dirt that probably hasn't seen a drop of water since the porch was built. I never did crawl underneath there to see if there were any eggs.
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May 11, 2013 01:51
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ChickenOfTomorrow posted:P.S. please post more chickenpicz and/or chickenstoriez. I have chicks!  They are slightly disgruntled because I was cleaning their box. It's funny, they walk right up and look at me through the lid of the brooder box but the second there's no lid between us OH GOD SHE'S GOING TO EAT US. Also I'm a big softie and have been giving them bread to peck at with and now they practically beg for it. My 19 month old son loves looking into the box and calling them duckies. If I don't seal their food bag he'll grab a handful and try to feed them by dropping crumbles on their heads. I'll post the setup and coop in progress when I get around to grabbing my memory card. (Edit: Oh, they're Silver-Laced Wyandottes for those curious (at least I hope they are, they didn't exactly come labeled when my friend ordered a bunch of chicks and included them).) Lyz fucked around with this message at 18:41 on May 23, 2013 |
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May 23, 2013 18:39
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Man, they don't stay very cute and fluffy for long, do they? Brooder cleaning day, it's kind of funny putting them in an unused litterbox and seeing their heads peeking over the dip in the front, watching you as you scrape out their box. Some pics of the setup - apparently if your husband has a bunch of scrap lumber lying around and you tell him you need a wooden box for some chicks he goes a little overboard.   We also put a little "training bar" for them to practice roosting on like the fat hens they will become, two of them have the knack of it already. I think we'll have to make it long enough for all four to fit on soon. Edit: Almost forgot the coop in progress, foundation finally laid and freshly painted a very bright red!  Just needs a run, a roof and a few bags of sand and we're good to go! Lyz fucked around with this message at 19:40 on May 28, 2013 |
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May 28, 2013 19:36
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Inveigle posted:New page! I am reposting this image because it's so CUTE. Look at those feets! That's my chickies! Also holy balls they grow so fast. I swear I lifted the lid this morning and they had doubled in size. O.o
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May 30, 2013 23:36
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The Rat posted:I never thought I'd say this, but those chickens look fabulous. They do kind of strike you as the drag queens of the chicken world, don't they?
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Jun 3, 2013 13:41
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Guys where did my cute chicks go? Definitely time to get them in the coop, which thankfully only needs a door because they are seriously outgrowing the box. Run's not finished yet so they'll just be inside the coop for the week it'll take to finish that, which is probably a good thing so they get nice and used to it. Changing the box is definitely an interesting task now that they feel they have to show me every which way they can fly. One tries to flap up the open lid, the other just goes for it and ends up in the litterbox... another managed to crash land in the recycling bin. Fun fun. At least the coop has a nice big log they can go and perch up on and have a little room to stretch their wings. Lyz fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Jun 11, 2013 |
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Jun 11, 2013 18:32
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Errant Gin Monks posted:Ahahaha the awkward teenager stage! I thought they were hysterical when mine were that age. They did the same ballistic attack thing of insane flapping and smashing into things. Yeah the only exasperating part about it is when they take off, hit the floor, and immediately poo poo on the rug. One of them dive bombed right in front of my big orange wuss of a cat, that was a pretty amusing stare down. Insta cat statue until he finally lost his nerve and ran away.
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Jun 11, 2013 20:50
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Velvet Sparrow posted:Nailed it in one. Goddamn your house sounds awesome. I'd love to let my chicks roam the house and terrorize the cats but I couldn't abide the poo poo everywhere, I'm too much of a neat freak.
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Jun 12, 2013 13:50
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Hahaha reminds me of the time I had an escape artist get out of the coop while I was away, and come evening after I let the chickens free range there's only one drat chicken in the coop, so I'm stomping around the property with a flashlight trying to find the three others. One underneath the mud porch, one in the pine trees and the other in the rhododendron... Chickens are dumb.
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Jul 4, 2013 14:12
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Pogonodon posted:Having to use marshmallows until the next grocery run. Honestly there's no reason to get fancy. I caught three raccoons that were eating all my goose grain by baiting the trap with goose grain. I also figured out their route and put the trap right where they would normally walk through.
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Jul 19, 2013 23:04
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While I think it's somewhat charming that my chickens would prefer to roost on our back porch rather than their coop, I'm getting a little tired of hosing the chicken poo poo off our steps every night. Is there anything I can do to make them prefer their coop? Also they apparently would rather roost in the corner of the run than in the coop up on the log. Stupid birds.
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Aug 25, 2013 17:23
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So my neighbor's (two houses down) rooster has discovered my hens and every morning he brings his flock into my backyard to try to wrangle my hens when I let them out, and his hens raid the coop and eat the grain. Is there a polite way of asking "please stop letting your chickens out so I can let my chickens out" or should I just keep my hens penned until he gets bored and loses interest? I mean I'm fine with being a neighborhood chicken hangout (apparently it's the bird feeder that attracts them all), I just don't want them eating all the grain because I want to keep the coop open for my hens.
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Oct 3, 2013 00:41
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 06:20 |
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My chickies are finally laying! All except one hen, whose comb hasn't reddened up like the others. She's slightly smaller than the others as well and is definitely at the bottom of the pecking order. She ends up going off and doing her own thing because the three others will drive her away from any thing tasty. Is she just a late bloomer, or is she always going to be the punching bag for the other hens? I wonder if I should give her to my husband's coworker who has a much bigger flock so she'd be less likely to get beat on. On the neighbor's rooster front, nothing to worry about there... the last time he was near the coop when I let my hens out they drove him and his women off. My hens don't need no man! I've gotten better at giving them just enough grain at night that there isn't much left in the morning, and feeding them in the evening is a much easier way to get them to go in the coop instead of roosting outside like idiots.
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Oct 29, 2013 01:31
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