the chicken condo

[reswire]

What's up Red Oaks????  No satellite tv for the girls????  If only I lived that good.  HEHE :'(

[Po-Jo]

holy moly  red oak !!!! i am with bandmiller2 , i would have to kick the chickens out and move in myself!  nice work thats the Chicken Ritz Carlton

[drobertson]

Key word on (heated) ;D  the stereo is really for Redoaks while gathering eggs, and planning on the siding?
Up there them birds need all the protection they can get!  nice rooster!     david

[red oaks lumber]

once the coop is sided it should look nice. it really is working out nice, my wife gathers about 14 doz. eggs a day. we supply  a resturant in town with eggs as well as about 8 regular customers.
one of my character defects is i dont do things half way.

[WDH]

Maybe you could even convert Northern Wisconsin to Grits.  They go good with eggs and cheese.  I could even help you  :D.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

one of my character defects is i dont do things half way.

and you have a short fuse.  :D

[drobertson]

I'm thinking is has to be, or the cold would put it out! ;D     david,  as a side note, I know them folks up there have country cured ham, so some grits and red eye gravy would sell well ;D 

[Coon]

If he know whats good for him he would just feed those grits to the chickens and be further ahead in the long run...   :D  :D

[Alcranb]

Holy Mackinaw!!! No wonder that rooster looks so happy  nice "coop" Red Oaks.

[thecfarm]

Oh coon,it's good to have you back. I can see you have not changed.

[red oaks lumber]

 now why would you want to offend  a chicken by offering them grits? :D
david
some say i don't even have a fuse  :D
thanks for the compliments on the coop deville, wife just asked tonight if we should double our egg out put, try to supply more resturants. this is just one area of our "all natural" farming.

[reswire]

Red oak,,,, how many eggs will you have to sell to pay for that condo???  I hope a couple of those hens lay golden eggs!

[red oaks lumber]

total cost of the coop was just under 2 grand. spread that over ten yrs. $200 / yr or .54 cents / day or less than a penny per egg.
so the answer is not much. :D

[Coon]

That's fair enough Red Oaks....  :D  So what we gonna use dem grits for? I reckon we may be able to burn em and make a lil heat to keep us toasty warm.  :D

[kelLOGg]

My wife thinks our 5-hen coop is Ft Knox but Red Oak's make ours look like slums.

We have one hen that decided to molt in the coldest weather of the season - she looks awful but acts OK. It's 16°F now and suppose to get colder tomorrow. We have an IR lamp for heat and even though the coop is pretty tight, it is a chicken coop.

What do others do for hens that molt in the winter?
Bob

[bandmiller2]

Kell, smart hens don't do that, I'd put that bird where its nice and warm, like the oven.   Frank C.

[chevytaHOE5674]

The short days and cool weather are the triggers that tell hens that it is time to molt. Ours usually molt in the late fall/early winter but have had them molt in February as well. They usually spend there days in a nesting box full of straw burrowed in until their feather start regrowing.

[Magicman]

Do dey makes bibs fer chickins  ???   But I guess gravy would cover um just fine.   :D

[MotorSeven]

Po-Jo, I like your coop, looks good.  I'm thinking about building one for my son's place and I've got a question.  We've always had the nesting boxes up behind the roosting bars about chest high.  For no better reason than "that's how grandpa did it".  Does it make a difference with the nesting boxes down low like yours and m wood?  And do you have bars for them to roost?

I think it does. I built my condo out of ERC with high boxes because I have 4 strands of electric fence around the rat wire base:



  

  

 




Wit the nesting boxes up high(and y'all are right the chickens only use one and sometimes two boxes) I have recently had problems with newly acquired hens roosting in the boxes instead of up on the bars. I got 4 new hens and had 4 nesting boxes fouled every morning with chicken shat, so I blocked off the boxes for 3 weeks. After removing the blocking board I have not had any more shat, but my chickens are not using the nesting boxes at all and I can't find the location they are laying. I have not seen an egg for two months and we have 10 hens.......very frustrating.

I'm not sure, but low down boxes might have prevented this issue since they do like to go high to roost. On a positive note, by electrifying the lower perimeter and grounding the rat wire, I have not lost one chicken to predators while in the coop(3 years). The door is always open and the chickens can fly/jump in and out at will(the walk board was removed after the chickens learned where the door was). My chickens free range every day, so no more getting up in the AM to let them out, or at the PM to put them up.

[red oaks lumber]

mine use to be completly free until the owls moved in and bye bye birdie now i close mine up at dusk.

[Chuck White]

Po-Jo, I like your coop, looks good.  I'm thinking about building one for my son's place and I've got a question.  We've always had the nesting boxes up behind the roosting bars about chest high.  For no better reason than "that's how grandpa did it".  Does it make a difference with the nesting boxes down low like yours and m wood?  And do you have bars for them to roost?

I think it does. I built my condo out of ERC with high boxes because I have 4 strands of electric fence around the rat wire base:



  

  

 




Wit the nesting boxes up high(and y'all are right the chickens only use one and sometimes two boxes) I have recently had problems with newly acquired hens roosting in the boxes instead of up on the bars. I got 4 new hens and had 4 nesting boxes fouled every morning with chicken shat, so I blocked off the boxes for 3 weeks. After removing the blocking board I have not had any more shat, but my chickens are not using the nesting boxes at all and I can't find the location they are laying. I have not seen an egg for two months and we have 10 hens.......very frustrating.

I'm not sure, but low down boxes might have prevented this issue since they do like to go high to roost. On a positive note, by electrifying the lower perimeter and grounding the rat wire, I have not lost one chicken to predators while in the coop(3 years). The door is always open and the chickens can fly/jump in and out at will(the walk board was removed after the chickens learned where the door was). My chickens free range every day, so no more getting up in the AM to let them out, or at the PM to put them up.

MotorSeven, Nebraska is cold, like most of the U.S. & Canada are now, do you have any heat it the coop?

Even a heat lamp hanging from the ceiling and suspended about 2 feet above the floor will warm it up.

Also, a light will sometimes prompt the chickens into laying again!

If you take a block of wood and set it inside the coop with an axe stuck in it, they will probably start laying again! (I'm Joking)  ;D

They should start using the nesting boxes after a bit.

[thecfarm]

Motorseven,what kind of chickens you got? How many roosters? Sometimes a rooster or roosters will be a little too "busy" for the ladies. I got rid of one that was too busy. It will stress out the ladies and not lay eggs. been cold here in Maine when I had chickens,they would slow down in the egg department,but would not stop laying. Got any places they can get behind or under? Or up in the air,rafters?

[clww]

What do others do for hens that molt in the winter?
Bob

Have chicken and dumplings for Sunday dinner! ;)

[MotorSeven]

Something killed my rooster during the day inside the back yard of the shop which is fenced in with hog wire. I did not witness the crime and from the forensic evidence left behind I can't tell what predator(s) was responsible(pile of feathers, rooster dragged 30 yards & had his head eaten). I'm thinking a weasel, but they are usually nocturnal feeders. The rooster was an aggressive arsehole, so best guess is he was doing his job and defending his ladies.

However, a few weeks before that they allquit laying, this was before the new hens arrived. We have had chickens now for 7 years and never have they all stopped laying in winter & I have never put heat or light in the coop. Yes, they have slowed down to an egg every other day, but we have been eggless for well over 2 months. I really am at a loss, thought they were laying somewhere around the mill shed, hay shed, storage shed(s), along the creek bank, under a pile of flitches or a camper top....nope...nada...nuttin'.

[red oaks lumber]

the head missing is the calling card of owls.  :(
peak egg laying is from 17 weeks of age until 52 weeks of age, usally after 1 1/2 yrs. to 2 yrs. they just stop producing and shortly after that they start dying of old age.