Hi, trying to post some pictures of my coop and my girls for you to see.....I love seeing everyone else's pictures!!
My coop and my girls
Here are the girls
Here is one of my Golden Comets
My uninjured RIR
Nesting boxes inside the coop, where there is no nesting, no eggs, no nothing, just roosting and pooping....have to get a "roof" or something to stop that baloney....
This is an old picture that I had posted earlier, of my labs and our coop.
The roosts where they should be roosting, as opposed to the nesting boxes, where they choose to roost......
A nesting box question......how many per hen, and also, how big should they be??
I have yet to put up the picture of Foghorn Leghorn, although I do have one. I thought it would be nice for the ladies to have a man to swoon over in the henhouse :)
T
This is great - I really like your setup. If you put a roof on the nest boxes, I would make it nicely sloped so that they don't decide to go sit on the top and make a mess. I think on average they say 1 nest box per 4 hens. However, I have also read that they should be dark inside, because hens like to lay in the darkest most "safe" feeling area they can find. I think you need a roof for that reason alone. I think they are too bright and open and that is not appealing to the hens. Some people also use fabric "doors" made from strips of fabric so they go in behind there and feel all cozy and safe and quiet. I would guess that is why they may not be laying in there.
Just my 2 cents based on a lot of reading...
Claire
Claire,
Thanks so much for your two cents. I was also thinking a sloped "roof" would be best on the nesting boxes. I didn't know about the "dark" part though....good to know. We hope to get it taken care of this weekend.
Did you notice my golden comets? I think they look alot like your new rescue chickens. I'll try to take a closer picture tomorrow.
Teresa
Yes! I agree that your golden comet looks very similar to my rescues. I think they are molting and that's why they have a lot more white showing. I am not 100% sure but that is my suspicion. I am hoping the brown feathers will cover more of the white over time. The way they are right now is a bit scraggly looking, especially compared to yours!
Teresa,
Still loving your set up. Claire said all I would have said and then some! :-) Good luck with the nesting. My one girl that's started laying has made it in the box once and on the coop floor once. Hopefully she'll settle into doing it in the box.
Is that the polite way of saying "Claire doesn't know when to shut up!" ?
:-)
NoooOOOooo -- ha! I just meant, I hadn't heard of the cloth thing and may try that myself. :-)
Just getting your goat, LL! ;-)
You're mistaken. I have no goats to get. You are the one with all the goats.
LOL
lol you all are way too funny!
nice set up there!
The Goat Fairy cometh...
I love the coop, and your hens. MA huh?
Yes, MA.....I saw a few of your posts before.....I actually went to school at Bridgewater State for a year before transfering back closer to home. I went to school with some people from Rehoboth. I am in Western Massachusetts - to the north of Springfield. How do you keep your girls warm where you are?
Oh, also........my 7 year old nephew is in 4-H....there is a woman there who is looking to downsize her flock and wants to get rid of some silkies. I have no idea of age or anything, will find that out today after their meeting. Any thoughts on how they might get along with Barred Rock, RIR, Golden Comets? Maybe I could put them with my bald RIR (I swear, those feathers aren't coming back - it's been since late August!!!) ?? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Sweet!! You know the small towns down here. lol. Well I keep a special light on at night when it gets colder, and all the chickens come together to stay warm. They are really hardy, I start putting my chicks out in the coop with a light when there a little over 6 weeks. They are really hardy.
Silkies from the way I look at them, is that they will get along with anyone. Just watch them and introduce them at night so its dark, and check them out in the morning.
Teresa, i see your feeder with wire on top, I put a tin pie plate over the top of mine, keeps them out and poop out also.
Good idea with the pie plate.....mine sometimes will still get on top of the wire......wire is no good at stopping poop! :)
Thanks for the tip!
Thats is a beautiful coop teresa :) Your birds are lucky to be loved.
l2g2 -
where am i missing this pic? I'd have loved to hear that as a suggestion in my waterer/feeder sanitation thread! I just got done making a "roof" over their food in their coop, because it was apparently directly within bombing distance. ;-)
I am so sorry LL I guess I missed what kind of feeders you used. I just use a metal pie plate, actually it was by accident I used it in the 1st place. I was trying to put feed in the automatic feeder and they kept jumping in so I had brought them out some kitchen scraps earlier in that pie plate and thought hum this will keep them out while i go get another bucket full. Been on ever since. Now waters I have not got that worked out yet, they will poop, get dirt and the shavings in them.
I think once I get them into a hoop house and can hang the waters that should eliminate the mess in the waters.
Ok, so my husband put a "roof" over the nesting boxes.....I think the girls are confused and think they are "litter boxes", because there was poop in them again this morning.......arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......I am going to the fabric store today to get some material to make a curtain -of sorts- to make it darker in there, maybe that will discourage them.
I take out the poop in the mornings if there is any, and put fake eggs in there, or golf balls, or something similar to show them that this is the place. The fabric store often has fake plastic eggs in the craft section.
Great idea.....thanks for the tip.....we are still a few weeks out for eggs (I think - based on what my husband was told at the feed store) but I don't want them to get the "wrong idea" about the nesting boxes.
Thanks again.
How does the fabric thing work? I was wondering abotu this as I was placing and re-placing Lacey in the nesting box yesterday when she was trying to lay. I noticed that she'd stay in there if I put her in facing the back of the box, but not if I put her facing out... thought the fabric might help.
There was just an article I read in backyard poultry recently, cant remember if it was a back issue or not, and it was cut in strips, kind of like in a car wash when those things go over your car, so they can get in and out easily, but it keeps it darker in there. It is also supposed to help stop egg eaters. Apparently they are less likely to eat the egg if they can't see it.
Sweet! Great - thank you! Now if I could just get her to go in there more on her own! I don't blame the poor girl. The "ladder" I had going into it had some issues and she may be a little nervous about getting on it. :-S
Our nesting boxes are low (within hopping distance). Maybe if they were more difficult to get to, they wouldn't be used as a porta-pottty. Just got my fleece at Job Lot with some velcro. Hope all goes well.......I'll keep you posted.
Ok, so here is my "curtain" as my husband calls it.....hopefully it will help. I'm not sure if I made it long enough, but I bought a blanket at Job Lot that I cut it from, so I can always cut a bigger piece (can't beat a fleece throw for 3.99!) I wanted a print to liven things up....hopefully it won't scare them :)
Did you notice my "eggs"???
Looks good! And some lovely eggs too! I never heard of Job Lot. I would like to get some fleece from there!! Might not quite be dark enough. Wait and see...
Very nice print. I hope the girls are scared of leopards! ;-)
I still think I'm about 3 weeks out from eggs, but who knows......I really just want to stop the pooping.....they were roosting on their actual roosts tonight when I checked on them, so that's a start.
I was so anxious to get it up (velcro is a wonderful thing) that I misjudged how long to make it. I can always add....or start again and do the "car wash" thing like you mentioned before.
They had dark blue fleece, but like I said, the whole coop is white on the inside, and I wanted to liven it up a bit.