"How many chickens do i have?" Just give me two minutes to count them all in my head...

Dlepage said:

Loved reading your post. I would get some bright colour paint and paint it. It would look fabulous Nothing like a little paint to make something old look new again lol. Have fun with it. I’m not sure how old your kids are but let them help if they are old enough great family project.

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The more I look at it the more I want to paint it. Too bad I’m in freezing cold Canada!!!! Or I’d pop over and help you lol

Dlepage said:

The more I look at it the more I want to paint it. Too bad I’m in freezing cold Canada!!!! Or I’d pop over and help you lol

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Hooley Dooley, that does look cold! Do you provide the girls with any kind of heating? My partner adores Canada, but then most kiwis do! He'd love to go back with all of us, probably in the winter so we can go skiing.

I've a big job sanding all the wood back first, and then the real fun begins!

FantineFav said:

Hooley Dooley, that does look cold! Do you provide the girls with any kind of heating? My partner adores Canada, but then most kiwis do! He'd love to go back with all of us, probably in the winter so we can go skiing.

I've a big job sanding all the wood back first, and then the real fun begins!

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Apparently you don’t need heat but my girls are spoiled I have two cozy coop heaters on low it just gives them a bit of a break from the freezing nights that’s a picture from my coop camera yes I have cameras in my coop and my run and a blue tooth thermometer so I can keep a eye on them and the temperature from inside my warm house lol. The second picture is them right now I gave them an old Christmas wreath and sprinkled bird seeds on it. And a shallow bin filled with straw and some treats. They have been busy all day lol. The run is wrapped in clear plastic for the winter so there’s no wind it’s like a greenhouse in there. Nope Not spoiled at all lol

Dlepage said:

Apparently you don’t need heat but my girls are spoiled I have two cozy coop heaters on low it just gives them a bit of a break from the freezing nights that’s a picture from my coop camera yes I have cameras in my coop and my run and a blue tooth thermometer so I can keep a eye on them and the temperature from inside my warm house lol. The second picture is them right now I gave them an old Christmas wreath and sprinkled bird seeds on it. And a shallow bin filled with straw and some treats. They have been busy all day lol. The run is wrapped in clear plastic for the winter so there’s no wind it’s like a greenhouse in there. Nope Not spoiled at all lol

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The cameras and thermometer are a great idea - I get up and go outside at least once every night in the early hours, usually because my dogs have started a ruckus and I feel compelled to go and check on everyone. A camera would make life a lot easier - definitely going to give that some thought. If I lived where it snowed that much in winter I would want to give my birds some sort of heating too, I don't think your girls are spoiled at all!

FantineFav said:

That is a fabulous photo! I've been mulling over the idea of painting our new coop with lots of sunflowers. Or maybe something more folk art in style. Or do I just paint it a sandy cream colour and leave it?

A great achievement to get your coop critter-proof! Our main predator problem are foxes, but for disease and illnesses it's mosquitoes and sparrows.

Maybe when our kids are older they'll really help to tame our chickens into lap-warming companions

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Go for the sunflowers

I'm so excited!!

Roxy has hatched 2 chicks!

Maybe 3 - she was very stoppy about letting me have a peek.

Roxy has hatched 3 chicks . I put 5 faverolles eggs under her and I noticed Roxy rejected one of the eggs about a week ago. We moved her and the chicks this afternoon into an A-frame to keep them safe from the bully drakes, my toddlersaurus, the cat, foxes etc. My partner ended up putting on his welding gloves to pick up Roxy because otherwise we couldn't get anywhere near her.

Roxy and the babies are coming along nicely. Whenever I go outside, I can't help but go and check on them and half an hour later I'm still sitting there watching them.

On a more frustrating note, the other bantams are showing early signs of scaly leg mites. This has to be courtesy of all our free-loading sparrows . I treated all my birds last year with a spot-on treatment intended for dogs, as per my vet-friend's advice, and it worked wonders and was super convenient while I was 8 months pregnant. This time round though, I'd like to avoid the medicated route. I once treated a rooster who had terrible leg mites by smearing his legs with Vaseline and it was very effective so I'm going to try that method again.

I was chatting with a poultry breeder a couple of days ago and he asked me if I'd heard of feeding chickens fermented wheat. He started doing it a few months ago and saw a noticeable improvement in the condition of all his birds, as well as cutting his feed bill in half. It sounded a bit too good to be true but I started researching it when I got home and it seems promising. So DOH went and got a couple of bags of wheat from around the silo at work and I'm fermenting my first batch as a trial. In my research, quite a few sites explained you can ferment the whole seed and grain mix, not just wheat. I'll try that too since we normally get a really good quality mix from a local business that sources and mixes the feeds themselves. My only concern is that it contains crushed lupins and I have a feeling that they might really smell or foul up the brew. DOH brought home a sack of lupin seeds a few months ago and I just haven't known what to do with them as the seeds are too big to feed directly to the chickens and I have no way of crushing them, but it occurred to me only recently that I could try sprouting them and then feed them out. So I have a couple of experiments in the works at the moment.

Also put DOH to work bodgying up a door for the new coop.
It just needs a barrel bolt lock and then I'll have a fox-proof coop. I've started sanding the outside and it's slow-going with the rotary sander, possibly not using the right tool for the job but it's the best thing I've got for now.

Congratulations on your new babies My pullets are only a couple months old now but I'm already wishing for more babies. There's just something about those little fluffballs!

Good luck on the fermenting, its been something I've been reading about and really want to try sometime too. Also I love your coop siding - reclaimed wood is just beautiful!