Young chicken goes for a ride!

[REDDOGTWO]

Had a young laying chicken about a month old get out of the chicken tractor today. Went inside to get a fishing net and still could not catch it. Went back in so it would settle down and when I came back out, no small chicken, looked all over around the area including underneath all vehicles and anyplace it could hide but nothing. Wrote it off as being captured by a passing animal as my dogs were inside.

Drove about twelve miles to pick up some chicken fencing then went into town and made one stop after about another twelve miles and then made another stop. Went inside and got a call from the gf that there was a chirping under the pickup. She went outside and there was the chick. It apparently jumped up in the undercarriage and was there the whole time. Captured it and took it home.

 

[muleman]

Just bought 2 Rhode Island reds today. Hope they are not runners like that. Mine seem pretty content to stay in unless somebody leaves the gate open...

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

That's funny. Some birds sure have personalities. I'm up to 20 birds at the moment. I added some pullets this spring.

 

[Doc]

That is funny.
Do you guys raise them and harvest them for food, or just for eggs ....or what?
How much time does it take per day / week to tend to the chicks?
I'm considering getting a few.

 

[jwstewar]

We just got some chickens this spring. We bought 16, but lost 2 fairly quickly - we have one that was a bit older when we bought and I think it killed the first 2. Then we just lost 1 about 2 weeks ago. It had been fine and then one day it was laid out flat. We have now had them about 2 months. They are now staying in what will be the area under the coop. I've got 3 walls of the coop built. I've been put on hold a bit after my heart attack a few weeks back. I had 2 walls built and have managed to get the 3rd built. Hopefully can get the rest of it done in the next couple of weeks. I've got everything I need to make the door open & close automatically. My coop is 6x8 and 54" in the front and 48" tall in the back. I plan on making the run about 6x20 + the 6x8 under the coop itself.

 

[REDDOGTWO]

First rule is if you are going to do something do it right. In other words go in overboard. Have not been around chickens since I was a kid.

Now have close to a hundred meat chickens with about sixty ready to butcher in a couple of weeks. They are dumb birds. Also have ten adult hens and over seventy laying pullets.

It takes about a half hour a day to feed and water them, depending upon the age of the chicken and not counting watching time.

In the process of building six chicken tractors with most of the purchased materials now on hand when used campers started popping up. Going to pick up the third this week. The last camper already gutted cost 150 with the cost of a 8 by 12 chicken tractor running about 600. Have one done with another framed and the base built for the third. Might have to get more chickens to fill them.

It goes well with the gardening.

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

Wow reddog you are serious!

I have a small 16x16 fenced in area with a Rubbermaid lawnmower shed that I converted into a coop. I let the chickens roam the yard during the day. It keeps the feed costs down but I have to chase them out of certain areas. I use my Crosman BB gun to "train" them not to go into certain places but they seem to need a lot of refresher courses.

They do keep the bug count low. I had some of the best looking apples last fall and rarely see many ants around.

 

[Doc]

Good info guys.
There are different types of chicks for meat vs egg laying?
What type do you have Jim and PB? Egg laying?
If so how many eggs do 16 chicks get ya a week?

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

Good info guys.
There are different types of chicks for meat vs egg laying?
What type do you have Jim and PB? Egg laying?
If so how many eggs do 16 chicks get ya a week?

There are tons of different types of birds, egg, meat, dual purpose. The egg layers taste OK but they take longer to fatten up and some are small in size.

Eggs are cyclical - lots in the summer - not so many in the winter. If you have a fancy coop with lights you can get more eggs. My coop is too far away to run power to. From 10 laying hens, I'm currently getting around 4-7 eggs a day. In the winter, I get 2-3 eggs on most decent days. When the weather is really bad then it's 0-2 eggs.

I give away a lot of eggs in the summer. With 11 more hens coming online this summer I will have enough eggs for the winter.

 

[REDDOGTWO]

Cornish game hens are the best for meat, ready to butcher in under ten weeks and the roosters will be up to ten pounds, hens less.

For egg laying, production red will do about 300 eggs a year, sex links are good, so are the white leg horn but these are a little more skittish and the roosters think that they own the world.

 

[jwstewar]

We bought in 2 different phases. Monica and the kids bought the first 9 after the statement that I wanted egg layers. They bought some meat ones and some dwarf ones that are supposed to be good at eating bugs (especially important with us having the goats) and maybe an egg layer or 2 from TSC. I then stopped at Rural King and picked up 7 egg layers. They are ISA Browns and California Grey Leghorns. The 3 chickens that we lost were all from the bunch Monica bought. So in theory I should have 8 or 9 egg layers left. As far as how many they will produce, I have no clue. They aren't old enough yet. They are supposed to lay eggs until around 20 weeks. I'm guessing ours are about 8 weeks old. That gives me about 6-8 weeks to get their coop finished with the nesting boxes.

I heard that you need one nesting box per 2 - 3 birds and 4 sq ft. of coop space per bird. My coop is 6x8 and I'm planning on 6 nesting boxes. So I'm designing it to handle 12 birds. Right now we have 13. So even at that we should be OK.

I will try to get some pics of what I have so far later tonight if it doesn't start raining.

 

[FrancSevin]

Wow reddog you are serious!

I have a small 16x16 fenced in area with a Rubbermaid lawnmower shed that I converted into a coop. I let the chickens roam the yard during the day. It keeps the feed costs down but I have to chase them out of certain areas. I use my Crosman BB gun to "train" them not to go into certain places but they seem to need a lot of refresher courses.

They do keep the bug count low. I had some of the best looking apples last fall and rarely see many ants around.

People say free range chicken is the best meat. I usually tell them it is comprised mostly of chiggers and ticks.

On the other hand, penned up chickens eat ech others poop all day so,,, there ya go. Some choice.

They don't get it.

As to this little chicken that traveled, a nice tale for a Disney short.

 

[jwstewar]

I was able to get a few pics of our chics tonight. The first 3 are of the birds themselves and the 3rd one shows the base of what will be there coop that they are living in for now. The forth picture shows what the inside of the coop will be like. I've got 3 of the 4 walls up, got the forth framed tonight, just need to get the siding on it and put it up. The next picture is of the front wall including an acrylic window yet to be installed (already cut and ready to install, just need to paint first). The door is also acrylic and will be on a timer and motor. All supplies are bought, just need to wire and install. The 6th picture is of the completed side wall including the "man door" that will be used to change light bulbs and clean out the coop. Finally the last picture is the back wall of where the nesting boxes will go. Those holes are each 3' long, so each one will house 3 boxes for a total of 6 boxes.

 

[muleman]

Holy crap! You got the most exotic chicken coop I have seen in a while. Mine is an old Amish school bus hut that I built a door for and added a window and air vents. 2 old chair rails for them to perch on and a nest made with hay in the corner. It is on a skid so I can lift it with the forks on the skid steer. We get 3-4 jumbo brown eggs a day from 4 golden comets and we just got 2 Rhode Island reds to be replacements as ours are 4-5 years old.

 

[REDDOGTWO]

That is one nice coop.

 

[jwstewar]

First rule is if you are going to do something do it right. In other words go in overboard.

Quoting you RedDog. If this thing is going to sit in the yard, I want it to look somewhat decent as you can see our property from the roads from 3 sides.

 

[Doc]

Yessiree, those chicks be livin large once you get that done. very nice work Jim.
Thanks for sharing all.
Mentioned all this to the wife last night. She is strongly opposed to eating eggs from chicks we would raise. She prefers store bought. She thought the home grown were strong and she saw blood in the yokes of eggs I brought home from a co worker.
Did home grown eggs take any getting used to for you guys or your wifes? I didn't notice that much difference, cept the yokes seemed larger than store bought and the color was a deeper yellow. No biggie.

 

[jwstewar]

I can't say, we haven't gotten any yet

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

Color is better, yolks are thicker, and occasionally there is some "blood" - but the taste much better. The shells are thicker and sometimes they have poop stains on them.

I guess your wife hasn't ever seen a commercial egg farm.

Oh yeah, you probably won't be saving any money if you have to buy feed for the birds. Between feed and straw for bedding it is probably cheaper to buy eggs at the store. I spoil my birds with scratch grains and probably clean their coop out more than is necessary.

 

[jwstewar]

And especially once you factor in the cost of the coop. This was supposed to be a super cheap coop and throw something together. We looked at the coops at Rural King and Tractor Supply and Monica was like, I'm not spending $200 on a chicken coop. You can build something cheaper. Don't tell her, but so far I'm around $700 and I still have to buy a few 1Xs for trim around the corners and the roof.

 

[Doc]

Now that sounds like my projects Jim. We won't tell Monica.

I was not considering it to save money, as I figured at most you might break even but we have the space and i thought it would be kind fun and interesting. You are right PB, she has never see a commercial egg farm, and I've mentioned that to her to no avail. She can be stubborn. still might get some chicks.

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

As pets and a back-up food source they are kind of nice. My 5 acres is fenced in and other than the occasional Raccoon or the damn coyote that dug under my fence, I've only lost 3 to predators. I trained my dog to avoid them with the shock collar and he is great around them now. He likes the eggs if he finds a hidden laying nest in the yard or if I crack one by accident.

I like looking out the window and seeing them working the lawn and pasture. The current Rooster is pretty laid back and not very aggressive so he gets to live.

If you get a Rooster, be tough with it and hit it or kick it every time it gets any where near to you. Then they will always be scared of you. I was nice to the last Rooster and he eventually would try and attack me at every chance he could. Eventually he got kicked hard in the throat and didn't survive it.

 

[muleman]

 

[jwstewar]

I've had a bit of a chance to work on my chicken coop some more. I've gotten the 4th wall built and installed. Also got the rafters and purlins on for the roof. As you can see from the pics, I've got the wiring run for the electric. I will get the coop and run finished before I actually run the wire and connect it to my workshop. The chickens need a house before they need electric It will have 3 light bulbs in it. Not sure what size bulb I will use yet. Probably in the 60 - 100 watt range. This will be both for light to stimulate egg production come winter time and also provide a bit of heat when it get really cold. In one of the pics you can also what I will be using for roofing panels. They were some type of asphalt/fiberglass base. Supposed to last forever and they were only $21 a sheet. Unfortunately had to have 3 sheets, thought I could get by with 2, had I only made this 7'6" it could have saved me a sheet. Oh well, too late now.

Figure I should say the one box mounted to the inside is where the power supply for the 12-volt door opener will mount. I need to get that wired, but not overly concerned about that, we can do it manually for a while. Just need the coop. The box on the outside is where the switch for the lights themselves will be mounted. I may need to figure out some type of timer for the lights. Worst case scenerio, I replace the light switch and install an X10 light switch with a timer/controller inside the workshop.

 

[jwstewar]

BTW, next step is to put the light fixtures up and then the roosting poles. The light fixtures are what the builder installed in the basement. I took them down when we finished the basement. So they were just laying around. I need to stop and get some screws for them as I lost the ones that were with them. I had the wire and the lights and such, so the electric isn't that big of deal cost wise. I will still have to mount an outlet on the outside to be able to plug the heated water bowl in this winter. The wire will also continue over to the goats house to provide us with lights and heat lamps over there as well. This is just a single 20-amp circuit for both buildings.

 

[muleman]

Spoiled rotten critters you have. I made a heated water bowl with some scrap lumber and a heat tape strung around the inside of the box and a hole cut for a big old cast aluminum kettle to sit in there. They like to stand on the heated box to warm their feet.

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

Heat, lights . . . WTF?

My chickens just huddle together in the winter. They keep their shed warm enough that the water doesn't freeze. Of course, we had a mild winter last year. I figure the cost of running power out to them is more than buying new birds in the spring.

 

[jwstewar]

I get a bonus out of this. We get power to the goat "barn" instead of running extension cords across the yard this winter. I was hoping to do a full barn this year, but it doesn't like finances are going to allow it this year. So we are stuck using the 8x16 shed again this year for a barn for the goats. So I figure for the price of a roll of wire and some conduit I can kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

 

[EastTexFrank]

I'd love to have a few chickens but my wife hates them. She'll eat the eggs but won't touch anything with feathers on it. Besides, they're too time consuming. We plan to travel more in the RV and having chickens just wouldn't work out.

Jwstewar, don't let Big Al see that coop. He'll be trying to rent it out.

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

Chickens are the lowest maintenance farm animals IF you don't treat them like pets and have a decent fenced in property.

I went on a 10 day vacation last December. Filled up two feeders and two waterers, threw in extra straw and some wood chips and left the gate open to their coop (yard is fenced). Had a neighbor stop by and pick up the eggs every couple of days and that was it. No hassles.