Chickens, and things related

   / Chickens, and things related #763  
Just throwing out ideas here... what if you sectioned off the coop so that it were smaller in the winter. It takes less heat to heat a smaller space...maybe the chickens themselves will keep the water from freezing?

I don't have a coop, only a tractor. The coop portion of the tractor is 3.5'x4'x4'tall with six hens in it. It works, because they get to free range for several hours a day.

Based on the heating job a regular light bulb did in the brooder, I'm pretty confident that on the rare day that it's needed, I can just run a lamp out to them with an extension cord. No need to get elaborate for the handful of days I'll need the suppliment. Of course, that's in my climate.
 
   / Chickens, and things related #764  
I can't really make the coop any smaller, it's only 6x9 the way it is. Barely enough room for me to get in to get the eggs. It's entirely possible that they'll keep it warm enough, but I don't want to wait until a cold day in January to find out.

After talking to a few people around here, I think they've convinced me to bite the bullet and dig a trench and run an electric line out there the right way.
 
   / Chickens, and things related #765  
They do fine in the cold up here (15-20 below). Just make it so they cannot spill the water and geet wet and keep drafts to a minimum. We take them and close off the run which is attached to the coop and put plexi in the screen door window. Fluorexcent supplemental lite to have them lay eggs (12 hour). Can let them out on a nice day but they prefer in the coop for the nites. Have not lost any in 4 years to predation. I also like to put a heating pad under the waterer and adjust the temp to the outside temp. The also get about 12" of 'fluff' on the floor. If they get real cold they burrow into the grass/hay a little more. They have these great little down coats that do wonders!!
 
   / Chickens, and things related #766  
... I was thinking of putting an outdoor outlet on the barn, right across from the coop. Then I was thinking I could put an outdoor outlet on the coop, connected to a regular outlet inside the coop. Then I could make an extension cord with male connectors on both ends

I wouldn't do it that way because of the shock hazard associated with line voltage across the blades when the other end is plugged into an outlet. With a little looking or visit to an electric supply, you ought to be able to find a recessed male plug that could mount in a panel or standard box. Then you could connect the two with a standard extension cord.
 
   / Chickens, and things related #767  
That's what everyone has said that I've talked to about my idea. I'm not really worried about that because it would only be plugged in during the winter and I could easily make the coop side outlet high enough that no little hands could get it unplugged.

After thinking about it more and looking over the situation again, I will only have to dig an 8 foot trench to get from the barn to the coop. I think I can handle that. I'm going with direct bury wire and I'll just hook into the last outlet in the string of outlets in the barn. I'll put a GFCI outlet in the barn and protect the coop with that.

I think it'll make an easy weekend project once we get some rain to soften up the ground and some cooler temps.

Incidentally, I found somone about a half hour away on craigslist that is selling her entire flock of chickens because they got into her tomatoes 'for the last time'. She's selling pullets for $8 and 2 year old layers for $4. She's also got some obscure type of drake ducks for sale. I think I'm going to buy a couple of those to hang out with my female white pekin duck.
 
   / Chickens, and things related
  • Thread Starter
#768  
Well, I am working on getting some more chickens, some free, some in trade, and some hatched to replace the ones that were eaten by something other than me. Hope to get everything secure and whatever ate them trapped by this weekend so we can have stuff out there again. By the way, I am selling some that I hatched to try to pay for food and buy some more chickens, so if anyone is interested, hehe.
 
   / Chickens, and things related #769  
Selling chickens to raise money to buy chickens sounds inefficient to me.

I'm stuck in San Diego this week for work, but the wife says she got 7 eggs each of the past 2 days. The girls are starting to kick it in to high gear!
 
   / Chickens, and things related
  • Thread Starter
#770  
With hatching I really don't have much into them. Just a couple weeks feed, which at that age isn't much, and I get the eggs cheap so it isn't bad. And whatever doesn't sell will be added to the flock, or the freezer depending.

Got 4 free roosters tonight. We will have to see how they behave with each other, and the other chickens I am going to add to them.
 

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