successes and failures part 2 - the birds

Failure - Starting the baby birds in our bedroom! What a mess! The same tote brooders will work just as well in the barn with secured lids.

Success - The totes themselves, two separate ones for the chickens and ducks. The ducks make such a mess with the water! We let them visit for days outside while they were still young. When we moved them outside to the tractors they got along just fine.

Success - We used dog crates as little chicken tractors in the front yard until we got the big coop built, it was a good temporary solution that could be used again if needed.

Success - The coop we built from timbers and cattle panels has worked really well. It is sturdy, easy to move (we have to give it a little push up hills with the four-wheeler) and is now, after a few lessons, pretty secure. It has been covered with plastic for the winter, and it is nice and toasty inside.

Failure - Escapes. Both the coop and run had gaps in the bottom of the wire along the ground where chickens escaped and were eaten by the dogs. We solved these problems with bricks and logs to fill the gaps inside the coop, and using tent stakes to anchor the fence to the ground in the run. Attention is key, check every day for gaps that could have formed.

Failure - Nest boxes. The buckets we started out with were too small, the trough we built instead is sturdy and they like to walk around in it, but they still lay their eggs around the yard and coop in the grass or piles of hay. Next year we will use golf balls or something similar to try to train the new birds to lay where we want them to.

Having the birds has brought great joy to my life.

Until next time,
Angela and Jonathan