Recent content by patandchickens

  1. Scraps Tractor

    Scraps Tractor

    "A tractor from scraps I had lying around" This was built to quarantine a grown pair of turkeys, but I expect to use it next year as a grow-out pen or maybe for some meat birds. It's not meant for northern winters, but would be ok year-round in a very mild climate. Dimensions are 8'x8'...
  2. patandchickens

    Chicken Blog Pats Chicken Flock

    As you might have guessed from my username, my name is Pat, and I have chickens. Here are the original three that got me hooked in the first place -- ISA Brown sex-link pullets from the local feed store. Got them just as 'utility animals' for eggs, but then I discovered what interesting and...
  3. How To Fix A Muddy Run Chicken Coop

    How To Fix A Muddy Run Chicken Coop

    Pat's Big Ol' Mud Page: How to Fix A Muddy Run When chickens spend a bunch of time in one area, a common consequence is bare dirt, which in wet weather becomes mud. If you confine your chickens to a run, you are quite likely to have a mud problem eventually, unless you live in the desert or...
  4. patandchickens

    Isa Browns Chicken Breeds

    ISA Browns ...a.k.a. Hubbard ISA Browns, Hubbard Browns... ...are a line (or breed or whatever you want to call it) of sex-link layers, created by crossing certain Rhode Island Red roosters on certain Rhode Island White hens. I say "certain" because the strain is about 30 years old now and has...
  5. Chicken Coop Ventilation - Go Out There And Cut More Holes In Your Coop!

    Chicken Coop Ventilation - Go Out There And Cut More Holes In Your Coop!

    Patandchickens' Big Ol' PageVENTILATION Or, Go out there and cut more holes in your coop! Now! Really truly! Why is ventilation such a big deal? Because chickens are amazing producers of moisture, ammonia, and heat, that's why. Small but mighty! (Mighty messy anyhow). 1) Ventilation removes...
  6. Winter-Coop-Temperatures

    Winter-Coop-Temperatures

    Pic by SyzyQlou The Cold Coop: What to do (and not do!) about it. The 'heat budget' of a chicken coop You can think of the temperature of your coop as being like a bank account. It starts with whatever amount of money it starts with, but on a day to day basis the balance will depend on how...
  7. Chickent Tractor Coop

    Chickent Tractor Coop

    Here is the chickens' summer home. The 'run' part is 4' wide by 7' long, 30" high in the tall portion and 20" under the house. The house itself has a 4' x 2'6" footprint and gives the chickens up to 3'3" of height inside. The house is easily detachable from the pen, and the roof is detachable...
  8. patandchickens

    Very cold climate

    We have cold snowy winters too, though perhaps not *as* cold snowy as yours if you're in the U.P. I would never contemplate giving my chickens less than 10 sq ft apiece indoors (plus roofed, 3-1/2-sides windblocked run) and even that's tight, bigger is better (most of mine get 15+ sq ft apiece...
  9. patandchickens

    Metal Roof Panels Question

    Ribs running down the slope is indeed the correct and only useful way to install them. (Otherwise the roof leaks and is not as strong). If you are concerned about dripping back under the high edge -- although IME this is minimal unless you have a very high roof pitch or get large or icy snow...
  10. patandchickens

    ventilation... what to use for roof ventilation?

    For a small coop like that, in a cold winter area, the best way IMO to ventilate it is into a roofed-and-mostly-windblocked run. I realize you don't at the moment have such a thing, but perhaps it'd be worth building one, even a small one, which will also help increase usable outdoor space for...
  11. patandchickens

    Horse experts: Critique this mare? Pretty Please?

    To clarify, my "not excessively athletically constructed" comment was pretty much just reflecting that she is significantly straight behind, with a short femur and straight (open) hock angle. Not that I would expect that to matter one bit for the o.p.'s purposes. As for the rest, what I'd...
  12. patandchickens

    Horse experts: Critique this mare? Pretty Please?

    Basically, all that pic really reveals is that the animal in question is a bay female horse, not excessively athletically constructed but who cares. What matters to you is not, generally, the things that can be discerned from photographs (although some general guesses about soundness, both...
  13. patandchickens

    Need to find a boarding stable (Update)

    It would help to edit this thread title to put your location in -- that way it may catch the eye of someone who's not otherwise highly interested in the subject, also it will clue readers in to your wanting geographic-specific info rather than general advice. As far as general advice goes <g>...
  14. patandchickens

    Questions about Gelding 7 yr old Mini Stallions

    If they were behavin' their little selves, as Redcatcher's stallion apparently does, I'd say leave them be. But given that they appear to have difficulties with self-control and attention span, and are apparently a bit hard to handle, I'd for sure have them gelded. It WILL help them settle down...
  15. patandchickens

    getting a used fish tank, do I need to cycle?

    Are amphiumas sold in the pet trade? Also, if it were an amphiuma, my experience with keeping them temporarily in tubs overnight before release would suggest that there would probably no longer be 2 zebra danios in the tank with it after all this time LOL Just dyin' to know what a "frog/eel...
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