In loving memory of Kenis D. Keathley 6/4/81 - 3/27/22 Loving father, husband, brother, friend and firewood hoarder Rest in peace, Dexterday

Homesteading Chicken Coop Build, Chickens, Pond, Garden & Projects

Discussion in 'Hobbies and Interests' started by Well Seasoned, Mar 25, 2018.

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  1. Chvymn99

    Chvymn99 Moderator

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    Look's good wildwest .... Hopefully you didn't put it where your "Blob" of snow goes every year. :eek:
     
    Chvymn99, Jun 23, 2022
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  2. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    That's exactly why it's in that location! It gets the least drifting. As well as I'd like it facing me, but this is best for winter wind. Of course I wanted it outside my back door but that's where the blob snowdrifts form.
     
    wildwest, Jun 23, 2022
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  3. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    Got the chickens in, kid in the coop with them everybody happy, something triggered our gun dog when kiddo came out, several rounds around it scaring the chickens. They calmed down and pup obeying now, Good Girl!! Anyway WWW got busted by guys in the gun dept at Murdoch's, they didn't believe the 22 lever action was for his wife because she got chickens and was worried about predators :rofl: :lol:

    It's night here so I cannot shoot it, but tbh I'm having trouble pulling the slide back on the old Colt pistol, I'll try it this weekend. :)
     
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2022
    wildwest, Jun 23, 2022
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  4. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    These girls are so darned cute!! Twice today I showed them how to drink from a nipple ( DaveGunter ) but they all went for the bowl when kiddo filled it :rofl: :lol: We'll do training more, also, as kiddo see's me handling them she gets braver to do it herself, especially when I cradle them like she does with her cat. She's no pansy but she balks if one flaps wings and runs by. They all have different personalities! Nice most of them went into the coop by themselves tonight :yes:

    And WWW refined the gun sights today, they weren't too far off considering from the factory but now it's sighted like both of us are used to.
     
    wildwest, Jun 27, 2022
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  5. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    Crud, just caught something light orange colored in a glimpse through my slider door through the screen. It was jumping on the hen coop trying to get in the vents. Only thing I saw for sure was the tail was tipped white. I opened the door and told it to go away and then went out with my dog thinking it was a large stray cat. Duh, it was a fox or a young fox after I came back in to google.
     
    wildwest, Jul 10, 2022
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  6. DaveGunter

    DaveGunter

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    I think most chickens are like that, prefer to drink out of an open source, we keep an old concrete bird bath in the run as a source of open water as well as the bucket with nipples, they come running when we refill the bird bath. Add a tablespoon or so of ORGANIC apple cider vinegar per gallon of water, IIRC it helps with digesting, something about keeping crop pH correct. It has to be organic though, because it has extra good stuff in it that regular ACV does not.
     
    DaveGunter, Jul 10, 2022
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  7. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    Thank you, I just checked, my ACV is not organic, I'll get some :)
     
    wildwest, Jul 10, 2022
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  8. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    Does anyone here grow mealworms for their chickens? On a side note, here I get black stink beetles, (they FREAK me out I'm getting a migraine as thats the smell I get before one wallops me-knock on wood I've only had one or two the past several years thankfully), Anyway I was always curious when someone here posted a picture of a flat brown but as "stink bug". The last residents of this house raised everything (horror show when they abandoned the dogs/cats/chickens/rabbits during snow storms), want to bet they raised mealworms and they got loose and established themselves under the house?
     
    wildwest, Jul 13, 2022
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  9. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    wildwest, Jul 19, 2022
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  10. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    wildwest, Jul 19, 2022
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  11. Backwoods Savage

    Backwoods Savage Moderator

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    Backwoods Savage, Jul 19, 2022
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  12. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    that guy is trying to suck hot air out instead of blowing cool air in (It's black, on the coop window)
     
    wildwest, Jul 19, 2022
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  13. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    eatonpcat , Giant Pointing Griffon, has a beard kind of like Schnauzers/Kerry Blue Terrier.
     
    wildwest, Aug 7, 2022
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  14. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    I think one of the girls has mites. Sprinkle DE around?
     
    wildwest, Aug 25, 2022
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  15. LCBug

    LCBug

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    A box of ashes does just as much good. This time of year you can put it in a 6 inch deep box in the outside run. They love to dust bathe and that's what helps keep the mites down. If there's little bits of charcoal in it they'll peck at it and pretty soon the box is empty.
     
    LCBug, Sep 19, 2022
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  16. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    Nice to meet you :) Thank you.
     
    wildwest, Sep 20, 2022
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  17. LCBug

    LCBug

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    Pleased to meet you also. What kind of chooks did you get? They can be so entertaining and yet so stupid... They'll do fine with the Fort Knox setup it sounds like you built. Chainlink is the best fencing and if you get chicks a layer of 1" chicken wire will keep them in. Not sure if you were told about burying a layer of welded wire or chainlink from the pen out to about 2 ft. It keeps the diggers from getting into your gals.

    Last night at lockup time I counted how many old hens there are to put in the freezer (for soup or grinding). There should have been 19, counted 12 (had a total of about 70 birds in there after the roosters went to freezer camp yesterday). So, either the eagle or the buzzards found them and over the last 6 weeks have had a couple chicken dinners. They usually free range my yard and into the edges of the woods, gotta keep those egg yolks nice and orange.

    You had great advice about keeping them dry and well ventilated over the winter, thick bedding helps also. A couple friends put clear plastic around the outside roofed areas. It makes for a nice sun porch in the cold times.
     
    LCBug, Sep 22, 2022
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  18. ReelFaster

    ReelFaster

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    I thought my girls had flea's but turned out to be some kind of gnats in the bedding. Just to be safe I cleaned the coop fully (It was overdue), changed all the bedding and sprayed the coop down with permethrin 10%. Also gave the run area a good shot of it. I hear DE is good to mix in with the bedding or dust the girls down as well as ashes from the stove work well. All of mine are molting haven't laid eggs in weeks......
     
    ReelFaster, Oct 3, 2022
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  19. wildwest

    wildwest Moderator

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    Hi again I'm sorry I missed this. Well, I'm a dork, the "chicken run" I bought is NOT chain-link, it's chicken-wire. We finally got the frame up this weekend, summer totally got away from us..... We'll get the wire on hopefully this weekend, it will NOT provide any protection from predators but the goofy giant sweet rooster shoos them all in at night. His morning crow is so cute and hilarious (not like crows one hears on TV). I know they need more room. And fail on the hardware cloth, just not enough time in the year for husband to help me do what I used to be able to do by myself, but, we have the coop latched and locked and more, so I'm feeling more confident.

    I'm not sure what breed the rooster is (I got him off facebook), but he's awful handsome! The ladies are Wyandotte, Salmon, Dominique, and another that passed away sadly. The coop was in a pretty good spot near the back garage door, but now the chicken run (we had to put it directly over the coop, because of wind, drifts, and septic pump truck access) the chicken run door is like a 40' trek, not a big deal in summer but snow and drifts will be hard on my husband for making a path through 6-15' drifts (we get them every winter, thus the "blob" mentioned a couple posts ago. Anyway that's the best direction for wind, drifts and the other mentioned.

    Idk LCBug , we'll see what happens this winter, depending of the drifting and husbands snow shoveling back, he might just agree to a doggie door into the garage for a small coop and attached run outside the doggie door that was my orig idea.
     
    wildwest, Oct 11, 2022
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  20. ReelFaster

    ReelFaster

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    I've read (of course depending on the breed) that chickens do really really well in cold weather, it's the wind that really makes them cold and can hurt them. Many wrap plastic around the run to keep the wind chill down, suppose to help.

    Am on a kick to collect rain water off the barn roof for the chickens, kind of like an automatic chicken waterer. Some good video's on YouTube about it, we shall see.
     
    ReelFaster, Oct 11, 2022
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