My First Incubation

Hello!

How was everyone's Christmas? Hopefully you spent it with family and enjoy lots of great food! I received an incubator for Christmas from my grandpa. Since having chickens I have raised chicks, but I haven't incubated any or had a hen go broody. 

I allowed the bator to regulate the temps to 99.5 F, and the humidity. I am trying the dry hatch method so I'm keeping the humidity low-ish(right now I'm at day 5 and its sitting at 31%, adding a bit of water tomorrow). It is a circulated air incubator, just an inexpensive styrofoam one from Atwoods. It has an automatic egg turner so thats a plus. I have placed 12 serama eggs in it along with 3 silkie eggs, 3 cochin eggs, and a couple from Zelda(one of my bantam hens). Today is day 5 and so far so good. I'll be candling them in a couple of days and I hope to end up having a good fertile rate and eventually a good hatch rate. 

I have been extremely excited about the setting! Haha I often run into the "incubation room" just to make sure the temp and humidity is right. Since I still live with my grandparents, I was very happy to hear my grandma tell me I could finally bring the brooder inside of the house for these babies(it has been in the feed room). 

How many of y'all have used an incubator? How was your hatch? How many hatches have you had? I'm very interested in what methods others have used! 

I forgot to mention in my first few posts, you can find me on instagram: @thepoopcoop and on backyardchickens.com: @collegegardener 

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year full of happy cluckers!

The Bantam Coop

In my last post I introduced everyone to the large fowl part of The Poop Coop, but I have yet to introduce everyone to the bantam coop!
The bantam coop is actually the original poop coop, however, none of its inhabitants were actually 'bantam' until later on. I can't actually remember which bantam came first, but here are the ones in there now :)

 Here is Chewie...he's the leader of the flock. 

 This is Marilyn, she is a frizzled cochin pullet.

 This little diva is Francis, she is a blue frizzled cochin pullet. 

 Zelda is the bravest warrior in the flock and the best forager. She often ventures out on her own to dig for goodies. She's very spunky and she loves loves treats.

 The little buff in the center is Buttercup. I am not really sure what she is, but I'm thinking she could be an EE..she seems to be getting a beard. 

These 3 little ones are unnamed so far. The little mottled cochin pullet on the far right is for sure going to stay with us, but I am unsure on the silkies. They are just too cute. 

I also have 5 chicks in the brooder right now to add to the large fowl coop later on. Three of them are barred rock/leghorn mix and the other two are EE and an Ameracuana. I know for sure that one chick is a rooster and I will be finding him a new home soon. 

With the help of my fiance, I will be building a new bantam coop next spring that is larger and has easier access for me, but for now, the coop provides a cozy bed for the bantams at night. 

That's all for the introductions. I dont think I left anyone out :P 
I am currently incubating my first eggs so there will be lots of news on that soon!

Thanks for reading :) 

Welcome to The Poop Coop!

Welcome to the Poop Coop!

My name is Beth, and I keep backyard chickens in Arkansas. In May 2014, I received a small coop/run from a family member and bought my first chicks. They were about 3 weeks old. A Rhode Island Red, an Australorp, and one Easter Egger. My hopes were that I could raise them and have 1 rooster and 2 hens. However, I ended up with 3 hens! I named the RIR, Barbara, the Australorp, Nancy, and the EE, Laura.

Eventually the 3 little ones grew and I ended up buying a couple more chickens, Bella and Manny. Bella was a Blue Andalusian hen. Unfortunately, she is no longer with us due to a dog attack. Manny is a black cochin rooster and he is still the almighty protector of the large fowl flock. 

Eventually came the guineas...

I started with 2 keets. Both pearl, and then I bought two more, one buff and one pearl. During a coop change every keet ended up getting loose and running straight into the woods beside the house. Out of the 4, 2 survived(1 buff/1 pearl) and are now known as Gracie(pearl...ended up being male), and Georgia(buff..female). 

They are now full grown and many more chickens have been added to the flock as well as several coop changes. Once the large fowls grew larger they were moved into a new coop/run(our great dane's old pen). We changed his 'house', which is built into our hay shed, into a chicken coop and we're still working on adding a cover over the run. Since taking care of our dog problem the chickens(and guineas) now free range most of the day. 

Here's the rest of the flock! 

The large fowl coop consists of Barbara, Laura, Manny, Gracie, Georgia, Hilda, Winston, Franklin, Righty, and Lefty. As well as Ethel(long story). 

 Here is Barbara.

 Laura... :)

This was the sweet Nancy(pictured with her best friend, Barbara) even though she is no longer with us..

 Manny...

 Gracie(actually a male :P)

 Georgia knows how to strut herself

Hilda and Winston...they are actually both hens, but somehow one got a male name XD

Here is Righty and Lefty...they have a very interesting story. They are barred rock sisters and the man I bought them from had kept them in close confinement causing them to peck at each other and eventually pecking one of each other's eyes out. Right is missing her right eye and Lefty is missing her left. The man was about to butcher them due to their eye loss so I bought them and they have been quite happy since! They still function well, however, I shiver at the thought of one ever being without the other! They have a very close relationship and are usually found foraging close to the woods or in the horse pasture with Barbara.

Annnd last but not least...Ethel!

Ethel is a leghorn pullet and a complete pain in the butt. She has been at the Poop Coop for about 3 weeks now and she has spent about 3 nights inside of the coop. I have spent many hours trying to find her at night to get her put up, but she absolutely refuses to roost in the coop with the rest of the flock. I worry about predators at night, but I've tried just about everything to get her to roost with the others. I guess she likes to live life on the edge.

(Franklin isn't pictured because I just realized I dont have any good pictures of him. He unfortunately won't be with us much longer though(being sold, not killed/eaten!). His mate has recently passed and I would like to send him to a place with more ladies for him.)

You probably think thats all of the chickens, right? WRONG! We can't forget about the bantam coop! Keep an eye out for an introduction of the Cuddly Bunch coming soon :)