Raising chickens. Advice, comments, do's and don'ts wanted.

[WHNJ701 4,164]

we just finished raising 10 inside a rectangle plywood box with a light.  never had issues with rectangular boxes.  I wouldn't use a towel at the bottom.  we use pine shavings

[ebinmaine 63,214]

3 minutes ago, jabelman said:

we just finished raising 10 inside a rectangle plywood box with a light.  never had issues with rectangular boxes.  I wouldn't use a towel at the bottom.  we use pine shavings

Neither Trina or I really understood the logic of the towel until yesterday. The guy that sold us the food  recommended a towel for 2 or 3 days so as to keep the chicks from accidentally ingesting pine shavings. Have not seen anybody else mentioned eating shavings instead of food as a problem... But I guess I can see where he would get the idea.

 

[Darb1964 1,014]

My wife and I have raised chickens for over thirty years and have used a plastic tote or box never had any loss because of pile up under heat lamp. We put the best lamp on one side the chicks will get as close as they need to go stay warm. As they feather up they will move back from the heat. We never started more than twenty five, I can see a problem with hundreds pile up loss. We use chips, sawdust is what you should never use they will eat that when first starting out. We use a big shop vack to clean them. Fresh eggs are the best you will enjoy them if you can keep the raccoons mink halks posoms bears and skunks out.

[ebinmaine 63,214]

6 minutes ago, Darb1964 said:

Fresh eggs are the best

That's definitely the biggest reason why we're doing this. Trina buys fresh eggs from local people whenever she can and they are pretty lovely. Also better for you than store-bought commercial factory-produced eggs.

 

Predators are definitely going to be a very serious problem because we live pretty far out in the sticks as stated above. We'll do the best we can with what we've got and hopefully things will work out. If not, chalk it up to a learning experience and we'll figure out a different way to do it.

[Ralph S 342]

Don't feed them anywhere near your house. My wife like to see them running towards her when it was feeding time and had them shutting all over the porch. They would hang out on the porch all day looking for food.

[ebinmaine 63,214]

1 minute ago, Ralph S said:

Don't feed them anywhere near your house. My wife like to see them running towards her when it was feeding time and had them shutting all over the porch. They would hang out on the porch all day looking for food.

What we are thinking is to feed them - only - in the coop. Or, right immediately in front of it on the ground.

That way they associate the safety of the coop with getting food.

The nearest corner of the shed to the house is probably 25 or 30 feet?

 

[bc.gold 3,399]

35 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

What we are thinking is to feed them - only - in the coop. Or, right immediately in front of it on the ground.

That way they associate the safety of the coop with getting food.

The nearest corner of the shed to the house is probably 25 or 30 feet?

 

Biggest predator could turn out to be the family dog, especially those bred for hunting birds.

[ebinmaine 63,214]

7 minutes ago, bcgold said:

Biggest predator could turn out to be the family dog, especially those bred for hunting birds.

True enough. Ours is a terrier, cattle dog mix so the bird hunting issue isn't bred into her but she is very excited by movement of animals.

 

She's NEVER off leash.

[Ralph S 342]

29 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

True enough. Ours is a terrier, cattle dog mix so the bird hunting issue isn't bred into her but she is very excited by movement of animals.

 

She's NEVER off leash.

My beagles didn't bother the chickens one bit once they new they were chickens and not pheasants.

[ebinmaine 63,214]

1 minute ago, Ralph S said:

My beagles didn't bother the chickens one bit once they new they were chickens and not pheasants.

I think she'll be fine once we teach her that the chickens are not to be trifled with.

[ebinmaine 63,214]

THEY'RE HERE !!!!!

 

 

 

 

[ebinmaine 63,214]

[ebinmaine 63,214]

[ebinmaine 63,214]

Chickens are 10 days old now. They have learned to fly about a foot at a time and can get off the ground enough to stand on the feeder which is probably eight or nine inches tall.

 

 

 

 

Here's the dog checking in on them and also them checking up on the dog.

 

 

 

[formariz 11,863]

20 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

Chickens are 10 days old now. They have learned to fly about a foot at a time and can get off the ground enough to stand on the feeder which is probably eight or nine inches tall.

 

 

 

 

Here's the dog checking in on them and also them checking up on the dog.

 

 

Hmm. Chicken nuggets for dinner?

 

[953 nut 51,775]

20 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

Here's the dog checking in on them and also them checking up on the dog.

I can hear he chicks now, lookin up at the dog saying "Is he DROOLING"!             

[Pullstart 59,744]

We had a problem with our birds learning to roost on top of the water and food dishes.  I thought only mice, coons and possum eat where they poop.  I fashioned cardboard cones on top of the water and food dishes, so they wouldn’t do that.  Now that thecoop has roosts, they leave the water and feed alone 

[ebinmaine 63,214]

 

 

 

[ebinmaine 63,214]

Same tote. New cover. New location.

 

Yesterday and today they have begun flying around in short spurts inside the tote and coming quite close to going over the top.

To prevent jailbreaks we have put a piece of dog crate metal over the top.

 

We put the birds in a different area.

The dog now has free roam of the cellar again.

 

 

 

[ohiofarmer 3,157]

Not familiar you the coop thing as we raised ours in the hen house. It had two rooms. One for laying and feed and one for roosting. Keeps things cleaner that way.

 All we fed them was oyster shells and oats raised right on the farm.  Get your oats at a grain elevator and avoid farm stores like tsc to save money

Oats makes the eggs mild in flavor and the oyster shells  make them unbreakable. We very often got more eggs per day than we had chickens so we must have done something right

[The Tuul Crib 7,332]

There’s nothing like the taste of an egg 

from a free range chicken ! That dark orange yolk is so tasty! If you had room a chicken tractor is way to go. The more bugs they eat the better the eggs! 

Good luck with your new family!!

[ebinmaine 63,214]

4 hours ago, The Tool Crib said:

free range

To some extent, they will be free range. Completely. We may build a chicken tractor at some point but most of our yard is not really flat enough to use one.

 

We figured on the days when we can, we will let them out for an hour or two in the afternoon/ evening and all day on the weekends that we are home.

 

 

[Mows4three 825]

Eric:

 

My suggestions if you have chickens:

 

Don't raise chickens if you run a mink farm.

Avoid naming them.   It's really hard to eat a chicken named Donna for Sunday dinner.  It's only slightly better if it's named Stu. 

Don't add to it, but change their water everyday.  We did this on our farm because they will poop in their bowls and pass intestinal bugs on to the others if they're sick.  

 

Now, you are on your own.

 

🐔🐥🐤🐣

 

Dave

[ebinmaine 63,214]

9 hours ago, Mows4three said:

Don't raise chickens if you run a mink farm

They're ok.

I tell them nicely to stay on their side of the yard.

 

[ebinmaine 63,214]

We started building the chicken enclosure today.

This overhang under the side of the shed is 6 ft deep and about 20 ft long. The Coop building portion is going to end up being roughly 6 by 8 foot. The rest and some additional outside will be caged in as the run.

 

Some in process pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the floor joists of the coop area.

Don't mind the pile of lumber. We tossed it all in there to keep it dry.