- Apr 21, 2015
- 14
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Happy 2021!
Elsewhere on this forum I described a pre-fab coop we bought for our acreage. We planned to get chicks next spring. Finishing the coop got put on hold with an early winter freeze.
Meanwhile friends with too many chickens “gifted“ us with a hen, a rooster, and six chicks only 14 days old. The chicks were hatched by the momma hen, a broody Chantecler who was sitting on a larger clutch of 12 or so eggs (the rest didn’t hatch). The rooster seemed to be an attentive dad. So we went from zero to eight one afternoon in early October.
We hustled to put together a suitable home in an unheated (but insulated) horse barn, starting with a 6 feet in diameter dog pen and pieces of cardboard. I had some hardware cloth panels already built, so next we converted a stall into an 8 x 10 foot run. We put two heat panels in one corner, and over time added some perches, a nesting box, and other goodies. Pine shavings are on the floor, straw in the boxes.
We are now into full winter. Daily temperatures in the run are around + 10 C. If it gets super cold we bring the horses into the other stalls which keeps the place warmer. We had no eggs until I added an LED shop light on a 14-hour timer.
Now we are getting an egg from momma every other day. And we’ve had one fairy egg. Two of the chicks are definitely roosters, and a 3rd one looks like a hen but crows when the big guy does. One of the chicks is a Bantam apparently.
Needless to say it’s been an interesting and fun learning curve!
Elsewhere on this forum I described a pre-fab coop we bought for our acreage. We planned to get chicks next spring. Finishing the coop got put on hold with an early winter freeze.
Meanwhile friends with too many chickens “gifted“ us with a hen, a rooster, and six chicks only 14 days old. The chicks were hatched by the momma hen, a broody Chantecler who was sitting on a larger clutch of 12 or so eggs (the rest didn’t hatch). The rooster seemed to be an attentive dad. So we went from zero to eight one afternoon in early October.
We hustled to put together a suitable home in an unheated (but insulated) horse barn, starting with a 6 feet in diameter dog pen and pieces of cardboard. I had some hardware cloth panels already built, so next we converted a stall into an 8 x 10 foot run. We put two heat panels in one corner, and over time added some perches, a nesting box, and other goodies. Pine shavings are on the floor, straw in the boxes.
We are now into full winter. Daily temperatures in the run are around + 10 C. If it gets super cold we bring the horses into the other stalls which keeps the place warmer. We had no eggs until I added an LED shop light on a 14-hour timer.
Now we are getting an egg from momma every other day. And we’ve had one fairy egg. Two of the chicks are definitely roosters, and a 3rd one looks like a hen but crows when the big guy does. One of the chicks is a Bantam apparently.
Needless to say it’s been an interesting and fun learning curve!
