MamaSheepdog
Well-known member
...and I blame certain members here at RT (Zass! *cough!* MaggieJ!) for my downfall. :evil:
As you all are well aware, noble purist that I am, I staunchly believe that it is of utmost importance that rabbitry equipment should always be utilized in a species-appropriate manner. I have said it before, and will say it again;
Rabbit cages are for rabbits, not miscellaneous livestock!
Therefore, I am hopeful that I have identified yet another disease- Improperitis Equipmentitis- that is prevalent among the members here which is clearly highly contagious. (The alternative being that I have committed a grievous breach of rabbetiquette, which is of course an unsavory possibility.)
Yes, I have fallen far, and answered the siren song of housing chickens (CHICKENS!) in rabbit cages.
verreaction:
Now, in my defense, the cages so inappropriately utilized are in far too poor of condition to house MY precious bunnies. :angel:
Note the shocking rust accumulation on the wire:
Additionally, the cages have doors on the top so would have to be modified in any case to fit into my current set up.
All that said, our small flock of chickens consists of five hens and five roosters. I will be keeping an Australorp and a Wyandotte, and I have someone possibly interested in at least one of the roos, and the others are going to freezer camp... but my poor hens have been getting a bit too much amorous attention from the boys and are looking scruffy, so immediate action was deemed necessary.
Hence, my appalling breach of Rabbetiquette:
I still need to add tar paper to keep the incarcerated birds from getting rained on (or worse, pooped on by the "free" birds), but felt I had to get all of this off of my chest immediately, so am not quite done with everything.
I am ashamed to admit that once the roosters are disposed of in one way or another that I am considering using the cages for broody hens.
*Ahem!*
In other news, we have started planting our spring garden, and the free ranging ducks were a potential problem, as they would no doubt eat our tender seedlings as soon as they poked their little cotyledons from the soil... so drastic containment methods were deemed necessary. The bonus is that the chickens are now allowed out to range around as well. They have access to the "bone yard", and can also get into the horse pasture (although they haven't ventured that far yet- probably because it is nothing but dirt!), so probably have close to an acre to forage on.
Seen on the right: Tack and tool shed, rabbit barn (green panel), feed shed.
Chickens are housed in the front coop, ducks in the rear. The area with the green shade cloth is an additional rabbitry.
Part of the bone yard with horse pasture in background:
Living out in the middle of nowhere calls for some redneck ingenuity at times- lacking any hook and eye latches laying around, I had to make my own to secure the fencing to the post leading into the bone yard:
Bottom latch:
The T-posts are spaced so we can still pull our vehicles up to the feed shed to unload feed, and back between the sheds and chicken coop if necessary. The fencing is secured to the T-posts with plastic shower curtain rings.
The span of fencing leading into the bone yard was quite long and flimsy, so I reinforced it with PVC. Wanting to be able to easily roll up the fencing when needing to get vehicles past, I used some handy-dandy shower curtain rings to attach it so the PVC can easily slide out:
I also had to make a door to allow the chickens into the new yard. I reinforced the pen with 2" x 4" fencing, and used a NIC panel as a door- with yet another shower curtain ring to hold it open or closed:
All in all, despite having succumbed to Improperitis Equipmentitis, I am quite pleased with all of the modifications to the poultry project. Now I just need more birds...
:turkey: :chicken: :chicken: :feedchicken: :feed-ducks: :feedchicken: :chicken: :chicken: :turkey:
As you all are well aware, noble purist that I am, I staunchly believe that it is of utmost importance that rabbitry equipment should always be utilized in a species-appropriate manner. I have said it before, and will say it again;
Rabbit cages are for rabbits, not miscellaneous livestock!
Therefore, I am hopeful that I have identified yet another disease- Improperitis Equipmentitis- that is prevalent among the members here which is clearly highly contagious. (The alternative being that I have committed a grievous breach of rabbetiquette, which is of course an unsavory possibility.)
Yes, I have fallen far, and answered the siren song of housing chickens (CHICKENS!) in rabbit cages.
verreaction: Now, in my defense, the cages so inappropriately utilized are in far too poor of condition to house MY precious bunnies. :angel:
Note the shocking rust accumulation on the wire:
Additionally, the cages have doors on the top so would have to be modified in any case to fit into my current set up.
All that said, our small flock of chickens consists of five hens and five roosters. I will be keeping an Australorp and a Wyandotte, and I have someone possibly interested in at least one of the roos, and the others are going to freezer camp... but my poor hens have been getting a bit too much amorous attention from the boys and are looking scruffy, so immediate action was deemed necessary.
Hence, my appalling breach of Rabbetiquette:
I still need to add tar paper to keep the incarcerated birds from getting rained on (or worse, pooped on by the "free" birds), but felt I had to get all of this off of my chest immediately, so am not quite done with everything.
I am ashamed to admit that once the roosters are disposed of in one way or another that I am considering using the cages for broody hens.
*Ahem!*
In other news, we have started planting our spring garden, and the free ranging ducks were a potential problem, as they would no doubt eat our tender seedlings as soon as they poked their little cotyledons from the soil... so drastic containment methods were deemed necessary. The bonus is that the chickens are now allowed out to range around as well. They have access to the "bone yard", and can also get into the horse pasture (although they haven't ventured that far yet- probably because it is nothing but dirt!), so probably have close to an acre to forage on.
Seen on the right: Tack and tool shed, rabbit barn (green panel), feed shed.
Chickens are housed in the front coop, ducks in the rear. The area with the green shade cloth is an additional rabbitry.
Part of the bone yard with horse pasture in background:
Living out in the middle of nowhere calls for some redneck ingenuity at times- lacking any hook and eye latches laying around, I had to make my own to secure the fencing to the post leading into the bone yard:
Bottom latch:
The T-posts are spaced so we can still pull our vehicles up to the feed shed to unload feed, and back between the sheds and chicken coop if necessary. The fencing is secured to the T-posts with plastic shower curtain rings.
The span of fencing leading into the bone yard was quite long and flimsy, so I reinforced it with PVC. Wanting to be able to easily roll up the fencing when needing to get vehicles past, I used some handy-dandy shower curtain rings to attach it so the PVC can easily slide out:
I also had to make a door to allow the chickens into the new yard. I reinforced the pen with 2" x 4" fencing, and used a NIC panel as a door- with yet another shower curtain ring to hold it open or closed:
All in all, despite having succumbed to Improperitis Equipmentitis, I am quite pleased with all of the modifications to the poultry project. Now I just need more birds...
:turkey: :chicken: :chicken: :feedchicken: :feed-ducks: :feedchicken: :chicken: :chicken: :turkey:
