Same here... ours don't like coming into a dark bldg either. We have one on a timer that is fairly bright, dusk to dark. Just before that goes off, a strand of pretty dim LED lights come on for about an hour. The young ones tended to play around on the floor and when the lights went out, they...
Take this as you would like... but from someone that has a barn made with barn boards, he was actually doing you a favor. I have my girls in an old horse stall. I put OSB on the inside of the walls because the wind and snow would just go thru between the boards. It is very hard to get barn...
Haha. I would highly suggest a ramp for the roosts. They are young and can fly now, but if they get hurt while landing, it will be an issue or as they get older, flying up/down is not as easy for them. Mine all use the ramp, some go clear to the floor, some jump off 2 or 3 feet up, but they have...
One option is an old framework from a carport or a canopy, or build one. Get a shade cloth off Amazon or somewhere that has a high (at least 70% or more) degree of protection. I did that with an old carport frame that we set lower to the ground and was very surprised at how much cooler it was...
It's always fun trying to figure these girls out. I got 8 new girls 2 years ago that gave me issues at first. The original ones would go in but the new ones wouldn't. I finally put a nightlight on a timer in and they all went in with no problems. They did not like going from a "light" area...
I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in Phil - he said early spring. :p But we all deal, right? We only got about an inch, so not too bad. The girls have a window to look out and this morning when I opened their little door to the run, they were like "nope, not interested". Didn't even go near...
hi there, this is a pretty old post so you may not get many replies. I'm not the original poster, but we are just a little south of you and my "coop" is a 10x10 corner horse stall with wire on top half of 2 walls. The barn is large, not insulated, nor is the stall. No horses in it to generate...
If you have a large coop and your girls are outdoors most of the time, they are a great help. They are boards that are 6 or more inches under the roost to catch all of the poop so it doesn't fall all of the way to the floor. I use a thin layer of shavings on mine and nothing sticks that way...
I was foggy on it too for a long time. Then I changed stuff up a bit and tried it. Will always have them now. (I use a snow shovel to clean them off and dump into wheelbarrow, works great.)
pretty fancy, for sure. The first thing I saw that I would do different is put in ramps from the roost bars. Mine use the ramps constantly. They could jump down, but rarely do.
I have my girls in an old horse stall with a door out to an 40x75 "pasture" just for them, woods nearby but not in the pasture. I worried about hawks too when I first got them 3 years ago. A lot of people say crows will drive hawks away and I have to say that we have quite a few crows around...
That is VERY disturbing, I had never heard that... this is the link to the "Event" for more info... http://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/about
I kind of wondered about the feed mills shutting down but I don't truly think that will happen. Although I may still go get another bag just to have on hand for my 9 girls.