Not as much worried about it getting me as me stumbling upon it when I'm not ready and giving me a heart attack. And making me look like a girl as I'm running and screaming.

Walter

I only jumped a foot or so when I saw him...

Better than me. Thee last one we had was within a foot of me while I was bending down at the corner of the fence, I jumped up on the top rail. Four foot lol.

We had two hens go broody. We don't have a rooster, so we got 8 fertilized eggs from our neighbor. 6 have hatched since yesterday. Elizabeth bought boxes to put on the floor so the chicks wouldn't fall from our raised nesting boxes.

Caught a dominicker taking a dust bath.

[video:youtube]1JTIlwAW_W8[/video]

62"

We processed our rooster two weeks ago. We got two chicks from my wife's coworker, who's kid brought them home from school after the class raised them. One turned out to be a rooster and he crowed all dang day. I work from home and it was miserable. Plus, he was a mean SOB.

We bought two other hens, so now we have three. All three have been doing just fine since the rooster has gone in the freezer. Best eggs I've ever tasted.

Picked up 10 more chickens yesterday since we lost so many. Also picked up a pig to feed out and take to the butcher going to start raising a few pigs for our own pork.

Hope you have a strong pen, if you're building one think about a chute and loading gate. They're a pain to load when they get around 300#'s.

Eatin' him for dinner!

Here is the hen that showed up. Pretty bird. Not sure who had her before but she hasn't missed many meals.



My scratch eating dog thinks shes a chicken. It's the damnedest thing.

Does anyone put a heater in their coop, wife is worried her (poor chickens) might get cold?

I use heat lamps inside the coop, place them near the water so it doesn't freeze over.

I have two lamps running. Lamps turned off this morning around 5am I think. Lost 2 birds.

We went from 15 to 16 to 14 all in a few days

If you have some hay you could put some in the coop so they can nest.

I do. just got a bundle of straw. They have plenty.

Found my first frozen egg this morning. Have only had a few eggs laid outside of the coop and I missed this one last night.
Going to have to put a nesting box on the fence or outside of the coop to let them have an alternate nest.

I have 1 Americauna hen, 4 Barred Rocks Hens and 1 Jersey Giant rooster. We get 4-5 eggs a day. Rooster has been gentle so far but he is only about 6 months old.

This one will damn near jump in your arms. Weird bird. Overly social.






Our Phoenix will not lay in the coop. Unsure why other than its a really dumb animal.

Y - I now have an old oil-filled heater I set in there on low. No worries about catching anything on fire.

As long as they are protected from wind & rain and are well fed/watered, they can handle some serious cold without heater, but I keep mine full laying production thru much of winter (lights on timer) AND I have found electricity is cheaper than extra feed consumed by 30+ birds just to keep warm.

I m building a 20x20x10 chicken pen on skid

Where s a good place to get silky in Texas ?