My Meatie Journal (NEW TRACTOR PICS added in post #9) - Page 2

Thanks for following along, Smokinchick!

ModelA.... Thanks for the tip on the waterer.  Where do you find the findings at the bottom?  Is that yellow bit some sort of float valve to tell the water to go?  I'm not too handy and all of this stuff is new to me.  Getting into plumbing... now that would be something to call mom about.  She still can't believe I'm using a hammer.   

I've never heard of hay tarps.  We should ask our hay people about them.

SOOoooo.... Here's an update.  The meaties SCREAMED for me as it got dark.  We had a routine going of me putting them back in the brooder as it got dark out every night.  They would follow me around wherever I walked while they were in their pen.  They were peeping so loud tonight that I could hear them all the way from the house.

SO.... I go out to check on them before it got super dark.  I removed the food from the back (as to not attract raccoons and to keep them on their 12 on 12 off new schedule) and there they are, piled on top of one another in the corner of the tractor - THE FRONT CORNER!  A raccoon could just reach in and wring their little necks.

I say "oh, I'll just go check on them in a couple hours."  So me and the BF go out there at 11.  They're still huddled in the front corner!!  He brings a golf club with him, no not to play meatie putt putt, but to rub it along the side of the tractor to make noise.  Just as I feared, scaring them didn't make them move.  They just huddled more.  A raccoon could have taken them out. 

I went back to the house and grabbed their food.  I put it in the back, where they shouldv'e been sleeping, but they still wouldn't go in the back.  My last resort was to grab something loud (the bottom half of an empty cooler) and bang it in front of the tractor.  Well that got them going.  Once they got to the back - they went to their food and ate.  We ended up leaving the food in there with them to try and entice them to stay back there.

::sigh::  This is the hardest food I've ever worked for.  This is their first night outside.  I hope they're all there in the morning.

ModelA - Glad you like the bottle cap idea   I might play around with this idea and completely attach chicken wire with them and screws instead of using those pain in the neck poultry nails.  You're more handy than me, so you'd probably already think of it, but we hammered a pilot hole in them (while the caps were wrong side up) over a little piece of wood.  It worked out well.  PS... what kind of quail do you have?  I should PM you to see if you sell any Coturnix eggs for sale!

Mcf - Hardware cloth is a much better idea!!  I thought it over when I was buying this stuff and my local place only had a roll of the tightest squares and it was 65 for the roll.  I ended up going with this because they didn't have the size hole I wanted and the roll that was the correct spacing was just too long.  I didn't want to have to cut the wire.  Next time - I take the drive down to the other store and see if they have it there.  Now that I think of it - it would have been a trip to a third store..... Either way, it's a better thing to use!  I ended up doing a sloppy skirt with wooden boards over it with some leftover chickenwire/wood.

Klw - I don't know the best answer for you.  We were having rain issues up until a week ago when we got slammed with more rain than we could have imagined.  I was thinking of the same thing because our grass was dwindling away.  What they're currently on is scrubby grass and clover.  They clear that square so quickly - it makes me want to supplement with greens from my garden.  I'll likely start doing that.  It sounds like a good idea to ask this in a new thread.  You'd probably get it answered there.  Not as many folks may be reading this one.  I hope you try a batch of meaties.  I'm pleased so far.

Thanks, Jared.  I will.

TD - They're doing well outside.  I'm going to break down and buy them a larger waterer today.  I like your idea, but I'd end up doing something like that for my permanent coop.  I just need something right now to satisfy the bucket idea. 

I went to do my weigh in for them as usual - and they've outgrown my scale.  I need to buy another one today or tomorrow so I can post their new weights.  I was quite surprised when I got the error reading.