Hey Free,how is your shed going?

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It is more cost effective for me, since I free-range and they find most of their own food. I supplement with whole grains, sprouted in winter to increase protein. Meat and fat scraps, and garden waste that is not appropriate for the goats (once the pigs are in the freezer.)

Roosters go into the freezer. Breeding roos are free in this area. I live in the suburbs and people get straight run chicks not knowing that having half roosters is going to be a problem later, then they are "free to a good home."

My ultimate goal is to never buy hatchery chicks again. I was forced into the "voluntary" national program NAIS and the only way they knew I had livestock could have been the hatchery order I made. NAIS was supposedly dismantled yet my info is still in the computer. I cannot get it removed. It is likely gearing up to be reintroduced in a different way.

My goal is meat for my family and eggs for us and a few to sell.

Pics maybe later today or tomorrow....full day!

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day Free,hope you are well and not "too" exhausted.....You sure gave me a laugh,"free to a good home" sounds like its pretty dangerous for one's health to me( LOL.)...............

So back to the chickens:That sounds very sensible to me (letting them in with the "goats "in the winter.Do you run the goats on a "deep litter system"?.......Based on this info and after having a look at the photo's,we should be able to come up with something sensible to consider into the future.

Now the matter of the Eagles:What do you think about this,you know how they build these half-round tunnels for gardens,you get made up a light frame of square tube(you have "shade-cloth" right,I think it comes in widths of 4ft and 6ft),you get some black poly pipe say1"it will bend into a "half circle",say 6/8ft across and will be about 4ft high in the middle.The frame will be say12X8,you will have a upright(say 1ft high) on the end on each side and slip a length of poly pipe over each pin to make the half-moon.Now the shade-cloth has a hem on each side cut to length and slide the pipe into the cloth..........You will need another pin the same width as the shade cloth,the next pin will be as close as you can get it to the previous one and so on....Fill one end in completely and only cover "half" the other..................

You start the chickens off right at the coop door and you throw in a little grain(don't grain feed them in the morning),after a couple of days move the structure a few feet away from the door,make sure they see you throw the grain in the enclosure,they will be hungry so they will rush right in........................After a week or so you will be able to increase the distance from the coop and they will be on "fresh grass"each day...................Do you find that most of your hens" lay"before about 10am?If so, thats when you let them out.

If you think the structure is "to"light ,weight it down with a small sand bag on each cnr.

How is that solution sounding?...................................T.O.R................

 

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This is what I am making for my chicks: http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=172799&p=1

Similar to what you describe. I will have two.

Yep, everyone is on deep litter here. Bedding is partially composted by spring clean-out. The chickens scratch in the compost pile and make it break down super fast.

Didn't get pics of current coop yesterday.....too busy with the new baby goats and re-building the buck pen fence! Maybe today if it is not raining when I go out for the second bottles....

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day Free,That looks like a permanent structure that they "live'' in...With all your snow I thought you want would something that could be packed away "flat " for the winter,my idea was a light weight structure they could "graze" under safely.................Hope the rain has stopped to make work a little easier for you ...................T.O.R.

 

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My plan is to use the hoop houses to store some of my hay for the winter, since with 7 goats I don't have enough storage room for hay to get me through to pasture the following season. What a pain, trying to find good hay just when does are giving birth and lactating! So I will put the hoop houses on the lawn (away from the goats) and fill them with hay on pallets and use that first, then the more securely stored hay can be used in the spring. The girls are finding something in the pasture now, but not much.

Those hoop houses would not be enough shelter in our winters. I left the tarp on one out in the pasture last winter and the tarps blew right off. The snow was too deep for me to go secure them. Learned a lesson.

Oh, and my hens lay all day, more in the afternoon it seems. Since I went totally soy-free, they no longer lay all their eggs by 10 AM.

We added two more roosters today and there was some serious smack-down going on....especially when one challenged the 35-40 lb tom turkey! He stomped that fresh upstart of a roo. He was ok, but he ran from the tom and gave him plenty of space.

We candled the eggs tonight and only tossed 2 of the 41. Can't see anything inside the blue ones...they are completely opaque. I have 11 days to get the brooder going and I still need to build a weaning pen for the kids with some sort of shelter and fence the gardens, make gates, and raise the fence on the side of the compost pile that the chickens hop over and into the neighbor's yard. They got a dachshund that kills chickens!

Gotta go get bottles ready for the night feeding....