All four of the remaining Russian Orloff layers have moved to new homes as egg layers. The three in coop 1 (large coop) went to a young family this morning, and in the afternoon, another person showed up and picked up the one remaining Orloff that was in coop 2 (smaller coop) with the Welsummers. This will make life easier, since the smaller coop really works better for flocks of three, while the larger coop can hold five. So the four Welsummer pullets (almost seven weeks) will be moving into coop 1 this week as it warms up. We will clean it out today, bleach it down and air it out.
People who see our coops and pens comment at how clean we keep our coops. I believe this helps the chickens, health wise, by keeping their environments more livable and humane. And, it's not that difficult to do the upkeep, even with three small active coops.
We went ahead and moved the six Cornish Cross (20 days old) into the turkey coop, since it can easily hold up to eight full sized chickens.We put a LED light in there, on a timer, for a light source. For heat, we hung a 75W red heat lamp in the top center of the coop, being careful to hang it low enough to not catch the tarp on fire, but high enough that they can't get burned. They were all clustered for warmth and security when I took the photo. Checking in on them every 30 minutes. The last time I checked, they were moving around exploring their new digs. On the warmer days, we will let them out into the pen to forage and get fresh air, but they are still too young to be left unattended in the pen, especially on days where it is only getting up to 60F. These chicks still need temps between 75 to 80F.
