Chickens, and things related

[scgargoyle]

If you're thinking about getting chickens, you already have a 'goofy' disease- might's well go ahead and get the chickens!

 

[Soundguy]

If you're thinking about getting chickens, you already have a 'goofy' disease- might's well go ahead and get the chickens!

Nowadays.. if you are thinking about farming.. I think you have a goofy disease..

i remember a joke... farmer wins the lottery, and the newspaper comes to interview him, and asks him what he will do now that he was rich.. old farmer replies the he reckons that he will just keep on farming till all the money was gone... sad but a fact that is becoming true-er all the time..

soundguy

 

[rickster]

Does any one have a idea for a small chicken coop door that opens in the morning and closes in the evening that is mechanical and works off a timer.
I want to give my chickens more room to roam. We can't always be around to let them out of the coop and close the door at night. Any ideas??

 

[Tororider]

Does any one have a idea for a small chicken coop door that opens in the morning and closes in the evening that is mechanical and works off a timer.
I want to give my chickens more room to roam. We can't always be around to let them out of the coop and close the door at night. Any ideas??

Could you figure out how to rig up a mini garage door? Or even use a garage door motor to open and close a regular door? The only problem I see with that is if you have a tardy chicken, they will get locked out.

 

[Tororider]

JACKPOT!!!

So my sister-in-law and future brother-in-law are buying a new house/horse property. I went to look at it for the first time today. I walk back by the horse pasture and look behind some trees and what do I see??? A chicken tractor!!! Its not real big, but it should do the trick, at least through the summer. I may still try to build a coop, but this at least give me time to look for free material on craigslist. Or I can try to reinforce/insulate the tractor.

Woohoo!!!

P.S. I will try to post pictures when I get it.

 

[davitk]

Does any one have a idea for a small chicken coop door that opens in the morning and closes in the evening that is mechanical and works off a timer.
I want to give my chickens more room to roam. We can't always be around to let them out of the coop and close the door at night. Any ideas??

There is a company that makes one, saw it advertised in "Hobby Farms" magazine. I'll see if I can dig the name out of an old copy.

 

[davitk]

found it:

http://www.chicken-house.co.uk/vsb_export.htm

 

[tony123]

toro, congrats on your find! I never seem to be that lucky.

So give us an update on what its been like to have chickens. Any surprises? has it been trouble free?

 

[Tororider]

Well, they are still in the brooder in the garage. So I am looking forward to getting them outside and into a bit larger area. The tractor that I am getting getting for free isn't huge, but at least it gets me a bit bigger and takes away some of the urgency to get something built. I think I will still try to get a run built on the back of my garage, something I can "dock" the tractor onto. Then maybe before winter build a more substantial coop. I will keep lurking on craigslist to see what I can find ultracheap/free. Thinking I may use pallet wood to build it, we will see.

Chickens are funny, I don't take them too many treats, but they already look for them when I open the brooder. It has been a week since I got them and I need to clean the brooder, its starting to stink a bit, but a quick change of shavings should do the trick. I am going to try run over to Costco today to get one of their composters to put the shavings and droppings in, I will try to take a picture when I get it.

Thats about it, just check their water and food a couple times a day and they seem to be comfortable.

 

[dooleysm]

We picked up 5 ducks (2 white pekins and 3 khaki campbells) at Rural King last Friday. We saw that they had their chick supplies on sale, so we decided to start with 5 ducks as a trial run for the 30 chicks we're planning to get on the 28th. The ducks are happy in the 4x4 brooder I built, with a 125W heat lamp.

They go through a surprising amount of water, 1 quart/day, and are great fun to watch. They seem to just go back and forth between the water and the food, and they've grown noticably since last Friday.