Vince is being so darned agreeable with this new coop . . it scares me! If there was something he wanted, I would be sure he was preparing to tell me he’s buying something big but I can’t think of anything he might want. That’s how agreeable he’s being! Once we got past the conversation of “Why do we need more chickens?”, it’s been smooth sailing!
The “footprint” is going to be 8′ x 16′, which makes it a lot larger than our other coops. About 15″ will be for laying/nesting boxes so that will leave the floor space being about 6.5′ x 16′, which technically is enough space for 26 chickens. We’re going to try free-ranging within the confines of the orchard fence so if we ended up with 30 chickens in there, I wouldn’t feel bad because they’re going to be outside except when they’re inside laying or sleeping.
Cutting a Small Tree
It will be a bit of a learning experience as to how many roosters to keep. My preference is 1 rooster per 6 – 8 hens but a whole lot depends on how many of each breed hatches.
I have 6 Iowa Blues so ideally, I will have 5 hens and 1 rooster. No matter how many hens there are, I’ll only keep 1 Iowa Blue rooster.
Same with the Black Copper Marans, Lavender Marans, Olive Eggers, Bielefelders and Speckled Sussex since I only have 6 or 7 of those eggs. I have 12 Black Australorp eggs so it will depend on how many of those hatch as to how many I keep. There’s still room for 4 or 5 chickens in with the Dominiques if we need to put some in there.
New Coop
Vince will get the forms all set for the corners and then the builder will come and help with getting it all framed up and finished. If no baby chicks hatch . . we’ll have a nice new coop with nothing to put in it!
sharon says
How will you keep each type of chicken separate?
JudyL says
I won’t unless I want purebred eggs and then I’ll put several of that type hen in with that type rooster and keep them together in a separate coop that we’re calling the “Honeymoon Suite”. It will have a fenced in pen so just that breed will be together for a few weeks or until I get all the eggs I want to hatch from them.
Sherrill says
So you could possibly go into the egg selling business, huh? Vince gets home from work and immediately goes back to work and you’re home all day working, too. You guys are busy, busy, busy!!!
CindyM says
You have some mighty handsome chicken breeds there!
Susan says
If nothing hatches, and I think there’s slim to none chance of that, but if, then you probably already have an alternate plan ready. =)
Sandy says
Could you please take & show photos of the different breeds of chickens you have so that those of us who are clueless about chickens will know what you are talking about? I don’t know an Iowa Blue from a Lavender Maran!
CindyM says
Sandy — you could google them.
Jackie says
Possibly Vince has been on the “need more chickens” train earlier than you thought and is letting you think it was your idea all along?!
Megan says
Nothing to put in the new coop? I’m sure Tractor Supply could help you with that wee problem! LOL
Jackie says
If no babies hatch you can always put in sleeping bags and we can come down and visit????
AmyM says
Judy, my DH and I were off exploring a new area here in NC yesterday, and went to a goat farm… for fresh goat cheese.. but they also raise pasture free range chickens and sheep…( and somewhere cows but I did not see those).
The woman was showing us around… and there was a Llama in with the chickens. I asked her what she did with the llama, thinking yarn or such… but she said it was a “watchdog” for the chickens. It keeps dogs and fox and cayote away!
She says if something tries to get in the pen it lets out a shreek… and can use its hooves and such.
( She has 2 large dogs that live in with the sheep for the same reaason).
So perhaps there are Llamas at the supply store? 🙂
Linda says
So cool. I’ll bet you have at least some hatchlings to put in there!
Dawn says
Where are you going to put the turkeys?
Sheryl says
Black Copper Marans are beautiful birds, especially the roosters but don’t believe what you read about them being “fairly docile”. They are absolutely not docile in any way. I had to take a length of PVC pipe with me into their yard/coop to keep them away from me. Mr. Big wound up being chicken salad, Barry became chicken soup and Roux Roux went to live somewhere else. The hens while pretty are very poor egg layers. I sold one of mine and kept one just because I like to see the lovely dark eggs they lay but I only get 2-3 per week versus 6-7 from the other breeds. They really are pretty though with the dark feathers on their shanks.