Chick Update - moved to coop

[Rossman]

July 6th we got some day old chicks, 6 female cream legbar and 8 unsexed black copper marans. Two of the BCM's were about a week older than the others but we took what was available.

We started with them in a 2'x2' box but that only lasted a couple days then they were into a 2'x4' xpen and it wasn't long after that, that I realised those accommodations weren't going to last long either. Finally ended up with an 8'x3' brooder where they continued growing until today when I moved them out into the coop.

In general it has gone pretty well - there were two times when a chick got kind of lethargic so I isolated it and just kept it hydrated with some gatorade (suggested by a neighbour with chickens), they both recovered without issue by the following day.

I've been hard at work on their coop, today I got the roosts finished and I got a huge roll of newsprint mounted up so I can just tear off a new strip to line their dropping tray with, to make for easy cleaning.

Still have to finish insulating and put plywood on the top of those walls to close them in and make it look more finished.

Then after a lot of wrestling (surprisingly hard to round up chicks from a large brooder) I got them all out into the coop to settle in:

I've checked on them a few times since, they were not too sure about it at first but now seem to be settling in.

[Jenny d]

Wow, that looks like a great set up. I am in the midst of building a new coop for my gang. I might have to steal your lined tray idea. I was going to use sand, but I would have to buy it by the bag, and I just know my silkies will end up sleeping on the board so I will want to clean it often.
I've never seen anyone use newsprint before. Where did you get the roll?

[kenya]

Nice looking coop, great idea with the newsprint.

[Kbr42]

Great idea with the newsprint. I'm cheap...I use a dollar store tarp 2.50 (cut in half) and used dollar store hooks. Hang them up under the roosts and and clean them every morning. My silkies and showgirls have sand in their coops. It took me a while but I taught them all to perch.

[Rossman]

Wow, that looks like a great set up. I am in the midst of building a new coop for my gang. I might have to steal your lined tray idea. I was going to use sand, but I would have to buy it by the bag, and I just know my silkies will end up sleeping on the board so I will want to clean it often.
I've never seen anyone use newsprint before. Where did you get the roll?

Hey Jenny, I got it from Uline! They are a commercial equipment supplier, but they have lots of odd stuff like that for fairly reasonable prices.

See this link, for example: https://www.uline.ca/BL_1954/Newsprint-Rolls

The tray idea has worked out well in practice, and keeps the actual droppings tray from getting too gross.

[labradors]

I also have a board. We use large pieces of cardboard which we scrape every day, and change them out when they get too gross, but I realized that freezing poops are impossible to remove from cardboard, so I used feed bags with an old boot tray inside (for stability). They work really well when everything is frozen :).

Of course, all the is then composted and used on the garden - after it has aged for a year.

Linda

[Kbr42]

I also have a board. We use large pieces of cardboard which we scrape every day, and change them out when they get too gross, but I realized that freezing poops are impossible to remove from cardboard, so I used feed bags with an old boot tray inside (for stability). They work really well when everything is frozen :).

Of course, all the is then composted and used on the garden - after it has aged for a year.

Linda

I gave up boards. I strung a tarp under my perches. Works great! Frozen just slides off