Farm Had a bunch of hot Chicks move in.....

Satanta

Satanta

Stone Cold Crazy
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Friend and his wife moving to Florida. Gave us Ten layers, Feeder and Waterer, several bags of feed [[7 or 8]], several pounds of grit and oystersshell both bagged and in buckets, 8 fresh eggs in a contraption you sit on the counter and they spiral down from the top-looks like it holds two dozen, couple of Owl statues to scare Hawks, a metal Rooster and a live-catch traap.

Has a few more things for us next week.

The girls are om the garage=not ideal but they are safe, even got an egg this morning in one of the smaller plastic dog/cat carriers. Moved several in to encourage the egg laying.

Planning out the Henhouse and their Yard. Thinking of building the house in the open barn against one wall, cutting an access door for them to go out and fencing a large yard for them. Will be able to close the access opening at nightor during hurricanes or whatnot, more protected sleeping in the barn.

Thinking OSB for the inside nesting area but we do have a lot of sheetrock and a lot of vinyl siding that was left here so giving some thought to using the sheetrock and siding for the henhouse-save some $$.
 
S

summerthyme

Administrator
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The simplest "nest" is just a piece of plywood (3'x3' or a bit bigger) leaned against the wall, leaving about an 8" space behind it! Since chickens seem to want to all lay in the same spot, and half the time, at the same time!, this allows more than one bird at once. And gathering eggs is as simple as tipping it forward. Plus, they can't roost on it!

Another option is a covered kitty litter box... those work really well for broody hens.

Congratulations on the girls! ASAP, give them some added light in the warm/yellow spectrum. It doesn't need to be super bright, but it needs to give them the equivalent of 14 hours of daylight, or eggs will be few and far between until Spring.

Watch for rats and birds being attracted to the feeders... they can easily eat a LOT more than your chickens, and it gets expensive fast. 10 laying hens shouldn't eat more than about 3 pounds of grain a day... call it 4 to allow for spillage and waste. If more than that is disappearing, its time to look for the cause.

With a bit of care, you should be set for eggs for quite awhile!

When planning indoor pen space, figure at least 5 square feet per bird, if there will be times when the weather is too nasty for them to go outside. Any less room than that, and you can get feather picking and other issues caused by boredom and crowding.

Good luck!

Summerthyme
 
Satanta

Satanta

Stone Cold Crazy
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summerthyme said:
The simplest "nest" is just a piece of plywood (3'x3' or a bit bigger) leaned against the wall, leaving about an 8" space behind it! Since chickens seem to want to all lay in the same spot, and half the time, at the same time!, this allows more than one bird at once. And gathering eggs is as simple as tipping it forward. Plus, they can't roost on it!

Another option is a covered kitty litter box... those work really well for broody hens.

Congratulations on the girls! ASAP, give them some added light in the warm/yellow spectrum. It doesn't need to be super bright, but it needs to give them the equivalent of 14 hours of daylight, or eggs will be few and far between until Spring.

Watch for rats and birds being attracted to the feeders... they can easily eat a LOT more than your chickens, and it gets expensive fast. 10 laying hens shouldn't eat more than about 3 pounds of grain a day... call it 4 to allow for spillage and waste. If more than that is disappearing, its time to look for the cause.

With a bit of care, you should be set for eggs for quite awhile!

When planning indoor pen space, figure at least 5 square feet per bird, if there will be times when the weather is too nasty for them to go outside. Any less room than that, and you can get feather picking and other issues caused by boredom and crowding.

Good luck!

Summerthyme
Click to expand...
The garage has twin garage doors/ Bothe have two sets of windows may 12 high, 15" long. Rectangular and that's a Guess. North side of house with a tree to the West so they get some light thru the day but I have three 6' Flourescents I turn on ]]ceiling mounted]] I can add some sort of clamp lighting if-needed.

I cannot mentally compute five Sq foot a bird. Most chicken houses I've been in seem to be maybe 8x8' or so or 5'x 12' or so more long than fat.

Any thoughts about using the sheet rock? Their Coop/Hemhouse will be in the barn so weather is not really a concern and I will replace that over time.

Outside the pan is going to be about 23' square with chickenwire cover. Too much or not enough?

Eventually I want to build a chicken tractor to move around=a lot of flies and, strangely to me, stinkbugs here. Ants too but they are getting Memorialized in Molten Aulminum.
 
Kewpie

Kewpie

Senior Member
Congrats!! Sounds like you got a heck of a deal! The egg contraption that spirals is called a Skelter. I have a 3D printed one that has 3 separate spirals so you can keep track of 3 types of eggs (for me I have quail, eggs I want to hatch, and eggs to eat).

Make sure whatever you build has an adequate roosting space and ability to slide out or easily clean. Sleeping birds are pooping birds.

You only need about one roosting box per 3 hens, they absolutely will pile up and all lay in one box. I’ve used an old plastic box litter comes in (great opening that has the opening 1/4 covered to hold in laying medium medium. I bought some happy hen roosting lids that snap into 5 gallon buckets, but I also like the ‘covered litter box’ idea! They’re like $15 at my local dollar general, definitely gonna get some of those.

I bought some of the old metal nesting boxes that has the roost and everything built in, but they were rarely used. My ladies preferred to pile into the original tractor supply coop I bought with the separated areas. I put white dish pans in there and lined it with wood shavings, that was definitely their favorite spot!
 
Satanta

Satanta

Stone Cold Crazy
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The guty also gave us a bag of dried mealworms but FL carried it in and I lost track of it. I went looking for maybe a 1 gallon ziplock-the bag must have originally weighed 30lbs! Got a handful and held it out and four of them ran over and went to town-was afrai I was going to pull back a hand looking like Swiss Cheese... :lol:
 
Satanta

Satanta

Stone Cold Crazy
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Ok, Chickens in Garage. They've laid two eggs in one of the critter transport carriers I shoved some hay into. Got another then a large one. One pole for them to Roost on but they seem to like the tops of the storage buckets [[5 and 7 gallons]].

One feeder bucket-sits on floor, round, feed goes in top and trickles out bottom but I go in three times a day and hand toss food to them and once or twice with mealworms to get them bonded to me. Now they semi-follow me. The only White one hangs out pecking at my boots or pants, one of the speckles follows me around the other sort-of, sort-of not.

How much Grit and how much oyster shell do I toss out?

I have overhead Florescents I turn on and four windows that let in some sunlight. Do I need an incandescent or heat source for them?

Few weeks will get their House built and an outdoor area but it's getting colder so trying to work out their safety and welfare for, well, EGGS. :p

Oh and do they need a dust or sand bath area?
 
W

WalknTrot

Veteran Member
Sounds like you are getting a good hen-home set up! They will reward you. :) I like the idea of using an inside corner of the barn for a coop. Am thinking seriously of revamping my own chicken system to have them inside a bigger building with an outside run. Easy storage and access to feed (for me!), no messing around chopping out coop/run doors with 3 feet of ice and snow on the ground. All around better protection, weather moderation, less prone to predators at night.

To be honest, I don't mess around with grit OR oyster-shell. I feed a layer pellet with the right amount of calcium included so they don't need the shell, and if the birds have any outside access to the ground (dirt), they will find plenty of their own grit. I realize most people want to provide it anyway, and the simplest free-feed shell and grit feeder idea I've seen and liked is a full sized cement block (three-holer) set on it's side with the grit and shell poured in the holes. They can't move it, they can't spill it, and it stays contained. You can give them some fun and throw them a couple shovel's full of sand or dirt (maybe with small rocks included). As for a dust bath...they are notorious for making their outside yard resemble the craters of the moon, digging escape tunnels under the fence, and will probably build a dust bath to their own liking, whether you want one or not. ;)

As to light...you only need to supplement either early morning or after dark in the evenings to get the minimum of 14 hours total. It doesn't have to be a lot of light, but enough that they don't want to roost/snooze. That's why timers come in real handy.
 
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mecoastie

Veteran Member
I leave a dish of oyster shell out in the coop all the time. They peck away at it. I also crush the eg shells and throw them back in the run for calcium.

As for a dust bath if they have access outside they will find a place and make one.
 
Satanta

Satanta

Stone Cold Crazy
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No outdoors as of yet. Hoping next couple of weeks but we are getting Frost at night so... Also as far as them "Digging"? Maybe but they will have to go thru an inch of soil and rock then four or more inches of Pea Gravel.

Going to be LOADS of fun for me when I trench out the lines where I set the chicken wire into the ground. Course, if they can dig out nothing is likely to dig in. At least before I show it's Noggin what Fresh Air feels like.
 
Satanta

Satanta

Stone Cold Crazy
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Another Train of thought that might Derail is- Chicken Tractor.

I really want to build their Coop in the barn, reason is we get Hurricanes here, Coop in barn gives hem a lot of protection.

Thinking the Tractor can be detachable from the barn-chickens outside doing chicken things, close a panel and move them somewhere, end of day, move them back, reattach and they go in for the night. The Move thing won't happen Daily-that adds a lot of work I do not have time for every day but, occasionally it would be fine plus, we have a lot of Flies and Stinkbugs here [[Do chickens eat Stinkbugs?]] Moving them to certain areas might help with that.

Told FL, once I hardware wire the porches in [[Cat Proofing]] We can tale a couple or three of said Chickens into that area when we want to sit out there and let them roam the porches-even put nesting boxes for them to hang out overnight and eat the insects. Porches are plastic wood so a hosing off now and then and it's "Clean".
 
pauldingbabe

pauldingbabe

The Great Cat
Wherever you build the coop the biggest thing you need to consider (other than other critters) is ventilation. Upper respiratory infections will roll right through a flock with a quickness!

I'm another vote for the corner of the barn. Why build something you already have space for? Leave the tractor idea alone until you get this figured out.

Yes, chickens will eat stink bugs, they eat a lot of stuff. Including sheet rock!
 
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