Chickens

            Hi, My name is Mandel. You probably wont ever meet another one. We purchased this 2 acres in June of 2008 and have been tinkering with it as much as we can. It is loaded with Pine trees and used to be planted in Cotton in the past, it has terraces from top to bottom. We liked this place because of the privacy. It is off of the road, the road is a dead end, so no heavy traffic. It already had a mobile home 14 x 70 on the property and a 100ft well. We have a lot of plans to make it a quiet, private, enjoyable place for rest and relaxation. I am a lifetime Gear head and Car nut. I love old Cars, tractors, and just love the Outdoors. Around 10 years ago I wanted to start doing a little gardening. My Granddad has had a garden all my life and was apparently quite a joy to him. My Dad had a small gardens, mainly Tomatoes, squash, and a few peppers. He said he grew up with the garden, he wasn't that thrilled about a big garden anymore. I started with a little spot with Tomatoes, Peppers. I see where my Granddad enjoyed watching it grow. I have had a little garden every year up until last year. I enjoy planting flowers and trees also.Just anything Outdoors. I have got a lot of projects and hope I can find some of the old pictures of some of what I have done from time to time. I regret not taking pictures of the place when we first got here but maybe I can explain it enough that you can see some progress. Never done a blog, don't know how it works. My neighbor has bout talked me into it. So, we're gonna give it a try.






       Ok, lets see what we can get started here. Lea and I are in the process of raising a few chickens for eggs and just for the fun of it. My neighbors and good friends David and Darcy have a few chickens, goats and a pig. He makes it look pretty easy. So, talking with them and watching their enjoyment, we decided to try it. This has took me quite a little while to do, but I will try to start with the beginning of the process.

First I had to have a Chicken Coop.

       This is the contraption I started with. It was a frame that parts come in from where I work. It was fairly square and everything was welded together, so why not? Talking with David , he said it should be big enough for what we were wanting. I was just planning probably a hen and a Rooster to start with.

      So, I rounded up some more stuff to put this thing together.  I had some plywood flooring that was pulled out of the mobile home when we replaced all the flooring. Brought home a few old junk pallets from work for the roof. So far haven't got a dime in it. Already had screws from a different project. I did pre drill into the frame.Didn't take but one time of breaking a screw to figure that out. That was the most aggravating part of it though, was going pretty smoothly.

      Didn't know how I was gonna do the inside, but I did know I didn't want to climb in this thing to get eggs, so had to think on how I wanted to build some nesting boxes.

        Now, got it moved to the location where I think i will be accessible to water and power. Its up out of the way from everything. Put some temporary felt roofing on for the time being to keep the worse of the rain out. Cut the access holes for Me and the Chickens.

        Leveled it up and cleaned up around it to see if this is really where I want to leave it. As work and other project come 1st, it will sit here for a couple of months until the "all of a sudden Chickens" arrive.

Bella

 
        Lea has a friend that was moving and she was moving to a place that did not allow pets. So, she wound up with this Ugly thing. Her name is Bella.

        When she went to pick up the Dog, the woman told her she had some Chickens we could have if we wanted them. Yessssss, he will come over here and get em. Came with feeders and waterers. So, Cobb and I went and picked em up. "All of a sudden" I had 4 Chickens and my damn coop wasn't ready. Well, Cobb had an empty Coop for the time being, so we took em up to  Two Cedar Micro Farm and unloaded.

Sex Links (Red Stars)

Black Copper Maran

White Leghorn

        Now here I am, ain't never had Chickens, don't know nothing bout no Chickens and I now have 4 and ain't got nowhere to put em, so priorities changed. I had to get my Coop up and going, Quickly. 1st I had to buy a roll of wire. $80.00 right off the bat. Rounded up some post and figured out where I wanted the run to be. Got that figured out and  rolled out the wire. Lea wanted to paint it before we brought the Chickens home, I don't like painting, so I said OK. Came home from work and she had used a bucket of white as a primer which worked out very well. She painted it inside and out. I had some metal for another project, but had to cover it up. Had a couple short pieces, so I just put it at the bottom . I think it looks ok. Threw a ramp together where it would get painted while she was painting.

Had to close up the ends before she can finish painting. At this point she's waiting on me, dang it. Finally got all of it together and when I got home from work....

          BARN RED!!!. Looks very good. Cleaned the run out and put some fresh wheat straw in. It's ready for Chickens as far as I now. Chickens have been at Two Cedars Micro Farm for a month at this point in time. I really appreciate the Cobbs' letting us keep our Chicken in their pen. Without them, we would not have even been doing this, much less doing it this quick.

       Chickens are home, seem to be liking it so far. Will leave them hemmed up for a couple of weeks, then I will let em out and roam a little while I'm at home. I really wish I would have done this years ago. We enjoy watching and listening to them.

Buff Orpington

Buff Orpington

             Lea had another friend that had a couple Roosters at her house and she didn't want them to get ran over, so she asked Lea if we might want em. Yessssss, she went up and brought 2 Yellow Buffs home. These were some big Roosters. They were pretty too. One had a broken toe that never healed right, so I called him "Crip". Didn't want to put them in with my hens cause I didn't know what to expect. Let them out of the cage and they tried to run through the fence. Just left them alone for awhile to get usd to the environment. Behave very well , stayed around the Coop all day. Well., bout sundown one of them tried to jump up on the hood of my truck. HELL NO!!!. Run him off, then he jumped up on the back, ran him off again. Don't know where he slept that night. Next morning they were around the Coop. All is well. Had to go somewhere that evening, when I got back, them 2 fools were up on my other vehicle. Beat em down with a piece of water hose, ran from that vehicle to another one, beat em down again. Whew, I ain't gonna like the damn things. I went in the house, told her I was gonna shoot them if they kept getting on cars. Went outside and one was on the porch rail. DAMN, stupid me, they're looking for a place to roost. Went and found me a piece of  lumber and fixed it between 2 trees, snuck up on him and took him and placed him on the roost. Sat there all night. I think the other one stayed under the camper. Next night I put both of them on it, again, all night . They just wouldn't go there on their own. So, I built a makeshift roost on the west side of the run. Would jump up, but wouldn't stay all night. Gonna try this another way. They seem to like height, so I will make another one on the East side a little higher. 4 ft sounds good. So that what I did. It worked. I put them up there 1 time and they done it from there on out. WHEW!

          This is what I come up with. They fought every night on the roost. If Crip got up 1st, the other one was coming up there and knock him off. When he got settled down, he would let Crip back up. Crip was to go all the way to the left in this picture against the tree. Only place he would let him sit. He used the corner and the rest of the roost for himself.

          Cobb called and asked me if I wanted a Red Star Rooster for my Red hens. Of course I said yeah. Hmmmmm, what am I gonna do with them other Roosters? They'll kill the Red Star. So I asked a co worker if he wanted some Roosters for his kids, he said yeah. problem solved.

                           He's small but cute. Buffs trying to intimidate him, I think it worked. I was gonna try something for a bit to see how it worked. I put the Buffs in with the hens and let little one roam. Worked out pretty well, he adapted pretty well, stayed right around the Coop for the most part. Buffs weren't playing right, keeping my hens stirred up, slowed my eggs down. Had to go quickly. Got them caged and delivered them to their new owner. Now I will put little one in with the hens and everything will be good.

         He did ok, but they wouldn't let him join in on any reindeer games.He was just a lonesome little Roo. Had to keep telling myself that this was the natural process among Chickens so I left him in there for a week or 2. They just wouldn't leave him be so I just let him back out in the yard. I let them all out to free range when I am home and they all seem to like it. Feeding time they would all go back in their proper places.

         I noticed the little one kept looking at the roost but wouldn't attempt it. I put a little cup up there with feed and sit him up there and he would eat and sit all night. Nightfall he would look but not jump. I put him up there for about a week before my goofy butt figured out I needed to lower the roost. He still wouldn't jump so I built him a ramp. Put him on the ramp, feed in a cup, made him follow the food up the ramp. It was done then, he would jump up half the ramp, walk the rest of way.                                                                      

        All cleaned up and ready to enjoy. The iron skillets are what I was feeding them in for a little while. Cobb found some waterers that didn't work so he made us a feeder out of it. Works very well. Have none wasted on the floor since we started using this one.

      The watering bucket was donated by Cobb also, he was changing his setup and let me use his old one. I like it. It's simple. Chickens have no problems with it, except for me forgetting to fill the bucket. Getting my routine down now. So, they wont have to worry bout it much now.



        Cobb called again bout another Rooster here a while back, so we agreed and he brought it on home.

      This is one of the prettiest Roosters I have ever seen. Its color is just bright and its a big Rooster too. This one is a Blue Copper Maran. We've been looking for a Black one with no luck. Couldn't have asked for a nicer looking Rooster. Got some pictures I will post as soon as I figure out how to get them off of my phone.My plans are to put him and my Maran hen together and hatch some eggs. We will get another Rooster for the others. Either another Red Star or a Rhode Island Red.

















     

                                                                           Here are a few more of Mr Rooster. I am trying to get him to come to me without scaring him to much. I think I am gonna enjoy watching this one do his thing. Pictures don't do this one justice. The Grey is just so smooth and the Copper is very bright. He's a little ornery, he will run the hens away from the watering hole while he is drinking.


 


          Well, my little Roo has been injured, he was attacked by 4 or 5 dogs. He apparently put up a pretty good fight or he is real fast. They managed to rip all the feathers off of his back between the wings, but he made it . Cobb had some medicine at his place, he came down while I was at work and doctored him up.

We quarantined him for a week or so and he seemed to be doing very well healing. I let him out to roam around a little while since the sun was out where he could walk his limp on out. 


       Later that evening 2 of the dogs came back and 1of them tried to leave with my Rooster. Well, he let go of him fairly quickly and my Roo went under the house. Finally found him and got him out without hurting him any more. Got him out and he was only bleeding I could find from him was his foot. Far as we can tell the other blood was from the attacker. Quarantined him again, doctored his foot. He ate good, drank plenty of water. Seemed like he was gonna do well. He made for 2 more days.
       I guess that is the way it supposed to be with animals. I was just really wanting this little guy to pull through since he was the underdog of the group.
 







I want to thank David and Darcy at Two Cedars Micro Farm. Without their knowledge and their help along the way, Lea and I would not have attempted this until later on down the road, which would have probably ended up with us not doing it at all. We have learned a lot from them and enjoy talking with them on this journey of  homesteading. Something we are all very interested in. They are the best of neighbors and most of all, the best of friends. Thank Ya'll.