Raising Chickens

[Kirkwooder]

I think he went overboard using a .357

In what part of the mink's demise did the .357 fail?

Better that than bear hunting with a BB gun!

 

[Bigcorona]

I think I have a new use for a STC-1000 controller (new to me anyway). I replaced the temp probe with a photo resistor, and it works great on sensing light and dark. I am going to use it with a linear actuator, a couple relays, and a couple limit switches to build an automatic chicken door. The delay on cool should even work to keep the door from opening as a result of lightning. :rockin:

 

[fletchergsmith]

I think I have a new use for a STC-1000 controller (new to me anyway). I replaced the temp probe with a photo resistor, and it works great on sensing light and dark. I am going to use it with a linear actuator, a couple relays, and a couple limit switches to build an automatic chicken door. The delay on cool should even work to keep the door from opening as a result of lightning. :rockin:

Sounds pretty cool but what about cloud cover or slow moving chickens can you adjust the light sensitivity to keep from shutting chickens out of there coop in event of a thunderstorm or a few minutes after dusk. I know my chickens what till it's nearly completely dark to go in there coop by them selves, and they always get caught unawares by thunderstorms and hide out under whatever is close until there's a break in the rain to run to the coop.

Hop it works for you, if so I may just steal that idea off you.


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[Homercidal]

The photoresistor should be able to be tweaked for dark, compared to cloudy or shady. The lightning preventor is a good option. I wouldn't have thought of that.

A 1-wire network device should be able to do this, or an Arduino for that matter. There are many different technologies that could do it pretty easily. An STC-1000 is not one that would have come to mind for me. I've got 2 extra that I planned to give to my friends who someday going to be building ferm chambers or kegerators. Maybe I could spare one to play with...

 

[Bigcorona]

Update on the coop build.

Mostly done. Need to add some hardware, and paint or stain the coop. Chicks are in. It was like the Keystone Cops last night when I was trying to wrangle the chicks back into the coop.

Way more than a weekend build, but the chicks look happy. Hope to see some eggs in September.

Automatic door is still a couple weeks off.

 

[fletchergsmith]

Nice that green roof is awesome. Might think about the deep liter method I've heard good things but won't work with my limited space. Looks like plenty of space to make for some happy and productive birds.


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[KindofBlues71]

Very nice coop! Mind if I ask what your total build cost was?

 

[Bigcorona]

It is hard to say how much it cost. Really my wife's project. I am sure she made at least 6 trips to Home Depot, Lowe's and McCoy's. A large part of the wood was recovered at no cost. New we purchased:
1 sheet of 3/4 inch plywood
9 sheets of 1/2 inch plywood
12 2X4s
2 4X4 posts
2 rolls of hardware cloth ~ $100
1 door ~ $40
Miscellaneous hardware <$100
5 packages of shingles.
1 small piece of linoleum 6X6
5 bags of cement

I do not expect to make it up in eggs.

 

[bleme]

When I was in 1st/2nd grade, we live on 2 acres that the city had grown around. I took care of 3 dozen chickens. My family used all the eggs it wanted and I sold the rest in about an hour on Saturdays. That paid for the food and I got to keep what was left over. Seemed like a million bucks at the time.

 

[Bigcorona]

"It was like the Keystone Cops last night when I was trying to wrangle the chicks back into the coop."

For the last 4 nights the chicks have all climbed up into the coop on their own. This is very encouraging. Looks like they are going in before it is completely dark. That will make it easier to make a functioning automatic door.

 

[Homercidal]

"It was like the Keystone Cops last night when I was trying to wrangle the chicks back into the coop."

For the last 4 nights the chicks have all climbed up into the coop on their own. This is very encouraging. Looks like they are going in before it is completely dark. That will make it easier to make a functioning automatic door.

Really, chickens naturally want to go back to their roost at dark. Or can easily be trained to go there if they don't find a more comforting location somewhere else.

As far as my friend's go, I don't think this is going to be a project they will tackle this summer. My friend wasn't totally against the idea of setting up a coop inside the pole barn. The alternative was that his daughter wanted to house horses in there...

 

[Jacob_Marley]

We kept chickens when I was a kid, now in my early 50's oddly the past few years I've decided I'd like a "Gentleman's Farm" as a hobby ... some chickens, a cow, and a few goats and sheep, fruit trees and some misc crops. A far cry from the financial world where I've worked most of my life.
I think tv shows like "Victorian Farm" and "Tudor Farm" really put the bug in me. (ok, that and I have a thing for Ruth Goodman from those shows ... but I digress.)
In a fit of historic desire I went and went and purchased a "companion membership" at Greenfield Village yesterday ... and visited their cows, chickens and goats etc on the Firestone Farm located there. For those of you not in S.E. Lower Michigan, Greenfield Village/Henry Ford Museum is basically an open air museum ... FWIW here's a peak inside http://thehenryford.org/village/historicdistricts.aspx

Anywho ... I live in a nice, large 1892 house near the Detroit River ... now I really wish I'd bought something with some acreage though too. I can't have livestock where I live.

 

[Vetter]

Anywho ... I live in a nice, large 1892 house near the Detroit River ... now I really wish I'd bought something with some acreage though too. I can't have livestock where I live.

Your place sounds cool. In the 80's when I lived in Troy, we use to take a boat down to the Detroit river and cruise it all the time. We actually launched in a bad part of town (Not far from the use to be Rennaisance Center), but there were plenty of beautiful areas along the river, would be really cool to live by the river, and watch the shipping go by.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

found on Craigslist-Free ...

16 laying hens for free near Clarkston, MI ...
http://detroit.craigslist.org/okl/zip/4505397222.html
This is current a/o 3pm on 6-5.

For 16 laying hens I reckon the value is $250 to $300 (?).

Just in case there are any chicken-fence-sitters from S.E. Lower Michigan reading the thread who have been considering getting into it.

 

[AlCophile]

Happy to have found this, and will recommend it to my neighbors, who THINK they are raising chickens, but are actually raising FOX, using chickens as feed.

 

[KindofBlues71]

For 16 laying hens I reckon the value is $250 to $300 (?).

What the what? That's $15-18 per hen! We have a Barred Rock and a Rhode Island Red that were $3-4 each at a day old.

 

[fletchergsmith]

That day old thing is the difference adult hens, already laying, cut out the whole raising aspect, raising their value.
That said I wouldn't pay that much, quite often people change there mind and no longer want there chickens, and are willing to give them away for nearly free.


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[bleme]

What the what? That's $15-18 per hen! We have a Barred Rock and a Rhode Island Red that were $3-4 each at a day old.

So they aren't 50 cent any more?

 

[Jacob_Marley]

That day old thing is the difference adult hens, already laying, cut out the whole raising aspect, raising their value.
That said I wouldn't pay that much, quite often people change there mind and no longer want there chickens, and are willing to give them away for nearly free.


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Yep. Before the ad was pulled, it said that the chickens were about a year old. Not being an experienced chicken-pricer I just poked briefly online and saw a couple entries of other adult hens for sale in the $15 to $20 range.

 

[Bigcorona]

Finished the automatic chicken door controlled by a STC-1000. It took a couple weeks longer than planned due to feature creep. Decided to put in a solar panel and battery for power. This meant I needed a 12V STC-1000. Using a photo resistor to collect light level in place of the temperature probe. Had to put a 3.9K resistor in series to keep the STC from thinking the temp probe was shorted in high light, and a 120K in parallel so the STC did not think the probe was missing when dark. So far works great.

 

[Bigcorona]

Fed the chickens a large bowl of spent grain yesterday. This morning, our first egg.
Coincidence?

 

[MaddBaggins]

This is my second year with backyard chickens. We have 4 Buff Orpingtons, 3 Barred Rocks and one Rhode Island Red.

They love the spent grain on brew day. We also let them roam the yard on a regular basis, but always put them up in the evening. too many coyotes, bobcats and raccoons around here, not to mention the redtail hawks and owls. Notice the blocks in the pics. I used hardware cloth on the lower end of the run, it's also buried 6" in the ground. Then the whole coop/run is surrounded by the blocks. If something starts digging, the blocks fall in. So far, all is fine. I've even walked out and seen coyotes in my yard staring at the hens. The hens were just staring right back thru the wire.

Brew day


The coop build pics are here
http://s421.photobucket.com/user/MaddBaggins/library/The Green Dragon Roost?sort=3&page=1

 

[Zuljin]

Fed the chickens a large bowl of spent grain yesterday. This morning, our first egg.
Coincidence?

That's a golf ball. Don't eat it.

 

[Bigcorona]

Great looking flock and coop MB. How many eggs do you get each day?
I had 2 barred rocks, but both turned out to be roosters. They went off to freezer camp along with 2 buff roos.

 

[Bigcorona]

That's a golf ball. Don't eat it.

Hi Z. Where you been? Never mind, it is me that has been gone.

Too late, I ate the golf ball for breakfast. Tasted just like an egg.

 

[MaddBaggins]

Great looking flock and coop MB. How many eggs do you get each day?

I had 2 barred rocks, but both turned out to be roosters. They went off to freezer camp along with 2 buff roos.

Thanks! I was getting 7-8 a day last summer. This summer I'm only getting about 5 a day. Over the winter I got about 5 a day. I sell some at work and keep about 12-18 a week for us.
I don't supplement their light, which I've read will increase production.
They are funny critters an make me laugh a lot.


Sent from my magic box, using only my thumbs.

 

[Zuljin]

Me? Just harassing people, as usual.

Stupid city doesn't allow chickens. No gorillas, either. They're actually specific about that one. No gorillas. They also spelled out no araucanas and and no guineas. Maybe I should start a petition.

 

[Bigcorona]

Wow Z. First no porch couch, then no chickens, and now no gorillas. Maybe you should look into moving to McKinney.

 

[Zuljin]

Wow Z. First no porch couch, then no chickens, and now no gorillas. Maybe you should look into moving to McKinney.

Ha! With the kind of people who live up there? Whut they do on their porches and driveways? No thank you!