MoonShadows
Almost Self-Reliant
We decided to add 6 - 8 new chickens in March/April depending when the weather breaks. Over the past 4 years, we've gone from 16 down to our present 3. (We free range them and the dwindling is due to hawks and foxes.) We were going to get chicks and raise them in a separate area in the coop until they were large enough to let them in with our present hens, but instead, we have decided to buy 17 week old hens. They will be Red Sex Link hens from a farm about 50 miles from here.
So, on Monday, when the weather was nice, I started building a separation in our run. I will build a much smaller, temporary coop in that area that will house the new hens while our older hens get used to the fact that they have new "friends". Slowly, we'll start to let them mix, but only under supervision. Eventually, we think they will work out their differences and take up home in the main coop.
I'll post some pics as we go forward.
Below is a pic of our coop and run from last summer. You can see the door in the lower right side of the run that leads to "chicken freedom". (Notice the rope running up to the house so I don't have to walk down there every morning and night.) The separation is going to run from the wall where the clock is (between the hanging baskets). The new hens will not be free ranged for the first week or two. We'll probably make the separation a permanent structure. We planted 3 grape vines last summer in the back end of the run (protected by wire cages). Since we let the chickens free range (something we didn't do the first year), we plan to use that area to grow grapes. The entire run is 10 x 16...split up, each section will be 10 x 8. 80 square feet is plenty of room for the chickens if we have to keep them in their run because of predators in the area.
So, on Monday, when the weather was nice, I started building a separation in our run. I will build a much smaller, temporary coop in that area that will house the new hens while our older hens get used to the fact that they have new "friends". Slowly, we'll start to let them mix, but only under supervision. Eventually, we think they will work out their differences and take up home in the main coop.
I'll post some pics as we go forward.
Below is a pic of our coop and run from last summer. You can see the door in the lower right side of the run that leads to "chicken freedom". (Notice the rope running up to the house so I don't have to walk down there every morning and night.) The separation is going to run from the wall where the clock is (between the hanging baskets). The new hens will not be free ranged for the first week or two. We'll probably make the separation a permanent structure. We planted 3 grape vines last summer in the back end of the run (protected by wire cages). Since we let the chickens free range (something we didn't do the first year), we plan to use that area to grow grapes. The entire run is 10 x 16...split up, each section will be 10 x 8. 80 square feet is plenty of room for the chickens if we have to keep them in their run because of predators in the area.
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We've had about 3 days of winter. It'll get warm, everything will start blooming, and then we'll get a freeze. UGH!
