5th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2014 Hatch-A-Long

[michaelf]

Good morning! I hope everyone and there pets stay warm the next few days with all the cold weather across the states!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

it's okay I guess I didn't realize all the variables! I guess a better question would be, when can i move my chicks out of the house(8 EEs) and how could i make the coop warm enough? I was also thinking putting my 250W heat lamp in the coop for a few days with a thermometer that records highs and lows and see what the temp gets down to st night without the added heat generated by the birds. I just don't want to lose them to the cold but I am running out of options for space in the house

Bottom line is to use the rule of thumb that for the first week, chicks should have a spot 90-95 and 5 degrees cooler each week till they're feathered out(that can vary with strain/nutrition/acclimation) or when the declining brooder temperature is close to ambient. I try not to brood outside if, even using hover brooders, I can't get the temperature into the 20s. I don't know where you live so I don't know what temperatures you're looking at. If it is above 50 outside, I just hang a couple brooder lamps/emitters. If it is colder or I have a lot of chicks I set up my homemade version of Ohio brooders. It's always warm under there and spots over 100 degrees. The chicks usually end up sitting along the edge where the brooder heat comes out and meets the cold air. Use their activity as your guide. If they're cold they'll huddle close to the heat source. If they're hot they'll disperse far from it and if it's just right they'll be scattered.

Healthy chicks are tougher than people give them credit for. I've had chicks escape into the woods at night that I couldn't find. I figured they'd either freeze or get eaten, only to have them show up in the morning looking for mom.

Good morning! I hope everyone and there pets stay warm the next few days with all the cold weather across the states!

I'm trying, I really am.
My plan after dark last night was to move all the roosters to one building and run a propane heater in there to get the temp up to about 20 or 25.
Then move all the hens to two buildings and move all adolescents to their own apartment to share body heat. After trudging across the tundra carrying roosters I gave up. I blocked off the open sides of the remain building with 90% shade cloth on one side and plywood on the other side. I looked in and both groups were hunkered down and I thought they would be better off staying put.

 

[MontanaDolphin]

Yes, & this one is a small egg so I shouldn't be suprised.
Also I did nudge up the temp & add water last week so again, no big surpise really, just not great timing as
I'm about to fall asleep on the cat in my lap, having spent 10 hrs canning today, plus dealing w/ weather & trying to make a hard decision re: our much loved Farm Dog "Dew" who's declining health has taken a sharp downturn in the past 48 hrs <sigh> , he once risked his life going into the street in front of a car to heard a lost week old chick back to the yard...

I know exactly how hard a decision like that is. This Sunday marks a year since I lost my beloved Shelby, who was an Australian Shepherd mix. We made the decision three days prior to have her put down, and God gave us three days to say our goodbyes (the vet was booked until that Saturday). Her liver and kidneys were shutting down, and even if we tried to have the vet fix her up, he said there was only a 5 percent chance she'd make it through the surgery because of her age (she was 11). My husband, both my boys (who were 7 and 9 then), and I were there with her when she passed. Hardest thing I had to endure in a very long time, but I didn't want her to die with strangers. So we all sat with her, petting and talking to her, as the vet gave her the injection.

You'll make the right decision for Dew. When we love our pets as we do our children, it is often one of the hardest decisions we ever have to make, but doing what is best for our pet, and not ourselves, is the responsibility we take on when we become pet owners. Good luck to you, and give Dew a hug from a complete stranger

for me!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

@ak-flock-swap I hear your temps are much higher today than ours.

 

[AK FLOCK SWAP]

@ak-flock-swap I hear your temps are much higher today than ours.

http://weather.yahoo.com/united-states/Alaska/Fairbanks-12799759/
yep ..not to bad @ all for us..

Then again we expect it every
time,,the lower 48 get hammered by a winter storm,,we know that warm air i on its way,,,, How you doing today.....?

 

[FeyRaine]

Only bad thing about having dogs. Hope you got some sleep, didn't lose power, and your hatch goes well.

I know exactly how hard a decision like that is. This Sunday marks a year since I lost my beloved Shelby, who was an Australian Shepherd mix. We made the decision three days prior to have her put down, and God gave us three days to say our goodbyes (the vet was booked until that Saturday). Her liver and kidneys were shutting down, and even if we tried to have the vet fix her up, he said there was only a 5 percent chance she'd make it through the surgery because of her age (she was 11). My husband, both my boys (who were 7 and 9 then), and I were there with her when she passed. Hardest thing I had to endure in a very long time, but I didn't want her to die with strangers. So we all sat with her, petting and talking to her, as the vet gave her the injection.

You'll make the right decision for Dew. When we love our pets as we do our children, it is often one of the hardest decisions we ever have to make, but doing what is best for our pet, and not ourselves, is the responsibility we take on when we become pet owners. Good luck to you, and give Dew a hug from a complete stranger

for me!

Thanks everyone re: Dew. He clearly isn't ready to go yet, he keeps trying to do his duties but is becoming increasingly unable as the days go by so we are trying to find that balance point so he doesn't suffer but does have all the enjoyment he can. I actually wish he would cross on his own, & have been suprised to find him still w/ us the past 3 mornings, hoping off the couch (old dog privilege) wanting to attend am chores. My DH & I have had to put down other dogs, & lost one to a bear, but Dew was the 1st dog we got together, he adopted us when he showed up 8wks old starving stray as we were moving into a rental house b/f we bought this farm. We joke he is 100% pure "Red American Porch Dog" & he is the classic red mutt dog found on every farm across the country. Everyone who visits falls in love w/ him. He has been fantastic, this past summer he actually helped my husband dispatch a pack of coyotes who were attacking a chicken pen then my DH & Dew! Yet he literally lets the cats & chickens walk all over him, in short the perfect Farm Dog.

Well everyone stay warm & I'll give you an update when I have zipping or a hatcher, which might be today rather than wed from the looks of it...

Dew, likely the only working Farm Dog w/ a his own doll toy of his human!

 

[chickengirl1193]

Bottom line is to use the rule of thumb that for the first week, chicks should have a spot 90-95 and 5 degrees cooler each week till they're feathered out(that can vary with strain/nutrition/acclimation) or when the declining brooder temperature is close to ambient. I try not to brood outside if, even using hover brooders, I can't get the temperature into the 20s. I don't know where you live so I don't know what temperatures you're looking at. If it is above 50 outside, I just hang a couple brooder lamps/emitters. If it is colder or I have a lot of chicks I set up my homemade version of Ohio brooders. It's always warm under there and spots over 100 degrees. The chicks usually end up sitting along the edge where the brooder heat comes out and meets the cold air. Use their activity as your guide. If they're cold they'll huddle close to the heat source. If they're hot they'll disperse far from it and if it's just right they'll be scattered.

Healthy chicks are tougher than people give them credit for. I've had chicks escape into the woods at night that I couldn't find. I figured they'd either freeze or get eaten, only to have them show up in the morning looking for mom.


I'm trying, I really am.
My plan after dark last night was to move all the roosters to one building and run a propane heater in there to get the temp up to about 20 or 25.
Then move all the hens to two buildings and move all adolescents to their own apartment to share body heat. After trudging across the tundra carrying roosters I gave up. I blocked off the open sides of the remain building with 90% shade cloth on one side and plywood on the other side. I looked in and both groups were hunkered down and I thought they would be better off staying put.

okay thank you! we have been having below zero temps the past few nights and last night it rained all night so the snow melted and it's in the 40s but then tonight it's going down to before zero so today I'm concernrd about frostbite and pneumonia for my chickens and goats because they might be wet when the temp plummets debating bringing them into the garage but that might just cause more stress

 

[mstricer]

Quote: Dag it is warmer in Alaska then Ohio

My windows are covered in ice. But it looks like its going to get to you on Friday and then we will be back to normal again. How do you handle all the darkness, that would be a downer for me. I'd never get anything done. I'd be in bed by 4pm

 

[ChickenCanoe]

http://weather.yahoo.com/united-states/Alaska/Fairbanks-12799759/
yep ..not to bad @ all for us..

Then again we expect it every
time,,the lower 48 get hammered by a winter storm,,we know that warm air i on its way,,,, How you doing today.....?

I'm hanging in there but I don't recall having chickens with big combs at these temperatures since I was young.
I just shoveled out 150 feet of gravel drive with a fresh 11" of snow so my wife could get to work. The last 5 feet was a bear where the snowplows shoved the frozen slush.

I knew these birds were heat hardy, I guess I'm just testing their lower limits.
It's not so much the cold but the 35 MPH gusts and 25 sustained. I actually blocked some windows after dusk last night. I figured that breeze would still give some pretty good ventilation.

Dag it is warmer in Alaska then Ohio

My windows are covered in ice. But it looks like its going to get to you on Friday and then we will be back to normal again. How do you handle all the darkness, that would be a downer for me. I'd never get anything done. I'd be in bed by 4pm

What windows? I thought that was a plain white, modern art canvas on a beige wall.

I'm asleep not long after that this time of year anyway.

 

[Pozees]

I was chuckling at the notion of being asleep at 4 pm - DH and I both fell asleep watching a movie yesterday afternoon, luckily I had already given everyone their afternoon scratch, woke up in time to down a cup of coffee and hustle outside to collect dishes, turn off the radio in the big coop, and wrestle the Fayoumi cock into submission to get some vasoline on his comb - which apparently he liked, as he did not move a muscle once I started. The entire time all I could think was how much I would love to be going to bed for the night LOL. It was 4:45 when I finished the last outdoor chores, sunw as going down, and temp was dropping , 11 outside, 35 in the coop. This morning when I left for work it was -4. Brrr. Hope it was about 20-ish in the coop and that the chicks are okay - pretty sure I'd have had a phone call by now if not.

At least we didn't get the snow some of you got, and certainly not rain - we got a few inches, maybe 4? That really adds to the challenge of the cold temperatures.