Chickens and all things fowl..........

[hsehntr98]

Joyce glad to hear you and the girls are doing fine. We got about 18-20" at my house and on the worst of the two days I just kept the coop closed and made sure they had fresh water and food and they seemed content. Except for one randy rooster everyone did fine. I think I will have to wait for new coop now until spring unless this snow goes away real quick. The area hit the hardest in WV is Shepherdstown which is on the WV/Maryland border, they got 40".

[Joyce Hoffman-Gayley]

Hey, Mickey - I, too am glad you all came through well. I'm a little confused, are you in WV? I thought you were in central PA. Could be I just misread.
I would let that randy fella know that dinner is an option if he doesn't watch out. LOL.
Guess what I found last night??? 4 of my guinea hens had come through the pet door in our garage and were roosting in the rafters. I can't really blame them. I don't even know when they did it, they were very quiet and there were no tracks in the snow - very odd. I shouldn't be surprised, they are smarter than they look. Now, I'm not looking forward to cleaning off my car when they leave - yuck!
We have one of those NOAA weather reporting stations about 3 miles from us and this morning they are saying we actually got 28.3 inches, but who's quibbling. I have niece who lives in Hagerstown, MD, I'll have to give her a call and see how they made out. She has a 3 yr. old and an 11 month old. I can just imagine those two the first time they go out in this!
Yeah, I hear what you're saying about getting your new coop. I think it would be a nightmare this time of year to try to either pour a foundation (if it can even be done, I don't know) or make the ground level enough for some sort of footing. What are you planning on doing in regards to that? We made a couple expensive mistakes before we finally made an 8' X 10' X 6" deep pad on which we built our most recent henhouse. We used pressure treated 4X4's and then built the coop on top of those. That might sound like a big base but by making it that big we now have an elevated, dry area to walk that goes all tbe way around the coop when ever we need to do anything. It's saved me cleaning up a lot especially after it rains - I don't have to walk on wet, squishy, muddy ground. In the summer, I spread some sand on the area directly under the coop and the girls like to scratch around and just get out of the sun under there. I'm not a fan of coops that make direct contact with the ground, I really like the stilts and it has worked well for us. A friend of mine built her coop directly attached to her garage. Not my cup of tea but it works for her. Everyone is different.

[Kelly]

Sorry, just couldn't help myself...



Kelly

[hsehntr98]

Joyce I am in West Virginia. The southeast part of the state, about 35 miles from Roanoke VA. My coop is 8x12, one of those Amish built barns that are on something that looks like skids. They can be put on slabs, stone foundations, or blocks to level it out. I hope to be able to at least put it up on cinder blocks instead of the paver type blocks. Once it is on the blocks there maybe enough space for them to get under the front of it, but I will have to make sure I close out the sides so that no other animals can get in to bother them. This is the first time that my pigs have seen snow also and they come out to eat, drink, go potty and go back into their little house and sleep. I did have to shovel out an area around their house so they can get out and not have to walk in snow that is higher than they are. My neighbor came over today with his tractor and plowed me out enough that once I dig out my truck I should be able to get out.

[Joyce Hoffman-Gayley]

Thank God for wonderful neighbors.

[Joyce Hoffman-Gayley]

Sorry, just couldn't help myself...

I love it - oh where is chickenman when we need him??!!

[southernmom]

My uncle went by the handle 'Chicken Man' for years. They owned a large chicken farm and were known for how well they kept their chickens. I went there quite a lot.

[hsehntr98]

Joyce I ordered my chicks & guinea fowl chicks today and they will be shipped the 1st week of June. Hopefully by then I will have the new coop up and running. I hope I am not taking on more than I can handle.

[Joyce Hoffman-Gayley]

Joyce I ordered my chicks & guinea fowl chicks today and they will be shipped the 1st week of June. Hopefully by then I will have the new coop up and running. I hope I am not taking on more than I can handle.

I think you will do fine. How many chicks do you have coming? Do you have everything you will need to set up a brooder? Remember you will want to have it set up a couple days ahead so that you can get used to regulating the temperature. The hardest thing for me when we get new chicks is not handling them too much for the first week. I just want to pick them up every time I see them, they're always so darn cute. How many chi Kensington do you have now?

[Joyce Hoffman-Gayley]

I have no idea what a chi Kensington is.....LOL darn auto-correct. It's supposed to say chickens

[hsehntr98]

I have 5 light Brahams, 5 Black Australorps, 5 Buff Orpingtons, 5 Delawares, & 5 Barred Rocks for chickens and 15 assorted guinea fowl chicks. I don't have my brooder set up yet, but I have been looking at products to get. I will have it all ready to go by the time they are shipped the first week of June. As soon as I can get the barn up where I want it to go I can get started on it. I know I will have problems also to keep from picking them up. I currently have 4 hens and 2 roosters. The hens are 2 white rocks, 1 red rock, & 1 light Brahama. The roosters are a Light Brahama & a White Star. I'm excited about getting them, but glad I have time to get things set up before they get here. Will there be a problem putting the chicken chicks & the guinea chicks in the brooder together and raising them together?

[Joyce Hoffman-Gayley]

I know the accepted wisdom is to not mix them but I've been doing all along and have never had a problem except with one adult male guinea that was bossy with everyone, human and fowl alike. I think that if you're getting them all at the same time they should brood just fine together - mine always have anyway. Sometimes the guineas can get a little greedy with the food but if you have enough feeders (the long trough type) and they're not crowded that can make all the difference.

[hsehntr98]

Joyce I plan on brooding them all together, that is why I am not getting them until June because the guineas won't be available until then. Once they are old enough will the guineas continue to roost in the coop at night or will they need a different type roosting coop?

[Joyce Hoffman-Gayley]

I can't really tell you. The first time I got guineas I thought they would roost well with the chickens as they had spent the first 6 weeks of their lives together. Unfortunately, as the guineas got bigger they would push the chicks away from their feed and peck at them when they tried to come back. They never actually attacked them but I didn't let it go any further. That's when I started free-ranging the guineas. I've heard that they can be kept in the same coop if they are separated by a wall or chicken wire fence. I've just never done it. Sorry, wish I could be more helpful.

[Joyce Hoffman-Gayley]

Sorry, I had to go away for a minute. I just reread my last to messages and I want to clarify. Whenever I get new chicks & guinea hens I brood them all together until they're about 6 weeks old. After that age is when I have noticed some behavioral problems with the guineas so then I separate them from the chicks. I brood everybody in my house so it is only about another two weeks before they all go out. The pullets go to the henhouse; and the guineas go to a pen with roosts until they're big enough to be out on their own.