Chicks !!!

Our chicks are now 5 weeks old and I turned them out into the pen/run yesterday.

 

Luxurious area , Where are the "Flock " I see a few birds ! They the creators ?
We do 8C & get 60+ off .
Ducks are 5C & 40 off
Meat Chicks this year also & then a new Lamb
Sloth

 

That's all I have, 27. I have room for more if the need or desire arises but for now that will be more than enough eggs for two families.

 

Beautiful chicken cage @Tully Mars. What is the length of the pen? Looks like a decent space. You did an excellent construction job.

 

The pen is 20 feet x 40 feet. The coop is 10 feet x 12 feet with 25 laying boxes made from plastic milk crates stacked two high and screwed together. Coop has both solid and screen doors. The base all around the pen and coop was concreted to help prevent predators from trying to dig under the fence or into the coop also to help keep snakes out. The roof is wired to keep hawks and such out as well. This pen is back in on the property out of sight from the house and any road, and the trees and brush have been left to aid in that purpose. It also is watched by cameras.

Edit:
I forgot to add that all materials except the concrete were salvaged from other things such as old decks, leftovers from construction sites ect. The only things we spent money on was the concrete, a hasp for the door and the cameras.

 

The chickens are now 16 weeks old and should start producing eggs shortly.

 

@Tully Mars nice flock. Q: did you bury any fence to keep critters from digging under? Some people say you have to do 6" others say a foot of wire.

 

No I didn't. The base all around the pen and coop is concreted inside and out to help against digging. So far it's worked.

 

Do you have to hunt for the eggs or did you provide a place for them ?
I have individual hutches for each bird originally , then later I let them run free in the pen and they choose one particular one to all lay their eggs in (most of the time)

 

17 weeks and

first egg this morning. About med sized but that's normal at first.