Chickens are back on the homestead!
We picked up six cream crested legbar pullets and two cockrels today. 4+1 for our friends, and 2+1 for us. They'll lay very pretty sky blue eggs here soon.
I worked hard today getting the coop raised the rest of the way and the electric wire put up. Boy is it hot! (The wire specifically, but the weather is toasty too.) For a little $35 energizer, I'm impressed! I ran the wire around the top and bottom of the coop, as well as up the corner edges. I cleaned it out good and made the bottom more secure where our predator got in before.
I'm hoping that's all it needs, but I'm starting out with just a few chickens for now in case I missed a spot. The plan right now is to keep them cooped up for a few days til they get used to being here. I may adjust that plan though if I can get the run adjusted to fit the new coop setup. Of course, doors are open and screened on the coop while the birds are in there. They're still getting sun, greens, and fresh air. :) I've still got my fundraiser going if anyone wants to donate to the rebuilding effort!
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Checked out your hot wire set-up and the first thing that struck me is the turning latch to the top. Raccoons can open those in a flash. You need something that requires a LOT of opposite thumb work, like a double end snap. Carabiners are okay, but might be bitten open.
You say, but there's the wire.... the way it is set up, the heavy fur of a raccoon is what would be on contact with the lower wire, thereby insulating it.
The upper wire would be hot, and I'm not sure what would happen if it hit it when standing on the metal roof. Depending on the voltage, and just how it reached over, the heavy fur may again insulate it...
I am also wondering about the wire being pushed into the coop, thereby grounding it out...
I've used electric fencing since the 1960's and seen many problems. Also with all the predators we have here, we've learned the various ways they have of getting around it.
This is the current Fort Knox. It has 3 strands of wire set at 8" (to prevent going under), 16" to prevent going over the 1st one, and 32" to prevent jumping over. It is set 6'+ away from the netting. It has 5000 volts from a dedicated charger.
The netting is brand new, set-up 6' away from the main pen fence and has 2800 volts. It is 48" high.
The main pen fence is not charged, and is simply chicken wire on plastic posts for easy portability while still containing the birds. It is 3.5' high.
There's the circus tent to keep hawks out, ropes set at 3.4' apart.
There's the coop made entirely of hardware cloth and metal, but has no floor. And at night there's netting around the coop tied into one of the other lines.
So far, no rats, no fox....still 91 chicks just past the 2 month old mark...
Without the 2 exterior fences, the whole thing took 1 hr once a week to move. Now it may be pushing 2 hours as those exterior fences are a pain....
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Those girls are SAFE. Two hours to move still isn't all that bad. That kinda makes me wonder how many birds Joel Salatin loses to predators. I don't think he has any covering over his pastured layers.
I'll start looking to get a new latch, thanks for that! My experience with electric fence is limited to having helped set up a paddock once.
The metal roof itself is directly tied to my grounding pole, but I hadn't thought of the fur acting as an insulator. That's a good point.
Our ground is good, as it still tagged me even when I was standing on a pallet. Until electric fences, I'd always thought wood was an insulator. Very mistaken!
Just got in, and all three birds survived the night. First time that's happened in a while. I asked if they heard any critters, and all I got was peeps. Nothing intelligible. The rooster is awkward. He keeps raising his head to try to crow but doesn't have the noise part down yet. He'll get it.
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One of our 2 roosters at 2 months old has started practicing his crowing. Until today, when he got new hearing aids, my husband hasn't been able to hear the rooster. (He hates roosters crowing....)
I always wondered about open pens like that and what the loss to hawks was. (Salatin never much addressed predator loads....) We have a HUGE aerial predator load here, so we weren't taking any chances....
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Good to seeing it coming together. Keep in mind that in order for the electric fence to work, that the would-be assassin needs to be touching ground or a distinct path to ground for it to work. Hardware cloth is expensive but a life saver. It’s almost part of our farm budget. 1/2x1/2 hardware cloth covering windows or holes/weak points do fantastic.
We have our birds, even the small quail in tractors not surrounded by electric fence but mainly secured with hardware cloth around the perimeter and never had anything break in to them. Just a thought.
Anyway, glad you got some chickens back on the homestead. Things are looking up!
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Congratulations on getting some new chickens! I hope your new coop set-up keeps them safe. I look forward to seeing your Daily Chicken posts again!
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Congrats on the new ecosystem enhancers, man!
I'm just wondering how can a fundraiser in this market work? I'm actually wondering about the more general state of income from steem thing... Cannot really understand how would it work.
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The fundraiser is more an experiment. Binance supports steem, so it's a matter of going from steem wallet to binance and swapping for something that's supported on coinbase, then to coinbase to exchange to USD.
Since binance is shutting down for US residents though, that'll be complicated. Maybe it'll be a blocktrades transaction instead.
No donations yet though, so I can't test it yet.
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