Welcome to Thunderdome

Onions suck. They're trying to tell you to plant something worthwhile in its stead.

We have our six as well. I'll post picks of the mobile coop I built. After they tear up the 4 x 8 ground under it, I move it and sow clover seed for the bees.

Wife was upset about the idea of eating them (going to build a larger stationary coop for meat birds) but now that they're mostly grown and not so cute and you realize how completely stupid they are, it's more of a mercy killing. So she's getting used to the idea.

Did you get yours at Rural King?

Maybe if you name them the following it will be less difficult later: Marsala, Parmesan, Kiev, Curry, etc...

That was exactly my joke. "Pot pie", "Parmesan" and "Alfredo" were the three favorites.

Vince wrote: Did you get yours at Rural King?

Tractor Supply!

And, "Will, look at that one running around... that one looks delicious!"

My stupid little coop is small enough to move around with two people (or one if you want to warp it while scooching it a few inches at a time, side to side), but I decided to make it stationary and surround it with those paving stones to keep predators from tunneling under.... which seems like it would be a problem for you, especially given your area? In a week or so, if it stops raining, they will have a 10'x20' run. Don't know yet if 6 hens is enough to denude it of grass in an area that large, considering I will still probably let them out to free range for a couple hours before dusk, every day. Until the hawks notice that routine, that is.

Do you have a rooster? Going to grow your flock?

Don't have a rooster yet. Will get one with the next batch after the bigger coop is built. Then will grow my own. Have an incubator.

About a week ago the wife was looking at them and says, "Wow! They're about big enough to eat! Can't believe I just said that."

After the squirrells you have been feeding her, I bet the sight of chickens on the hoof makes her mouth water.

Do you still need an incubator with a broody mother hen sitting on them?

I don't think you'd need an incubator with a broody hen, but I think it's hard to get them back to being "unbroody" once they've gone broody and not good for much except for sitting on eggs after that. They don't lay when they're broody I'm thinking I remember and one or two eggs every 3-4 weeks isn't very useful for people that want eggs

Then the head goes on a pencil as a warning to the others! Which will promptly eat the head and forget about it within 20 seconds.

Possible bad news.... my two black chickens.... one is growing a big comb, the other isn't. I may have a rooster. Not sure yet when I will know for sure.

GORDON wrote:

Damn I am going to have to post an update to this tomorrow. It looks way different now.

I started utilitarian but somewhere in the middle I decided to make it artistic and attractive to the eye, since GORDON loves wondrous variety... and because it is the view from the living room picture window.

So yeah, every egg is getting more expensive every time I go to buy more lumber.

GORDON wrote:Possible bad news.... my two black chickens.... one is growing a big comb, the other isn't. I may have a rooster. Not sure yet when I will know for sure.

The cutie from the farm store handed you a stray cock. That's bad train etiquette.

G's got ambushed with an unexpected black cock.

Malcolm wrote:G's got ambushed with an unexpected black cock.

As one does...

I wouldn't worry yet. The combs grow at different rates for some reason. All ours were the same size chicks when we bought them, but some had combs showing three or four days before the others.

I'll try to get a pic later, the difference between the two is noteworthy.

If it is a cock, you gonna eat it?

Paul wrote:If it is a cock, you gonna eat it?

Don't know yet (and I see what you did there... but eating it is a possibility).

Is this a cock? Those two are the same age. They are either developing at different rates, or they are different sexes.

I guess if they both self identify as female there won't be any problems... but...



So here's the current progress I've made on the run. As I said before, the original plan was simple and functional, and I was just building a wooden frame that would hold chicken wire. As I started building it, I realized it was ugly, and was highly visible from the house and patio, and I should probably make it pleasing to the eye. So I added a slight slope to the roof, and started putting in those free-standing "rafters" that would both hold up the overhead chicken wire, and be visially interesting.


You can see some chicken wire already going up.




A few of my 2x6s for the roof were severely bowed... which, when being used like this, were highly visible and looked like shit. Before I realized the problem, I couldn't understand why I couldn't get the spacing correct, and why a few of the free ends looked so askew. So now I am trying to unbow them. I don't know if this will work... but either way, I saved them for the back of the run where because of that tree it will be harder to notice if they're bowed.




"Sup. Go fuck yourself."

How to sex chickens (not as hot as it sounds)

"When purchasing chickens from a hatchery or feed store, remember that even chicks being sold as female (aka: sexed, pullets) risk being male. Even the most reliable sexing methods used by commercial poultry operations have a margin of error and sometimes chicks get mixed up in the bins at the feed store."

"In general, male chicks will begin to develop larger, more prominent, darker combs earlier than females."

I just watched a few chicken butchering vids on Youtube.

I suspect I have some nervous chickens out there, they sense something is wrong.