Finally, the chicken coop is finished. Mostly. Sort of. There are a lot of details left, but at least it’s habitable. Now that I think about it that way, it sounds a lot like our own home.
We’ve primed it with white, but have some green that we intend to use.
Then comes trim around doors, windows, gable ends, etc. We also need to cut out the window on the other side, where you can’t see.
What you can see is the door, with which I am inordinately pleased. Hubby found some amazingly simple brackets at Lowe’s, and I used them to put together a set of half-doors in about an hour. I covered them with rabbit wire to make them predator-proof, though we might fabricate plywood covers for cold weather. Those of you up north can stop laughing now. 40 degrees feels cold to those of us who live in 90 degrees for 9 months of the year.
See my swing-y doors? We can stand outside with the bottom closed and lean in to watch our sweet chooks contentedly pecking about the floor.
They also love the feeder I built from scrap siding left after hubby did all the hard work. The feeder was meant to be big. I wanted it to easily hold 50 lbs. of food. As it turns out, I should have done the math first. My feeder holds something in the vicinity of 150 or 200 lbs. We could feed once/year. :)
The pullets seem to like it, too. Here are 4 of the 13 big girls. All of our older pullets are about 14 weeks old.
Our week-old chickie-babies live in a large rabbit cage on the floor of the henhouse. The rabbit feeders work very nicely for them, keeping the food just high enough so that they don’t waste too much. The bigger girls seem mildly curious, but generally ignore the babies. There’s a brooder light on top of the cage, but the chickie-babies don’t seem to care about it. The big girls, on the other hand, want to roost up there near the light. Silly things. Don’t they know how warm it is?
We have 5 little Buff Orpingtons,
3 little Barred Rocks,
and 4 precious little Auracanas. I went back for more later but they were all gone. Isn’t she sweet?
Here are the big girls. Maybe you can help us identify them.
The twins:
Bare Bottom Red, up on the 2×2 we hung for them to roost. She’s wearing her mini skirt a little too short if you ask me.
Then there’s this little gray and orange gal. She makes me think of orange sherbet for some reason.
The feather foot. Her back and bottom are bare, though the feathers are coming in on her back. I’ve read that some don’t have tails, so I don’t know if the others picked on her before she came to us or if she’s just made that way.
A lovely black and gold:
One solid black, stretching her wings:
And our barred rock. She seems to be the dominant hen, but she’s a benevolent dictator so far. She’s the most outgoing, curious, and least skittish. Always the first to find treats, but willing to share. Yes, we need to change the water.
These two seem to be good friends. They hang out together a lot.
Does anyone think there might be a rooster in our henhouse? This one has more wattle than all the rest, more red, and the neck feathers look a little…spiky. Would we know for sure by 14 weeks, or do some mature so slowly that we could still be fooled?
Aren’t they sweet? They still tend to nap in piles, like puppies, especially during daytime naps. At night most of them roost like grown-up girls.
They also tend to just flop down in the hay when they sleep. If I were the nervous type, I’d be constantly poking them to see if they’re still alive.
See what I mean? Not dead. Just tired.
Now, who can help us identify our big girls? I know there’s a wide variety and some are mixes. I would love to hear your best guesses!
No related posts.
Our cockatiel sleeps like that, now that he’s not allowed a perch anymore.
None of your chickens look like Brabanters to me. The barred chicken looks like a Holland to me and the red one doesn’t look dark enough to be a Rhode Island Red, looks more like a New Hampshire.
Elizabeth,
Thank you. I’ll take a look at the Holland and New Hampshire to see if I can tell what we have as they get older. Whatever the barred one is, she certainly has a nice personality!
The feather-footed one is probably a Dark Brahma.
Tailess chickens don’t just not have any tail feathers, they don’t have any tails. It’s really hard tell, but it looks to me that chicken has her tail.
I love the black and gold one, whatever it is.
Kim, everything looks wonderful!!! One word of caution. Please watch your feeder. Leaving feed in there and being on the ground can invite rats and mice. Watch for signs of them. We feed in the morning enough that there is hardly anything if anything left over night. Otherwise, we go out and there is a rat or 2 belly up to the bar. YUCK!!!
Marci,
Ugh! I didn’t think about my big feeder drawing rats or mice! We haven’t had any signs of them in the house, but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find them out there with the free food just waiting. Maybe we should get a guinea or 3 to keep with the chickens…
Nice chicken house! Far nicer than ours, for sure.
My guesses: The Twins look like one of our surprise-Auraucanas. We have QUITE a variety of them (or hatchery breeding mix-ups – gold/black, mostly white, beautiful grays, gray/gold, etc). The common attributes seem to be very tiny combs (hard to say for yours at this age), grayish/green feet, and cheek feathers that poof out. You’ll be able to tell if you start getting blue/green eggs from this larger group of chickens.
The pure black could be a Black Australorp. If it developed rusty feathers on it’s chest, it’d be a black Sex Link (cross between a rhodie and barred rock; color gene links to gender gene, hence easy sexing at hatching).
The others I’m not sure. Eventually perhaps they’ll develop their final feathering/size/etc and you can post more pictures? Murray McMurray sends out a fantastic hatchery catalog, and that might help you pin down some of these breeds, or google.
And yes, sexing chicks is very tricky, and I’d be shocked if you *didn’t* have at least a rooster or two in the batch. The deep red and bigger wattles are a sign, sure, but watch and see if he tries to crow! They’re very cute in their young-crowing stage.
I’ve read it’s better for the hens to have a rooster or two about, but depending on how free-range these become and the temperament of your rooster (thinking of little kids here), soup might also be a good option. It *is* fascinating to hear the rooster ‘call’ to his hens when he finds a tasty tidbit around, and they will usher them to safety if there is a hawk or other threat about.
EllaJac,
Thanks for the help. It certainly gives us a starting point! We won’t mind a bit if we find that we have a rooster or two in our flock. We want them to help protect the ladyfolk, and we’re hoping that some of our hens go broody when they mature. That’s part of the reason I was so happy to get some Buff Orpingtons – I’ve heard they make very good mothers.
I, being a city girl for my entire life, cannot help you identify your girls, but the city girl title next to my name is about to change, as plans are in the works for us to combine living spaces with my mom and dad, who live on 10 acres up north. Maybe when I get up there and learn how to wear boots and talk like a country girl, then I will be able to help identify farm animals.
Till then, your gals are awfully cute. I’m looking so forward to having chickens of our own!
No help with ID from me, but we did enjoy the pics of your little ladies (and possible a man or two?). Nice job on those doors, love those!
Watch your roostery one’s feet, if “she” starts to get an extra toe on the back (spur) then you’ve got a he for sure. We had a surprise rooster one year that ended up being more pit bull than chicken. He ended up in the soup pot
I love all your chiekn pictures! We have had chickens for the past 9 months and absolutely LOVE them! We have one aracauna and it’s such a joy to find its green egg everyday in the chicken coop with the other brown ones.:) Enjoy! Great coop!
Regarding your possible rooster – I would say the spiky neck feathers are a good sign. But we’ve been baffled before, too. Some of them have masqueraded as hens… They typically have thicker legs and grow faster, too.
Your black and gold one might be a golden-laced wyandotte. She sure is pretty and will be a good layer if she’s a wyandotte! Your red one looks like a rhode island red to me, but if she develops some black tail feathers it could be a new hampshire. Here is a picture of our RI reds before they transitioned into the grown-up coop. Your twins look almost exactly like these easter eggers from MyPetChicken.com (http://www.mypetchicken.com/Easter_Eggers-B145.aspx). I bet that’s what they are.
Your chickens are lovely!
Hi Kim
I’m Kate from Cape Town in South Africa – I’ve been reading your blog for about a year now. You have nine kids and you BUILD THINGS and FIX CARS! You are amazing. I have three and am impressed with myself when I get the supper cooked!
Looking forward to reading about more amazing feats!
I think that the “twins” are Buff Sussex. We have a couple of them. They are similar to the Light Sussex, which is white with a black neck and some black feathers in the tail, but the Buffs are brown. Yours look just like ours, so I am guessing that that is probably what those two are. They are lovely girls altogether, and I am sorry that I can’t help you with the others. We also have some Buff Orpingtons, some basic Orpington crosses, two gold-laced Barnvelders and some white meat birds (a kind of Cornish cross). We love our chickens!
Morgan
I’ll 2nd the reader’s guess about the black & gold – it looks like my black sex link. The all black one might also be a sex link; although, it looks thin for that bread. Perhaps it’s still somewhat young?
The black & white speckled looks like my Speckled Sussexes. If the feet are sickly tan/grey, then that’s likely the type.
Both of these are large brown egg layers at about 4 months.
The all black one could be a Barred Rock/Ameraucana cross. That’s what ours looked like. I’m pretty sure that one is a rooster. I can tell on our chicks that are a few weeks younger than yours.
We got Ameraucanas last year and it’s so cool to have the green eggs! Chickens are so fun!
You call your chickens chooks! I have never seen an American do that before. I though it was just an Aussie thing (though my youngest calls them chookens).
Kate