Chicken Coop Advice

reply to post by restlessinMT


I have one buff Orpington in this flock and had two lovey lap-sitters in my previous. Right now my roster is: 1 Buff Orpington, 1 Barred Rock, 1 Speckled Sussex, and 4 Easter Eggers - to tempt my kids into collecting the eggs.

I think my Rhode Island Reds were the smartest chickens I've ever had. I don't have any experience with Leghorns or Cochins. Cochins look a little too odd for me... even for chickens.

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Where I am it can drop to minus 15-20 Celsius.
Would it be possible to safely heat a coup and
keep chickens ?

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reply to post by Gazrok


If not already posted. Here's the best place to order healthy live baby fowl...the best! Forget craigslist and those kinds of places. Urban chinken farming is the latest craze...and a good one I think. Baby chicks are going for $10-20 dollars...insane. Ideal Poultry ships to all the Feed Stores i use. You can order direct..great cheap prices.

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Des

reply to post by ToneDeaf


If it gets that cold very often, or stays that cold during the day, then I wouldn't bother - not for just a few chickens anyway. The aggravation and cost of having to use blankets and an insulated/heated coop would be more than the chickens were worth. Unless of course you have them to have natural food that you knew what was in it - that sort of thing.

However, down to the -5 through 0 range won't kill them if it doesn't stay that cold during the day time, and it doesn't happen for very many days straight. I have seen them frozen to their perches, and once they thawed they were off and clucking again. (They cluck when they lay eggs or are in danger. As if to say they are proud or scared, the danger cluck is a lot more vocal, you will be able to tell the difference over time.)

We always sort of freehanded chicken pens. We also cooped them at night and let them run in the truck garden in the day. Went out at evening with a pan and banged on it with a spoon, cue for the chickens to come for the evening feed. They got to be really good at coming in at night. They did cause some loss in the grape arbor because they really liked scuppernongs but the bug and fruit fed chickens had better tasting eggs and meat than strict feed chickens.

Also, the rooster should always be a pet, it saves having to fight him all the time.

reply to post by Destinyone

Nooooo no no no! The VERY BEST is Murray McMurray Hatchery! They guarantee all their chicks and you even get a mystery chick in your order! And hey, for farmers that's a big deal. Ok, it was for me.

I've never used the hatchery you mentioned and I'm sure it's golden too but McMurray? I've used for over 25 years and I just love their books, web page, etc.

Ok, so I'm shamelessly loyal!

peace

reply to post by Gazrok


I think hens lay better and are all around better chickens when they have a rooster about. Also when thinking about having chickens to survive economic challenges, you really do want the option to create more chicks.

We LOVE our roosters and even have one old boy Fed-Ex, (he used to deliver) that we built a special coop for as his retirement home. He was snake bit and should have been put down, but we love him.

Anyway, roosters are wonderful and do tend to protect the girls and keep them happy.

reply to post by Bedlam


We sing "Chicken in the bread pan picking out dough" and they come on in for the night. I throw in a few "Mama" to them as I have hand raised all my chicks and use that word to be a calming and nurturing word.

(We had a house fire, and during the time the Firemen were here, they cracked up because the hens were landing on their shoulders as they sprayed water from the hoses.) Chickens are awesome and very loyal if raised that way.

We bought one, then added the 12x12 addition ourselves.


We had thought about making the whole thing but it turned out to be cheaper this way...

Of course now they free roam and only get locked up during heavy wind and storms...

Like the bunnies (I only have a couple of male bunnies), I think I'd hold off and try to add an opposite sex one only if a SHTF event seems likely to occur. I'm not looking to get into breeding at all.

I won't be using chicken wire. I already will have some relatively expensive welded wire hardware cloth from doing the dog fencing, so I'll have the left over to do the coop (you have to buy it in 100' rolls).

-10 degrees Celsius is pretty cold (around 14 degrees Fahrenheit), but apparently, many people have no problem keeping them in upstate New York in the winter, so I've heard, even without a heat lamp (though I'd recommend one). I like my animals to be comfortable. My horse stalls even have two fans.

This is the original structure built in 1878 from Eastern Red Cedar logs that I updated with outside chicken wire and reversed carpet on the inside. The chinking for the 19th century structure was made from pond clay mixed with turpentine sapped from the logs.





I still use this structure that has light, heat and double convection fans and roost made from whittled red cedar branches-some still in use are over 120 years old. It now holds 40 birds.




This is a new design that is a side addition in which I added a walk in door that accesses the chicken wire pen and inside brooder. The door opens to double doors which will be sealed each night. The brooder has lights, heat, fans and motion detectors.





Both sides of the low pen have folding doors for access.






Walk in door to brooder, roost and low pen






Black Star pure breed laying hen.





Pure breed alert white Leghorn rooster with brown fluff and double spurs.






Dominique laying hen just beginning to molt at 18 months.

The reason for the door design is so I can access the brooder without the chicks being able to escape the low pen. My biggest problem with their 8 acre free range is Hawks. Most noticeably the Southern Red Tail and the Coopers hawk. They get 10-15 birds a year, are very territorial and are the same family that my ancestors dealt with. There is little that can be done to stop an older experienced female(larger and smarter than the males) however with the correct Federal and State permits you can have a professional falconer set up a feeding station in peak times. I have always declined as the loss is small and they are magnificently beautiful aerial predators that are a miracle of evolution that haven't changed habitation or habits in countless millions of years.

We had dogs, cats, horses, goats and what not, and still let the chickens out in the day if the weather was nice.

I think we lost more to the cats than anything else, and not many of those. The chickens found out about barn cats and stayed in the garden eating tomato worms and cutworms all day. When they got tired or the cats were after them they roosted in a big tree near the garden.

We also had guinea hens and some half tame quail we'd start and let 'graduate' up to the wilds around the house.

Owls worked the guineas over something fierce.

Originally posted by silo13
reply to post by Destinyone

 

Nooooo no no no! The VERY BEST is Murray McMurray Hatchery! They guarantee all their chicks and you even get a mystery chick in your order! And hey, for farmers that's a big deal. Ok, it was for me.

I've never used the hatchery you mentioned and I'm sure it's golden too but McMurray? I've used for over 25 years and I just love their books, web page, etc.

Ok, so I'm shamelessly loyal!

peace

That place looks awesome..15 bird mins, and pricing about the same....might be stealing my baby chick business.....

Plus I like the mystery chick.....

Des

I ventured into chicken farming and wanted to start small to experience it before i made any large investment. I started with 5 free range Rhode Island Red's (Suitable for both eggs and meat) and build a small coop for them one saturday. It was basically along the line of this:




Worked very well until I found I only had one hen and 4 roosters. The guy I bought them from told me they are hard to sex day old RIR. (I later found out how).

So I raised the 5 of them until a weasle got my hen, then put the roosters in my freezer. I found that I could easily farm chickens if I had to, but not interested until I need to.

Cheers!

Greetings. I suggest you look on google for designs of coups that are on wheels. This way you can move the coup once per week to a new area for the birds to eat the grass. You can have like four quadrants, put the coup in each quandrant for one week per month. This way you get good eggs from grass fed chicken. You will notice the taste is better and the yellow is darker than store bought eggs.

Good luck

reply to post by Gazrok

Those are thorough chicken coop lay outs. A total enclosure is always good, especially when there are predators lurking about, whether human or animal. My grandma had chickens and her coop was a simple structure of chicken wire nailed to boards for the perimeter and a wooden laying box in the middle.

You'll never go hungry with some good egg-laying hens in your coop.

Best wishes on your chicken raising endeavors.

Originally posted by Bleeeeep
You should make a chicken tractor. They're basically a mobile bottomless cage with a small coop attached to the rear. They keep the chickens moving about so they don't over graze the land into dirt, while at the same time keeping them out of harm's reach.

No but seriously, search for chicken tractors.

edit on 4/8/2013 by Bleeeeep because: (no reason given)

I second this advice, and that's what I've done for meat birds. Doing mobile is different for layers but not that much. After a few weeks of chickens, a small coop area is a wasteland. With mobile, the areas they leave are devoid of bugs and grow lush, dark grass. The mobile thing is even better if it follows the cattle, because the chickens eat all of the fly larvae out of the cowpoo and distribute the poo around so you don't have to harrow.

reply to post by Gazrok

Funny!

I actually just realized that I could add some nesting boxes, and use unused horse stalls as a chicken coop, if we really wanted to (I have two that have chain link everywhere above navel level). Still though, I think I'd rather have it available for horse boarding.

Found out my two male bunnies are actually a male and female. Guess they can't sex bunnies too good at the feed store we got them from.

reply to post by Gazrok


Gazroks' 2 Bunnies...this time, next year.....




Sorry...the devil made me do it....

Des