New Hens!

[Carly Rae]

Wow, they hatch a lot quicker than I thought haha!

Why do you buy fertile eggs? Is it so you dont have to get a rooster? Haha that is a silly question, but I have never heard of it before.

My hens are getting friendlier! I now have them eating out of my hand, they are still a bit weary when I walk around or make fast movements, but today I spent about half an hour sitting and feeding them out of my hand.

We are going to make them better nesting boxes. They have plastic tubs now, its not 'private' or enclosed, so we are using old metal oil drums cut in half and a piece of board at the front (Idea thanks to Pinterest) I will probably get old hose and use it around the sharp edges for safety. I may even decorate the outside and write something on the wood using the wood burner, If I want to go overboard haha. But we need a new grinding wheel to cut it.

I am also getting mum to get me an oil drip tray from her work so I can slide it under the roost, there is just poop all under it.

Ah, thats all ill say for now

I still cant post photos here, Its not working at all, Oh well.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

No, we don't have a rooster so I have to scrounge fertile eggs when we get a broody hen. I'd rather buy fertile eggs than bother with a rooster. I know some folks really enjoy their roosters.

Pretty fun to decorate your nest boxes!

 

[amysue]

I cannot wait to see what you come up with for nest boxes Carly, you are so creative and talented that I'm sure they'll look awesome. Just keep in mind when constructing them, if you do decide to try to hatch eggs in thr future, you'll want to make a nest that chickies can get back into when they roll out of it. A friend of mine bought those snap on kits to turn a 5 gallon pail into a nest, problem was that if a chick tumbled out, the lip was too high for them to get back under momma hen. My pheasants and peafowl like to nest in buried tires, my geese build nest holes in the straw chaff in the hay barns and sit there to hatch out. I was gifted a few of those galvanized hanging nest boxes with the roosts in the front and my hens seem to like those. I won't let them sit to hatch out in them though as they're mounted about 3ft off of the floor onto the wall. My husband build me nest boxes on the ground for the bantams after wondering what I did with all of his clementine boxes in the shop that he stored nuts and bolts in.

As for roosters, my bantam roos all get along well, as there are 2x as many hens to keep the peace. I have one roo with the laying hens for protection and so I get fertile eggs. The downside is, one; he's a jerk and two; eggs must be collected at least 2x daily and refrigerated right away or in the summer months, a lil embryo will develop, and nobody wants to crack open an egg for breakfast to find a bloody spot.

 

[Carly Rae]

I see. I think if I ever wanted to have chicks here id probably buy eggs rather than a rooster. Well depends, im not sure. If you had a rooster always with your hens, would you ALWAYS have fertile eggs, or do the hens still lay infertile ones for us to eat? Or would you have to keep the rooster away from the hens when you dont want chicks? I don't know much about all this haha.

Aw thank you Amysue!! I have been working on the nesting boxes since 10am, its now 1:30pm. They were old diesel drums, I dont know how many times I cleaned them. Id spray loads of degreaser all over it, then rinse thoroughly. Then I used Mentholated Spirits and wet n dry sand paper to get all the rust and anything else stuck to the sides, then rinsed it. Then car wash, scrubbed it like crazy. Then I did a full rinse out, and wiped it dry. I have just spray painted the outsides mat black, I was going to cut out stencils on chickens and spray it onto the outside. But then I'd have to draw it up, cut it out, and I wouldnt have a clue where our Stanley knives are. But I am going to start on the hose now, I cant decide if I should spray paint it sky blue or white. Im thinking white will go nicer. Then I have to find some wood for the front.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

I cant wait to see this Carly , It is sounding amazing

 

[Carly Rae]

Thanks Ryan!

I have finished the majority of it. Its dark here now and I just finished for the day. I have the hose painted white, drying. I still need to find a piece of board for the front yet. But I am pretty happy so far. Photos are on their way

 

[Carly Rae]

Okay. So here is before when they were just cut in half. Well that was actually taken after the first clean with degreaser.

And here is after. I was pretty happy with it. For something that was made by me anyway haha.

So yeah. Thats what I made.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Too cute! Nest Hilton!

Here is our Blackie on the nest. Our nest boxes are just--boxes!

If you have a rooster your eggs will always be fertile. Some people think fertile eggs are much healthier for you. You will never know they are fertile if you gather them every day.

 

[Carly Rae]

Thanks Marsha!

How often do you change the hay in your coop? I have been reading and reading, some clean theirs weekly, some monthly. I have used hay all through mine, but it gets quite dirty from their poop and all, and one still has the runs which looks like caramel sauce.

I have taken all the old hay out and laid new stuff in, its only been 8 days though, so I wasnt sure if it was necessary, to me it looked messy. I have read that sand is great in the pen, its apparently very tidy. I'd like to find something to go in there that is nice to look at, and nice for the hens. What do you use?

I am also so glad that I made these new nesting boxes, with their old ones, they would stand on the edge and poop straight into it, so the boxes were half poop. Im still keeping 1 or 2 of the old ones for outside, in case they ever want to rest out in the sun.

With feeding time, I used to put the pellets on a tray, but they kick it off the tray and scatter it all across the ground, then eat it. So now i put some on the tray and scattered some on the ground and they always go for the scattered stuff. Weird. And when they did eat out of the tray, they would hear something, turn around and poop straight on the tray. Very hygienic animals lol.

Aw! Blackie is very pretty! Looks cozy though. My dad doesn't know why I bothered decorating the nesting boxes, because they are 'just chickens'. But they are my new pals!

I thought so, I have never heard of eating fertile eggs before.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I only clean my chicken house every month or so. I use straw or bagged shavings, whatever I can get. I use hay or straw in the nest boxes. Yes, they are messy. All birds are! I don't worry about it to much. They are only in there at night. We're having company on Monday so I will clean out the house so the children aren't too grossed out.

Most chicken feeders have a bar across the top that turns. This keeps the chickens from scratching out the food. Scratching is what they do. Check them out; you can probably make your own.

Fertile eggs are a non-issue when you are gathering them every day.

 

[Carly Rae]

Thanks for that! I might have a look at those!

I got some better photos of the girls, finally. I have just been taking photos off my phone. I decided to take my camera down to get some shots.

 

[paintponylvr]

Wow - this thread has lots of info trading going on! Love the nests, by the way, Carly.

Isa-Browns are a hybrid chicken, so even if you have a same breed/type rooster, they won't produce like them selves. I was looking at getting some of them, but right now, my luck with birds is just about zilch!

The last 6 months have been heart breaking when it comes to the birds. I just purchased 1/2" hardware cloth to put around our movable chicken tractors - hope that that will fix the new digging into the coop problem. All the last of my free ranging birds have disappeared in the past month. Still cleaning out the eggs from our last 4 free range hens - hadn't realized that they were laying so well - found a surprising number of eggs in unbelievable areas! Found some - of course - after they exploded - GAK. Rotten Egg stank is a very real thing, LOL.

As to ground/pen/coop bedding. Do you have a floor in your coop? Or is it directly on the ground? From what I understand, chickens dig. Ours certainly did and still do. Doesn't take long and the grass is gone an the holes fill with muddy water when it rained and just looked god awful & smelled a whole lot worse... Found the Deep Litter Method demo'd on Backyardchickens dot com. I can't say enough about it! I LOVE IT. NO CLEANING the pens or even in my coops (which all sit on the ground. Our nest boxes and roosts are removable/scrub-able so we haven't yet had issues there. How the DLM works is pretty simple. You use a combination of green and brown compostable items in the yard/coop. Hay is only one - straw, wood chips, leaves (GREAT), even small branches, ,pine straw, lawn clippings, weeds from anywhere, Compostable veggies and fruits (careful with citrus) cut up from your kitchen, coffee and filters, even shredded paper (I bring it from work and shred bills here too). Then under the roosts, as chicken manure piles up/looks messy - you fork new DLM over it. The chickens scratch in it themselves - moving the chicken manure down and allowing it to compost. During the winter, your DLM will actually keep the coop warm. I'm not the best at explaining all this - so here is a good link - REsults of 1st year - DLM

Bee Kissed - UTube vid of DLM

Here are some of the pics of my coops getting set up with DLM... These are pens with some small areas covered for "coop" & nesting boxes.

The coop next to the barn has gotten a new load of material. This is from this pasture and is a mix of leaves, pinestraw, old hay from round bales and pony manure! Didn't take long and even though "babies" not at laying stage yet, the pullets were working away at the bedding. The sandy floor of the coop is no more - I have a beautiful loamy floor in this pen...

front of this coop -

the pen with a truck cover coop -

The coop section (before we brought our birds out) - nothing fancy but feeder is hung in side away from roosts so that it doesn't get wet outside.

I have a lot of "fodder" to be used for the coops/pens - it just has to be collected, LOL. That part is WORK. I'm sure there are other ways, too. I put out the eggshells from us eating and also toss/break any into the litter that we have that may be questionable (the ones I know that are "bad" go into burn pile). Right now, our DLM is at a stand still as I don't have any mature chickens actually in any of the coops right now...

I have 3 batches of different kinds of chicks - 1 is supposed to be a cockerel and I have hopes that he'll be a good rooster.

FWIW - I have had blood spots in our eggs from pullets that have never been around roosters.

and bacyardchickens dot com is GRRREEEAAATTTT!!!!!!!!! For all kinds of info, advice, support etc.

 

[Carly Rae]

Thank you Paula! My mum loved their nests, although it is extremely strange to the chooks, they were very curious, not I'm just hoping they actually use it!

Thank you! I really appreciate your long informative replies

My coop is directly on the ground. Although where the roost and boxes are, under is a layer of bricks to make a floor, dont think that counts though haha. DLM sounds fantastic! Ill have to try it.

I actually joined back yard chickens like 2 or 3 days before I got my chickens! I love it!

 

[paintponylvr]

I currently use the nipples on 2 ltr bottles for watering our chicks. I have one pen/coop with some hens and a rooster - they haven't been laying (two hens are 5/6 yrs old now?) and the others ?? not sure why not. They have a commercial feeder and waterer.

Before I had so many birds get killed/die in the heat wave, I'd purchased buckets and supplies to do the bucket feeders and waterers. The bucket feeder will hold 25 lbs of feed at a time and little to no spillage/waste due to using a pvc elbow for them to reach in thru...

Here's pics from BYC that I posted on another thread. I understand that these work too. I've got all the supplies to make mine, but haven't done so yet... pics directly from backyardchickens dot com. this thread - Show me your DIY feeders & Waterers

and here's an educational vid - 5 chicken coops

 

[Marsha Cassada]

It was my understanding that blood spots in the yolk is hereditary. On a big egg farm, that hen would be culled. But I'm not sure I believe that. I get one once in a while, but have no way of knowing which girl/girls lays the egg. I have no rooster so it has nothing to do with fertility.

So sorry you lost all your chickens, Paula. The man I got Blackie from has lost all his. They set up a game camera and it was hawks. We have hardware cloth buried under the fencing of our pen about 18" out. I haven't seen any digging around it in 4 years, though do see varmint prints. The only critters that have gotten in the pen went through the garden fencing, which shares a side with the chicken pen. No buried wire on that side. One was a bullsnake, that got a chick, and one was a rat which terrorized the girls. We got both critters and found the holes where they had chewed/broken the chicken wire to get into the pen from the garden side.

But our girls are out all day and are only shut up at night. We've lost a couple that way over the years. One to a friend who came over with her dog. Now I don't allow anyone to let his dog off leash, no matter how cute and sweet.

 

[Debby - LB]

Those feeders are just the trick! I love your pens with the deep bedding. We've lost so many chickens to the foxes since I lost my Dolly dog it's sad. We are trying so hard to get rid of them. We've got live traps out there now.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

My girls were raising a ruckus when I went out this morning. Then I saw a very large hawk sail over. At first I thought it was a horned owl, it was so large. It must have tried to get in through the wired top. The girls were yelling and hiding in the house. He came over two more times, and I went for the rifle. But then he didn't come back; guess cause I was busy out there with the horses and garden. They are not afraid of the turkey vultures that live on our mountain in the summer; the wingspan of those birds is at least 3+ feet across. But that hawk scared them out of their chicken wits.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Still plagued by that stupid hawk; now there are two of them. 2+2=???!

Haven't heard any quail lately, bunnies are gone, and fewer songbirds. If they would only eat rattlesnakes and raccoons...

I've decided to keep the girls in today; we are all stressed.

I was telling mom about the hawk and she reminded me of the time my dad caught one IN the chicken house. He had slaughtered almost the entire flock.

 

[amysue]

I had to cover my chickens with deer netting to protect them from the hawks. I found these big decorative butterflies at a florist shop that are made to be hung outside. They are quite gaudy with bright colors and they do scare off the hawks. I wired them to the top of the netting to deter hawks.

 

[Carly Rae]

OMG, that is terrible Marsha! I hope everything goes ok!

I'm so glad that we dont really get very many predators here, and the only thing that could get into the pen are snakes, which we want to put a strip of mesh along the botton thats about 50cm high to try prevent it, not sure if a snake could get through. Although theres no long grass around the coop. We dont see too many snakes, a few here and there. Our whole pen is fully covered with mesh roofing and everything.

We got another 2 hens the other day. I also changed their names. Hoping for some eggs within the next few weeks. The lady at the poultry farm that we bought them from said that out of those hens they had gotten 4 eggs. But they had like 4 massive sheds full of hens, so 4 isnt that many, but hopefully soon.