The Backyard Chicken Farmer

New Waterer & Mystery Eggs

2011-01-16T15:04:00.002-05:00

Nipple Waterer

Outside the snow keeps coming down and the new coop has seemed to have been keeping them warm enough. I recently got a new waterer. I noticed that my tub would be getting quite dirty and decided to try out the nipple watering system. I find that it works great my birds water needs seem to be met and I believe that it is much healthier for them to drink. I also noticed that it keeps there bedding much dry which is also something I enjoy about them.

Here is a of pictures of two "Mystery eggs"...

Right: Egg with a Whole in it
Left: Egg smaller than golf ball

Lesson Learned

2011-01-02T14:05:00.000-05:00

Winter as come with some different challenges. In the first days of freezing temperatures my large 3 gallon waterer froze. being the confident person I has I went our there with a hammer and a chisels and started banging away. I soon found that was not as wise idea because I had rendered my waterer useless with a nice hole right in the bottom of it. Now I was down to One waterer left, I went out there the next morning and no surprise it was frozen too! I boiled a small pot of water and thawed out the edges of the water, but the inside was still frozen. I was determined to get it off, the only thing that came off was the the handle. There I was left with my only two waters BROKEN.

So, to all you beginners be sure to bring there water in at night or thaw it in hot water completly, trust me.

Chicken Feed

2010-12-15T21:23:00.001-05:00

Feed with mixed in scratch

Over the summer my chickens diet changed. Before I was buying store bought non-organic chicken feed. Now I have found a much better diet. I now get my feed from a local business that just started up. They provide organic locally grown and locally milled feed. To me There are multiple plus to this. First of all I encourage entrepreneurs and support local businesses. I would rather support a small local business than a large corporate business. I also know my feed was grown right in my area and was not made from some field half way across the country. Another plus is that the feed is actually cheaper by a good margin.

Daily Egg Count: 8

Where Have I Been? Summary

2010-12-14T15:38:00.000-05:00

To answer that question I really don't know, I just took a break for no reason at all. I had school starting up and actually just forgot about writing my next post. With that said many things have Happened, so here is a brief summary of every thing since about the end of June.

Over the Summer I decided that my chickens would much rather enjoy fresh grass every day, ideal wander around free, but my next alternative was to build them a chicken tractor and that is just what I did. I moved them around the edge of our property and they loved it. Also unsurprisingly the grass came back even greener. Over the summer the tractor, which is 6ft. by 12ft., gave them enough room to scratch and peck as well as providing protection from the elements. P.S. The other main reason for the tractor was because I got more chickens than I thought I was originally going to get so the coop did not have enough room for all 8. *Pictures will be on my pictures page.

The next major event was, of coarse winter and lower temperatures. My original plan was to use the chicken tractor and put it on top of some hay bales. I tried that but there were just to many cracks in between the bales and snow would have eventually blown in. So I started on project: Winter Home. You can see it in the pictures page, but it is and 8ft. long, 4ft. wide and 3 ft. tall coop. It has a tin roof and one end is covered with plexi glass to protect from the westward winds. I also lined it with straw bales to insulate it. There is also a temporary run so than they can get some exercise. On one end there is the nesting boxes made with some 5 gallon buckets, and on the other end with plexi glass over the door there are hangers for the feeder and water, you can also see in the picture the two roost in the middle.

Egg production has been keeping up very nicely. Due to there new shelter I am still getting 7 eggs a day. I have also noticed that there is more demand than supply for my eggs. Multiple people want them and I feel bad if I have to turn people down. All this means is that I will probably getting more chickens this early spring.

Hope you all are still checking in and I probably will try to get a post in every week.

Their First Dozen!

2010-08-04T07:00:00.002-04:00

I am still here, I just have not found myself getting around to writing a post. With that said, today the hens have laid there first dozen of pullet eggs!! The first egg was laid last Thursday and they have been giving about two eggs a day. Yesterday they turned 18 weeks old, so the others could start to lay in the next couple weeks, except for two of them because they are a week younger than the rest.

They have laid their eggs any where from 10:00 a.m. to around 4:00 p.m. in the after noon, I think that they will start to all lay in the morning once they get in schedule and laying regularly. One question I had though was if the hens needed to be shut off from there nesting boxes during the night time, because most of the nesting boxes for sale have that feature and I wondered if it was that serious of an issue?

Picture will come soon!!

Repairs and Rain!

2010-06-23T13:27:00.001-04:00

In the last couple of days I have been fixing some problems on the coop. The number one problem was those nest boxes that were still leaking through the top. I found some old vinyl floor tile and cut it in to strips to place along the edge, so the water would drip off, which I think will do the trick. I also put a door seal along the top of the nesting boxes where it hinges up. With these improvements I am hoping there will be dry nesting boxes! (Today is the real test). Some other repairs or I guess additions would be the two roosts. I really wanted to add them and now I finally did! I really think they like to roost instead of being floor raised, and plus that is the natural way they sleep.

I actually just came in from putting the chickens in after buckets of rain started to come form the clouds. I do not understand why they will no go in the coop when it starts to rain all they are doing is getting soaked! I did take the topper away form the edge of the fence because it was going to get to stink if I did not. Speaking of smell I recently read somewhere that the Dumor chicken feed makes their manure smell worse, any thoughts or is this just a myth.

One thing that I also need to get a start on is some kind of feed cover because the last time it rained I was not able to get to the feed in time and it ended me up with some mush. I am not sure if it is a good idea to dry that feed and reuse it or should it just go to the trash right away? My idea to cover the feed is to make a little shelter for it so that it can hang underneath (this is just a vision so if I ever finish one I will be sure to write a post about it).

Butchering Chickens

2010-06-12T14:09:00.000-04:00

So my grandparents came down last weekend, and they are the same ones that have the farm. My Grandma especially has much experience butchering chickens. Yes, I have done it before but it was awhile ago so my brother and I could have used a little refresher. All went well and we did actually weight them. We had 5 total; at undressed weight the 3 roosters averaged about 9 pounds, which we called them small turkeys. The 2 hens at undressed weight were around 6 pounds. Yes, all were a little big and could have been butchery a little sooner, but at least I know one thing is that the two hens tasted delicious.
The affects of not having the five large Cornish-Cross's as been noticeable and it has only been one week. The eight Isa Browns do not eat nearly as much as the Cornish-Cross, as of course they are a much slower growing chicken (But from what I hear they are wonderful at laying eggs!). They are just shy of 11 weeks old which they will be on Tuesday. By my calculations we should get our first pullets eggs in around 10 weeks; give or take.

Composting

2010-05-30T19:35:00.002-04:00

With 13 chickens comes....well....the waste of 13 animals. Where does the waste go you ask?
A compost pile is our choice. What happens is I spread some fresh grass clippings around the pin. The chickens mat the clippings down and pick through them. Then in a week or two I rake them all up and send them to the compost bin. There are many positives to this system like reducing smell (especially if you have nearby neighbors); this method also helps to keep your chickens living space sanitary and clean.

Now at the compost bin arrives some fresh clipping and manure. Other things such as extra clippings and leaves are also added. Over the summer the pile slowly goes down. To help speed up the process sometimes we add about a cup of fertilizer and wet it. It is also mandatory to stir the pile to give it access to clean air. After we have made some fresh compost it heads to the garden.

Check Out Pictures Tab

2010-05-12T16:35:00.002-04:00

I finally got the pictures up they are on the pictures tab at the top.

New Home

2010-05-09T10:53:00.006-04:00

Four days ago the chickens got to experience their new home. I think that they quite enjoyed it. At first they would not even come out of their coop, as expected because it is a new place. Now in the morning I open the door and it is a race to see who can get out first, and at night I go out and they are waiting for me all inside. At this size they all fit comfortably in the coop but as they get bigger the Cornish cross will be moved to the toper at night, until they are butchered. Speaking of the toper it provides a wonderful shelter to where they can be when it rains, like the past few days. That is also where we keep the feeder so that the feed does not get wet.

With the chickens in the pin I had to finish up the fence. There were four main things I had to do. First I covered up underneath the coop with chicken wire so that nothing could get in or out. Second I put a piece of fence between the coop and the shed. Third I had to dig post holes for the 4x4's that hung the gate. Then I hung the gate, I did take out a preexisting steel fence post and stapled the fence right to the 4x4. Fourth of all before I hung the gate I sealed it with an outdoor sealer.

My Computer is not cooperating with my camera so I will try but not guarantee to post some pictures! And Happy Mothers Day.

Update!

2010-04-30T15:01:00.000-04:00

I have been quite busy lately, so my post have been far and few between. Getting past that all the chickens are doing fine. They have definatly feathered out more than the last time you have seen them. Upon entering the garage today I noticed that one is getting pecked at and i would like to find a solutions for the otheres to stop pecking. I have heard of Tar and vinegar, any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Busy..and Video

2010-04-14T20:34:00.002-04:00

Well I am back from a busy break. I have completed a few things while I have been gone. Number one was that we transfered the chicks to a bigger brooder, a box can only be so big for so long! I am also almost done with putting up the fence for the coop. The chicks are doing fine and if you did count there are now 13 because two of the layers are possibly roosters which we can't have so....they might have to go. As you can tell the 5 larger yellow ones are the ones that will be fryers, which I believe takes about 8 weeks to be big enough.

The chicks 6 days old

In the video that a is a 10 pound feeder and a 1 gallon waterer. They are 15 days old.

They Are Here!

2010-04-04T09:46:00.002-04:00

The chickens came home yesterday afternoon. They all look healthv and are eating a drinking just fine. They had already been at Tractor Supply for 4 days so they already have tiny feathers. In total we got 11. Six of them are layers and 5 of them are broilers. The Layers are Isa Browns, they are Townline hatchery's egg layer. The The broilers are Cornish Rocks.

I will try to get some pictures up soon but my computer is giving me some trouble!

The Gate

2010-03-20T13:00:00.001-04:00

Here is that gate that I finally have built. It really was a simple project but I just did not get around to it until about a week ago. It is made of 2x2 which actually ended up making a pretty sturdy gate. It is about 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide. As you can see it is not totally complete because it still needs some Chicken wire to cover it and hinges and a latch. One of the problems that I had when building the gate was just trying to figure out how it will work on two different sized posts due to the uneven ground. So I might end up building a little ramp of some sort to cover the gap under the gate and so the gate will be flush when it comes shut.

Here is just a list of materials I used to make this gate-

A Chop Saw (Miter saw)
About 4 2x2
2in. screws
Gorilla Glue

The Left side Will be the hinged side

Fairly Local Chickens

2010-03-10T15:37:00.000-05:00

I have recently located a hatchery in Michigan. It is called Townline Hatchery, they are located in Zeeland,MI. My Local Tractor supply is where I will be picking up the chickens but they order them from Townline Hatchery. We have decided that we are going to get Rhode Islands Reds, Barred Rocks, and their boilers which are a Cornish -Cross A.K.A. Cornish White Rocks.

Tractor Supply is very good about giving you information and helping you get going, they have all the supplies you need to get started.( every thing that is required,except the coop) The store gets them in about 4 times. The First time is around March 28th. The second time is around April 5th. We decided to go with April 5th. Now all I can do is countdown the days and get ready, although there are still some things that need to get done. Like......

Set up the brooder
Buy supplies for the brooder

Bedding
Feeder (already got the waterer)
Heat Lamp with reflector
An old box that is fairly large

Get starter food
Set up the fence for the fully grown Chickens and gate
Sunny weather ( wait I can;t buy that darn)

New page

2010-03-09T16:34:00.000-05:00

This is just a small post to notify you about my new page up at the top for the chicken coop plans, they arn't the best but they are better than nothing right.

Waters........Where are the Feeders

2010-03-02T06:00:00.009-05:00

Here are some pictures of my waters that we will use for the chickens. The small one is for when they are chicks. You may be wondering why I only have waters and not the feeders. This is because when we went to my grandparent's farm they had left over waters from when they were raising there chickens. So we got them for Christmas, but they did not have any feeders. So later on we will have to get feeders for the baby chicks and chickens.

The Two big ones.

The small that you attach to a mason jar.

Magazines

2010-03-01T16:06:00.005-05:00

I have subscribed to some magazines which I really enjoy reading. The two main ones are Hobby Farms and Grit. These two magazines both give good quality information that most any “Farmer” would like. In both you will information on almost any subject weather it is livestock to recipes to preparing your garden for spring. Some magazines have too many ads and seem like there are more ads than information, but I found theses magazines to be fairly mild on ads and defiantly has good quality information.

Website for Grit: http://www.grit.com/

Website for Hobby Farms: http://www.hobbyfarms.com/

Where

2010-01-23T14:07:00.003-05:00

I have decided when I want my chickens, but I do not know where I want to get them. A few places I heard about in Iowa are Hoover Hatchery and McMurray Hatchery. These are the 2 places I have thought about ordering from. Another option is that I might order local, but I have yet to see any body selling chicks.

A Real farm

2010-01-07T17:20:00.001-05:00

This Christmas my family and I went out to a REAL FARM. This farm of my grandparents has been operating for over 100 years. They have mostly quite the livestock, but is still crop farming. I enjoy going out to see them and the experience of being on a farm is always something I look forward to. I like getting to drive one of there many tractors, since we do not have one at our place. They have much advice to give me I start raising my chickens. They used to have about 700 chickens in there hen house.

Snow is here

2009-12-10T08:00:00.002-05:00

If you have been watching the weather lately you would know that there has been a good amount of snow dropped on the Midwest and now toward the east. As you know with snow every where you look there is a white glare. I went and blew of our drive way and it had a good 4 inches on it after we had blown off 4 inches last night.
The coop is holding up well. I did notice some ice in one of the nesting boxes so I will be looking into how that got in there and hopefully going to fix it so the chickens won't be bothered. That just makes me think of when I do get the chickens will the layers be warm enough in the coop alone. I have been planning on getting some heat source out there and am still not sure what kind. At first I was thinking about a heat lamp but then I was not sure if that would put out enough heat for them. Does any one else have any other way of heating there chicken coop in the winter, or do you even heat it?

Picture Up-data

2009-12-01T16:27:00.001-05:00

Here are some pictures of after the fence post have been driven in. They are 6 feet tall and go a foot in to the ground so they stick up a 5 foot for a nice and tall 5 foot fence. I also have already purchased the fence. I was planning on putting it up in the spring when I get my first patch of chickens. I also still have to put in a gate to access the pin.

The Food

2009-11-23T16:04:00.001-05:00

There seems to be a problem in the horizon for me. If i want 3 layers and 3 meat birds how do i decide which kind of food they get. Is it layer food or is it the main growing feed. It is those two options or is there some one out there with a possibly home made formula. I do know that the chickens need protein, calcium, vitamins and salt. I also plan to bring up a assorted types of forage that they could eat such as leaves. grass clippings, and other kitchen food waste.

A small post for to day but getting back on track after my unplanned break.

Tractor

2009-11-09T15:18:00.003-05:00

When I said tractor I do not mean a real tractor I mean a chicken tractor. I have built a stationary coop but it would be nice if the chickens had a place to get fresh grass. So maybe I mean a portable run. I have found some Ideas about these online and think it is an interesting concept. To me it is like free good food. I mean free because the chickens will eat less if they eat fresh grass and bugs. The only set back is that I don’t want it to completely obliterate my yard. So the question is will the chickens be able to destroy my grass in one day?

Next is how big. Maybe they will destroy the yard if the portable run is to small. So how big should it be. I am thinking about a 10x10 or like 7x7 square foot area. It also has to be portable enough that it will be able to bring the chickens in every night. Those are just some thoughts on my mind.

Brooder

2009-11-05T16:38:00.003-05:00

   The Chicks need to be in a well controlled environment until they are 8 weeks old. I am thinking about a large rubber made tub that could be a perfect. I still don't know what type of light to get or where to get it. I also need to get bedding. Bedding is needed but I am not sure of which kind I will get. The option will be wood shaving or hay or even old grass clippings, but I am still open to other creative ideas.

   The next things that come upon my thoughts is where to get the chickens. I know of a few places. Like Mcmurry hatchery and Hover hatchery. Which ones worked for you. Any different ideas?

Fencing

2009-11-03T15:41:00.003-05:00

The next obstacle i have to come over is fencing. There are many questions that are lingering in my mind like what kind. How tall. and how big. The chickens will be in a stationary run and won't be moved all over the yard. That also means that we will have to feed them every morning.
This brings me to my next question. Whether or not to clip there wings. I am considering clipping there wings because it dose not hurt them in any way that I know of.The size of the pin I have been thinking about is 10 feet by 10 feet which seems to be a fairly large area for them to have a run. Mabe in the future they might be able to move around in the yard, but for now they are staying put.

Any thoughts??

Chicken Coop: home built

2009-10-28T18:12:00.026-04:00

These are the pictures i have been meaning to post. I am trying to figure out how to post a PDF of the plans. When we were building the coop I was researching "free chicken coop plans", but none of them seemed to be "free". So I could possibly get some plans for you folks out there who are wanting them.

The back of the coop. It has plastic over the vent so that rain does not get in.

The front view of the coop open.

The front of the coop doors closed.

Where the leaks occur. The nesting boxes. And you can see the portable roost with the droppings pit.

Side view.

The full layout. That is the portable roost and droppings pit.

More Rain

2009-10-24T12:19:00.009-04:00

Today we have got more rain. I have not been out to see what the coop is like. And when I do open the door I am hoping I don't get a flood of water poring down on me. Besides the coop I have been thinking about what kind of chickens we want. I think that we will want 2 layers and 2 fryers.

Any suggestions. I loved to hear them

Getting started

2009-10-23T14:40:00.005-04:00

This blog will place where I post my experience of getting chickens. I have wanted chickens forever and never have got around to it or had the time and permission. I have just completed my chicken coop which should house about 4 chickens.

Today was the first test on how well it can stand the environment of a rainy day. An the results are.........Well...not a complete failure. But it could use a little work, perhaps the leaks in the nesting boxes. I don't want the eggs floating around in the coop!

If anyone has some tips on weather proofing that would be great.

I'll try and get some pictures up so you can have a better idea.