Officialish Chicken Photo Thread!

[Lockwood]

Oh, I forgot... I was going to post a link to Back Yard Chicken too!

Flygap, is that a cattle panel you cut up and covered in poultry wire for the pen part? I love cattle panels! (says one who does not own cattle)
They are so handy to cut and make into darn near anything. I've got several here covered in the green plastic poultry netting... makes for colorful fences.

The cute picture is adorable too! Kids and chickens seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly. :)

[Delfina]

I have a heat lamp in my coop (which is also insulated). The main difference I see is that while none of my neighbors are getting any eggs, I have them coming out my ears. I also put a couple giant windows in the coop for daylight.

I put the roost on skids, so I can pull it out of the coop leaving a flat rectangle floor, then just take a shovel and scrape the contents into a muck bucket. The "floor" is a scrap of vinyl flooring that I stapled down and I keep it covered in shavings. I can clean out my coop in less than 10 minutes. Since my hens will NOT leave the coop if the ground is covered in snow, I needed easy-clean.

[FlyGap]

Yep! I needed it to be sturdy since it was so small and I was going to drag it with the coop. Worked pretty well and nothing got in except for a 6ft. Long black snake. Had our rooster shoved down his throat, ewww poor bird. Notice how we had it close to the fence line.... Whoops. Moved it out in the yard and never had a problem.

Delfina there was a window in the back for light and a closeable air vent, wasn't nearly big enough. Good idea.
Our large coop now has a open flap tin window but when we had goats they got crazy with it and busted out the wire. It's a big 20X15X15 shed attached to the barn so I can leave them in there all day if need be, sometimes I get out there late to let them out and I know it's throwing off their egg production. Seems like if I leave the door open over night I'll get eggs, close them up too long and nadda. It's been down in the teens finally so I've been keeping them shut in at night to keep em warm. Spring will come!

Do you guys do deep litter method? I'm doing organic hay/leaves/straw and it's going pretty well, can't wait to add it to my garden next spring after I let it cool down and compost.

[tinyliny]

So, Flygap, that little white coop thingy, with the wire run attached is all the coop I would need for four hens? It's so small!

Your daughter is adorable!

[FlyGap]

Hi Tinyliny,
It really doesn't need to be very big if you keep it clean and move it around everyday. That picture isn't good for size representation. I think it's 2.5ft. Wide X 4ft. Long and 3ft high, easy and lite to pull around. They had a roost in it that all four could sit on and there were two nesting boxes in the very back.

[FlyGap]

Here is my coop now, went out and took some shots of it. Has been raining, now sunny and 20 degrees out. I didn't clean up Lockwood so as you can see it's nothin fancy! Not nearly as cute as Allison's!


The goats tore the wire off the window so they could eat some of the insulation, ugh. Had to rip the old nest boxes out, they were a tetnius shot nightmare. Now they go in and lay in that area to the left which is fine, I can reach the eggs. :)
This is how deep the litter is. Around 12 inches of stuff with 6 inches of gravel over the dirt floor. They keep it stirred, I mix in DE for bug and fly control. They do "collect" the rocks underneath and put them in their nest areas, sometimes I get my hopes up, reach in and grab rocks instead of eggs!

[redape49]

I used to have chickens but the landlord made us get rid of them all

[Bridgertrot]

I'm a newbie to chickens and want to get some someday...I'll check out that website posted but I was curious...

Can you just eat the eggs straight out? Like...do they need any sort of vaccinations or anything special done to the eggs or chickens before you can eat the eggs?

Love the pics!

[Lockwood]

Originally Posted by Bridgertrot    

I'm a newbie to chickens and want to get some someday...I'll check out that website posted but I was curious...

Can you just eat the eggs straight out? Like...do they need any sort of vaccinations or anything special done to the eggs or chickens before you can eat the eggs?

Love the pics!

Yup, straight out. (Well... ya gotta cook 'em)
If you order from a hatchery there are vaccines one can opt to get, but they are for overall health issues a bird may face. Most of which are encountered in a large laying facilty.
A home flock is generally going to be much healthier and not need them.
On the occasions I have ordered from a hatchery I chose not to have anyhing vaccinated and I raised them on non-medicated feeds.
Most chick starter formulas have an anti-coccidia medication in them, but with careful attention to what you are doing and you may not need them.
I can't legally claim my eggs are organic because I don't buy labeled organic feeds, but in every other way my eggs are organic and qualify for all the other labels put on eggs. Free range, natural, humanely raised... etc.
Just like undertaking any animal keeping adventure... a little research ahead of time, careful planning, and a safe place to keep them will yield happy, healthy animals that are a pleasure for the owener to keep.

Flygap... my place is by no means clean at all. My camera phone hides the dirt. (Did ya notice how the pics were cropped??)
Haha, mine ate the insulation too (cropped out of pic)
And so many times I have reached in for eggs and came out with rocks! The ducks are the worst for doing that!! I had one duck who lost her eggs during a hatch and sat on a rock for weeks. Guarded that rock with her life she did. I have the scars on my hand to prove it!
Your birds are beautiful too!

[FlyGap]

Thanks Lockwood!
We don't vaccinate or medicate our chickens either. We bought them unvaccinated and got organic non-medicated chick starter for them when younger. Now they are on organic laying pellets which are pricey but good for us and them. They are disease free and healthy. So no need to worry about the eggs, just collect them every day, keep the coop cleanish, and clean eggs up good, cook hard! I personally don't like fresh eggs overeasy. Only store bought ones because they have 1/2 the flavor, but I don't eat those anymore since mine have started laying.

Oh, on the chicken sites posted there are tons of alternative natural cures for all kinds of ailments. Some of the old timers are brilliant.

Lockwood is right, the reason chickens in large operations are so heavily vaccinated is because there are so many of them in confined spaces, they also feed growth hormones to the meat chickens. Did you know that a store bought chicken is only around 2 months old when rendered? They grow so fast that by 1 year old or less most cannot keep up with the growth rate and die from organ failure, etc. My father in law was a USDA inspector for 30 years and he refuses to eat chicken from most anywhere. He says he can't talk about it but if a person only knew...