Many of you have read this old thread Get your wife some chickens . It is a wealth of information.
Yeah that was from 2016 when @Chikn told me to get my wife some chickens. I’m just now fixing our coop and building a run…
Yeah I’ve been dragging my feet a little…
4 Likes
I finally got the gate post hole dug out yesterday, man what a chore. Took me a few hours to get it done, got the post concreted in, finished right at sunset. Got everything cleaned up around 7:00, and it’s raining now so I hope the Quikrete set by now. Since I had to expand the hole to get at the roots, it took three 50lb bags to fill it back up.
My pruning hand saw really come in handy getting those roots out.
4 Likes
It truly is a chore to set posts and concrete.
I think next time i want a gate which is in my near future im going to go with the t-post hinge instead.
Here is a run with t posts and the wire i use… much easier than framing and setting posts like I did.
1 Like
Too many varmints can get through a gate like that.
1 Like
Considered a pre-made gate like that, but will probably make my own out of 2x6 and 2x4’s. I did that with my deck gate about 8 years ago, it still looks good.
1 Like
2 Likes
Bumping the thread to see how everyone’s winter chickens are doing, for those of us in colder northern hemisphere climates. Unironically the supposedly hardiest breed I have (hatched from shipped eggs) loves to spend time in their coop whereas the other varieties (bred here in Ohio over many generations) are out and about when it’s very cold regardless.
We’re not getting many eggs right now, but that’s expected. We’ve had some really grey, cold weather.
With the snow we haven’t moved any of the movable coops. We’re debating putting down bedding in the runs and holding until it’s warmer.
1 Like
I have an elevated rotating composter that becomes a de facto BSF factory between about June and September. A few of my smarter hens figured out they could fly up into it and feast. But I don’t think I would like tending to a full-on operation.
I am in WV. 30 hens giving me 25-30 eggs per day consistantly.
Kalmbach layer feed… also switched up to Layena and Nutrena.
1 coffee can per day of scratch grains.
3 Likes
Our egg production picked up right around the winter solstice. I won’t credit the hens being that sensitive to the slight increase in daylight, but who knows? We do use lights in the henhouse. In November and most of December we were getting two dozen a day on average. We couldn’t supply all the customers we had every week, so we’d make it Tuesday to two Fridays later then Friday to two Tuesdays later. We averaged. close to three dozen a day for the ten days we were gone for the holidays and have a temporary glut. We could have worse problems.
5 Likes
i dont use lights in the winter. i let them rest. why i have some leghorns still laying at 6 yrs. old from apr. to nov. only ones laying now are my 6 onyx that i got as chicks last apr. they started laying in sept. i get 6 hen chicks every spring to replace my oldest hens and those keep us in eggs thoughout winter while the older girls stop laying. im getting about 4 eggs average a day right now. going to start hatching my own chics as buying them has gotten too expensive.
5 Likes
Here’s a secret. I mostly keep the lights on until 8 so I don’t have to collect eggs in the dark.
3 Likes
Built a mobile chicken coop, to raise pullets docked onto a run, or for free range meat birds or layers.
6 Likes
You need more ventilation.
2 Likes
